Mountain View Carbon Project

Mountain View Carbon Project is a soil carbon sequestration project located at Tintaldra in the Upper Murray region of Victoria, near Corryong. It was registered on December 23, 2020, and covers a project area of 129.20 hectares.

The Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative-Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration using Measurement and Models) Methodology Determination 2021 involves implementing new or materially different agricultural management practices to draw down carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the soil. Under this standard, carbon increases are measured and verified over a 25-year permanence period through a hybrid approach of physical baseline soil sampling and subsequent computer modeling.

The area around Tintaldra and the Upper Murray is known for productive agricultural grazing, particularly cattle operations. The region sits within a high-rainfall zone typical of the Victorian alpine valleys, frequently receiving over 700mm to 800mm of rain annually, and features soils predominantly consisting of sandy to clay loams.

To build soil resilience and sequester carbon, the project activities include altering grazing intensity and duration to promote vegetation cover, alongside rejuvenating pastures by transitioning from monoculture annual rye to diverse multi-species pastures. The project is part of a broader 422-hectare farming operation run by landholder Justin Costello. In late 2024, the project achieved its first issuance of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), which are being leveraged to access premium carbon-neutral beef markets. Notably, the property has seen a 26% increase in stocking rates and utilizes digital herd insights through the 'Tags for Tonnes' program. The project formally varied its methodology from the 2018 determination to the 2021 version in June 2023 to take advantage of more flexible measurement protocols and modeling capabilities.