Maddingly LFG Project

Maddingly LFG Project is a landfill gas (LFG) project located at the Maddingley Brown Coal landfill facility in Maddingley, Victoria. Registered in June 2018, the project is situated approximately 50km northwest of Melbourne and just south of the regional centre of Bacchus Marsh. The project operates within a significant industrial precinct that was originally an open-cut brown coal mine and has since been converted into a major waste disposal hub. The surrounding region of the Moorabool Shire is known for its diverse land use, ranging from the famous market gardens and orchards of the fertile Bacchus Marsh valley to dryland grazing and heavy industry on the surrounding plains.

This project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative-Landfill Gas) Methodology Determination 2015. Landfill gas projects involve the installation of wells and pipework to capture methane generated by the anaerobic decomposition of organic waste buried in the landfill. Instead of allowing this potent greenhouse gas to vent into the atmosphere, the system captures and combusts it (typically via a flare or engine). This combustion converts the methane into carbon dioxide, which has a much lower global warming potential. The Maddingly project specifically focuses on installing a new gas collection system to abate emissions from both "legacy" waste (deposited before the Emissions Reduction Fund commenced) and "non-legacy" waste.

Environmentally, the Maddingley area lies within a rain shadow created by the ranges to the west, resulting in a semi-arid to moderate rainfall climate (approximately 500–600mm annually). While the broader Western Victorian Volcanic Plains are characterized by heavy basalt clays and dark soils, the project site itself sits atop a geological seam of lignite (brown coal), meaning the immediate soil profile is heavily influenced by mining overburden and industrial modification.

The site is owned by Maddingley Brown Coal (part of the Calleja Group) and is recognized as a state-significant waste hub. It has frequently appeared in local news for its role in accepting large volumes of spoil from major Victorian infrastructure works, such as the West Gate Tunnel project. The project proponent, IGAS Operations Pty Ltd, is a specialized gas management company that oversees the extraction and flaring infrastructure to ensure regulatory compliance and credit generation.