Ashley Carbon Project

Ashley Carbon Project is a soil carbon sequestration project located in the Riverina region of New South Wales, approximately 25 kilometers west of the township of Temora and south of Ariah Park. Registered in September 2021, the project covers roughly 202 hectares within the Temora Shire Council area. This region is a well-established agricultural zone known for mixed farming operations, combining winter cereal cropping (such as wheat and canola) with sheep grazing.

The project operates under the Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration using Measurement and Models Methodology Determination 2021. This methodology is a "hybrid" approach that allows proponents to use a combination of physical soil core sampling and approved predictive modelling to estimate carbon stock changes over time. This differs from the previous 2018 method, which relied solely on direct measurement, often resulting in higher compliance costs. Standard requirements for such projects include establishing a baseline of soil carbon stocks and maintaining the sequestered carbon for a permanence period of either 25 or 100 years, in this case, a 25-year period has been selected.

Environmentally, the site is situated in a warm temperate zone with winter-dominant rainfall, averaging between 450mm and 550mm annually. The soils in this part of the Riverina are typically Red Chromosols (red-brown earths), which are productive but can be susceptible to structure decline if heavily tilled. To combat this and sequester carbon, the project activities focus on regenerative land management: specifically, the application of targeted synthetic or non-synthetic fertilizers to address nutrient deficiencies, the retention of crop stubble to protect topsoil, and a transition from intensive tillage to reduced or no-tillage practices.

An interesting aspect of this project is its proponent, Agriprove Solutions, which is a leading developer in the Australian soil carbon market. Agriprove is known for streamlining the registration process for landholders and was the first to generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) under the national soil carbon method. The project was originally designed under the 2018 measurement method but varied its registration in July 2024 to the newer 2021 model-based methodology, likely to take advantage of the reduced sampling burdens and improved cost-efficiency offered by the updated protocol.