Darling River Conservation Initiative Site #5

Darling River Conservation Initiative Site #5 is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located approximately 20km east-northeast of Hungerford in the Paroo Shire of south-western Queensland. It was registered in November 2018 and covers an area of 31,239.29 hectares.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects involve establishing permanent even-aged native forests by changing land management practices to allow native trees to naturally regenerate, rather than through active planting. The methodology requires that the land had its natural regrowth suppressed for at least 10 years prior to the project commencing. The project relies on recovering in-situ seed sources, such as remnant rootstock and lignotubers, to establish the permanent forest.

The Hungerford and Paroo region is situated within the semi-arid Mulga Lands bioregion, an area historically known for extensive rangeland grazing of sheep, cattle, and goats. The environment experiences low and highly variable rainfall, while the local landscape predominantly features red earth and sandy loam soils.

To achieve forest regeneration, this project's activities focus heavily on managing the timing and extent of livestock grazing alongside the humane management of feral animals to reduce total grazing pressure. Also referred to locally as the Ningaling project, it is managed by Terra Carbon Pty Limited. The initiative aims to provide 100 years of habitat protection and carbon sequestration, forming part of a broader landscape-scale conservation strategy that aggregates multiple local pastoral properties to create vast wildlife corridors across the Darling River catchment area.