Yalbalgo Station Forest Regeneration Project (Revoked)

The Yalbalgo Station Forest Regeneration Project (Revoked) was a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located on Yalbalgo Station, approximately 110km southeast of Carnarvon and 55km west of Gascoyne Junction in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. Registered in August 2020, the project covered a vast area of 86,436 hectares on a pastoral lease primarily used for sheep and cattle grazing. The property itself is historically significant, featuring a unique homestead built across two different eras.

The project operated under the Human-Induced Regeneration methodology, which involves regenerating permanent native forests on land where vegetation growth has been suppressed, typically by livestock or feral animals, for at least 10 years. To achieve this, the proponent, Dews Pastoral Holdings Pty Ltd, committed to managing the timing and extent of grazing to allow native vegetation to recover and reach forest cover status.

Situated in the Gascoyne bioregion, the area is characterized by an arid to semi-arid climate with an average annual rainfall of approximately 200mm, which can be erratic and unreliable. The landscape consists largely of red deep sandy and red sandy duplex soils supporting vegetation types such as spinifex grasslands, mulga low woodlands, and scattered shrubs. These environmental conditions define the region's suitability for extensive pastoralism rather than intensive agriculture.

The project was revoked on March 20, 2025, under Section 32, which typically refers to the voluntary revocation of a project's declaration by the proponent under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011. Prior to this, the project's carbon abatement contract with the Commonwealth was terminated in December 2023. Following these events, Yalbalgo Station was listed for sale in July 2025 as a destocked property with infrastructure improvements, suggesting the revocation may have been a strategic move to unencumber the land for the sale.