Menzies Carbon project

The Menzies Carbon project is a soil carbon sequestration project located approximately 40km east of Dubbo in the Central West Slopes region of New South Wales. Registered in August 2021, the project covers a project area of 308 hectares. It falls within the Dubbo Regional Council local government area, a region characterised by mixed farming, including broadacre cropping and livestock grazing.

Operated by Agriprove Solutions, the project functions under the Measurement of Soil Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Systems methodology. This framework allows landholders to earn Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) by implementing new management activities that increase soil organic carbon levels. For this specific project, the primary activity involves altering the stocking rate, duration, or intensity of grazing. This approach typically utilizes strategic grazing pressures to encourage pasture recovery, deepen root systems, and ultimately sequester more atmospheric carbon into the soil profile.

The environment in this part of the Central West Slopes typically experiences a temperate climate with moderate rainfall, averaging around 600mm annually. The soils in the region are generally classified as Chromosols or Dermosols, often manifesting as red loams or light clays which are well-suited to pasture improvement but can be susceptible to erosion if over-grazed. Notably, the project underwent a variation in March 2022 to remove certain areas from the project map, likely to refine the carbon estimation area to the most suitable land types.