Western Australia Conservation Initiative - Site 2

Western Australia Conservation Initiative - Site 2 is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located on Talisker Station in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The property is situated approximately 150km east of Denham and the Shark Bay World Heritage Area. Registered in August 2018, the project initially covered a massive area of over 251,000 hectares, though variations in 2022 and operational adjustments have refined the active carbon estimation area (case studies suggest an operational area of around 172,000 hectares).

The project operates within the Shire of Shark Bay, a region traditionally dominated by pastoral leases for sheep, cattle, and goats. The landscape is characterized by a semi-arid to arid climate with highly erratic rainfall (averaging 200–250mm annually) and soils that range from red earth and sandy loams to calcareous shallow soils over hardpan. These conditions support native vegetation types such as Mulga woodlands (Acacia aneura) and saltbush shrublands, which had been significantly degraded by decades of overstocking and unmanaged feral animal grazing prior to the project's implementation.

The methodology applied, Human-Induced Regeneration of a Permanent Even-Aged Native Forest, involves regenerating native vegetation by removing suppression activities. For this specific project, the proponents (Terra Carbon Pty Limited, a subsidiary of GreenCollar) and the landholders work to control grazing pressure. This is achieved not by planting trees, but by installing new fencing and water points to manage livestock distribution and by actively controlling feral animals like goats. This allows the in-situ seed bank and suppressed rootstock to regenerate into forest cover.