Swartz Carbon Project 3

Swartz Carbon Project 3 is a soil carbon project located at Calliweera Station, approximately 40km northwest of Rockhampton in the Fitzroy Basin region of Queensland. It was registered in March 2022 and covers 259.02 hectares.

Soil carbon projects under the 2021 Measurement and Models methodology involve implementing new or materially different agricultural management practices to sequester and store carbon in agricultural soils. To achieve this, Swartz Carbon Project 3's activities include altering the stocking rate, duration, and intensity of grazing to improve soil health, addressing material soil deficiencies by applying synthetic or non-synthetic nutrients, and rejuvenating pastures through seeding.

The Fitzroy Basin is well known as the largest cattle-producing region in the country, with broadacre cropping also being a major agricultural land use. The region's environment features a sub-tropical to semi-arid climate with distinct wet and dry seasons, experiencing highly variable, summer-dominant rainfall. The landscape contains open woodlands and river catchments, with soil types typically including alluvial deposits and cracking clays common to the area's Brigalow belt.

Interestingly, this project is part of a larger aggregation of 11 individual soil carbon projects managed by the Warnock family across their Calliweera Farm, a property they have operated for over five generations since 1879. To facilitate the project, the family transitioned from set stocking to rotational grazing, aided by significant infrastructure investments including 75 kilometres of electric fencing and the installation of 56 new watering points. On November 12, 2025, the project varied its methodology from the older 2018 soil carbon determination to the updated 2021 version to better leverage modern measurement models and monitoring technology.