Buckleboo Station

Buckleboo Station is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located on the northern Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, approximately 30 to 60 kilometers northwest of the township of Kimba. Registered in October 2021, the project covers a massive area of nearly 100,000 hectares, situated on the margins of the Gawler Ranges. The region is characterized as a transitional zone between the agricultural cropping lands to the south and the pastoral rangelands to the north, with land use primarily dedicated to sheep grazing, specifically self-replacing Dorper flocks.

Human-Induced Regeneration projects focus on regenerating native forests by identifying and removing "suppressors" that prevent trees from growing. In this context, the methodology relies on managing the timing and extent of grazing to allow native vegetation to recover. For Buckleboo Station, this has involved a shift from traditional set-stocking to a "long-rest grazing" system, where paddocks are grazed for short periods (e.g., three months) followed by extended rest periods (e.g., 15 months). This allows native species such as Chenopod brushlands, saltbush, and bluebush to re-establish.

The environment at Buckleboo is semi-arid, receiving an average annual rainfall of approximately 300mm to 350mm. The soils in this region are typically calcareous earths, consisting of sandy loams over clay or calcrete, often forming part of dune-swale systems common to the northern Eyre Peninsula. These conditions make the landscape susceptible to wind erosion and drought; prior to the project's implementation, parts of the station were described as having been stripped bare during the severe droughts of 2018–2020.

The project is managed by Australian Integrated Carbon (AI Carbon) and has been highlighted as a flagship example of integrating carbon farming with pastoral operations. Station Manager James Kerr has publicised the station's ecological recovery, noting that the combination of feral animal control (targeting goats and kangaroos) and strategic grazing is intended to increase ground cover from 20% to 70%. The project is estimated to sequester significant volumes of carbon, aiming to regenerate a permanent native forest on land where regrowth had been suppressed for over a decade.