Coodardy Station Regeneration Project

The Coodardy Station Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located in the Murchison region of Western Australia, approximately 30km north of the historic gold-mining town of Cue. Registered in November 2018, the project initially covered a vast area of over 166,000 hectares on Coodardy Station, a pastoral lease traditionally used for grazing sheep and cattle. The region is characterized by an arid to semi-arid climate with low, irregular rainfall (averaging around 250mm annually) and landscapes dominated by mulga shrublands, red earth, and sandy loam soils.

The project operates under the Human-Induced Regeneration methodology, which credits landholders for regenerating native forests on land where vegetation growth has been suppressed, typically by livestock or feral animals, for at least 10 years. By managing the timing and extent of grazing, often through the installation of new fencing and water points, the project allows native species like Acacia (mulga) to regenerate from in-situ seed sources and rootstock. The goal is to restore forest cover to a canopy density of at least 20% and a height of 2 meters.

Coodardy Station has significant historical ties to the region's gold rush, with the site being associated with Burke's gold find in 1888. Commercially, the project is supported by Select Carbon, a carbon service provider acquired by Shell Australia in 2020. The project successfully completed its Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC644637) in early 2022, a period coinciding with broad market reforms that allowed many proponents to exit fixed government contracts to trade credits on the open market.