Black Hill Regeneration Project

The Black Hill Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located on Black Hill Station, approximately 10km east-southeast of the remote township of Sandstone in Western Australia. Registered in November 2020, the project spans a massive area of approximately 142,878 hectares. The land is part of the Shire of Sandstone, a region historically defined by gold mining and pastoral activities, specifically cattle and sheep grazing on large rangeland stations.

The project operates under the Human-Induced Regeneration methodology, which involves implementing management changes to facilitate the regrowth of native forest where vegetation was previously suppressed. In the context of the Australian rangelands, this typically requires the proponent to control grazing pressure from livestock and feral animals. By managing the timing and extent of grazing, the project aims to allow native seedlings, often species like Mulga (Acacia aneura), to regenerate and eventually achieve forest cover status (at least 20% canopy cover and 2 meters in height).

Environmentally, the region is classified as semi-arid to arid, with an average annual rainfall of approximately 250mm, which can be irregular and summer-dominant. The landscape is characterized by the "red country" typical of the Murchison and Goldfields, featuring red sandy loams, stony mantles, and breakaways. The vegetation is predominantly Mulga shrublands and native grasses. The project has undergone administrative variations in 2021 and 2022 to remove certain areas from the project boundary, a common practice to exclude roads, infrastructure, or non-compliant land.