Yarraquin Station Regeneration Project

Yarraquin Station Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration project located at Yarraquin Station, approximately 7km east of Cue and 71km north of Mount Magnet in the Mid West region of Western Australia. It was registered in May 2019 and spans a massive project area of 128,514.83 hectares.

The methodology used for this project, Human-Induced Regeneration of a Permanent Even-Aged Native Forest, involves changing land management practices to facilitate the regeneration of native forests from in-situ seed sources such as rootstock and lignotubers. To be eligible, the project land must have been cleared of vegetation with regrowth suppressed for at least 10 years prior to the project commencing. The standard requirements include restricting activities that suppress native vegetation; in this project, this is achieved by managing the timing and extent of grazing, as well as managing feral animals in a humane manner.

The Mid West region around Cue is a hot, semi-arid environment located within the Mulga Region's rangelands. It experiences very low, unpredictable rainfall and is characterized by low hills separated by flat colluvium, alluvial plains, and saline stony plains. Soils here range from sandy plains to hardpan wash plains, supporting halophytic (salt-tolerant) shrublands and acacia. Land use in this region has historically been heavily dominated by extensive pastoralism (primarily sheep and cattle grazing) and gold mining. Yarraquin Station itself currently operates as a cattle station with a carrying capacity that previously supported thousands of sheep.

In August 2019, the proponents entered into a carbon abatement contract (CAC873037) with the Commonwealth for fixed delivery of 18,703 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). This contract successfully reached completion in August 2023, and the project overall has been issued over 83,000 ACCUs to date. Members of the Breese family who co-manage Yarraquin Station are highly involved in sustainable, regenerative pastoralism; notably, Klinton Breese serves as Secretary on the board of the Southern Rangelands Pastoral Alliance, an organization dedicated to the sustainability and revitalization of the region.