Bush Heritage Hamelin Regeneration Project

The Bush Heritage Hamelin Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located on the Hamelin Station Reserve in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. Situated approximately 100km south-east of Denham, the project area abuts the Shark Bay World Heritage Area and the famous Hamelin Pool. Registered in September 2020, the project covers a massive 189,695 hectares of the 202,000-hectare former pastoral lease.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects involve regenerating native forests on land where vegetation has been suppressed for at least 10 years, typically by grazing or agricultural activity. By removing these suppressors, in this case, through the exclusion of livestock and the management of feral animals like goats, the project allows the native seed bank to recover and trees to regrow.

The region is characterized by a semi-arid climate with sandy, red loam soils often overlying limestone. The landscape features a mix of Acacia shrublands (mulga), spinifex grasslands, and eucalypt woodlands. This specific location is ecologically significant as a transition zone between the botanical provinces of the South West and the arid interior.

A notable aspect of this project is its dual role in carbon sequestration and high-value conservation. Bush Heritage Australia purchased the station in 2015 specifically to protect the catchment of the Hamelin Pool stromatolites, the oldest and largest living fossils on Earth, which were threatened by sediment run-off from the degraded pastoral land. The project actively engages the local Malgana Rangers in land management activities, such as fence removal and erosion control.