Swartz Carbon Project 9

Swartz Carbon Project 9 is a soil carbon project located approximately 45km northwest of Rockhampton in Central Queensland. It was registered in March 2022 and covers 243.54 hectares.

Soil carbon projects, formally operating under the Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration using Measurement and Models methodology, involve implementing new or materially different agricultural management practices to increase the amount of carbon stored in the earth. Standard requirements include establishing a baseline through rigorous soil core sampling and periodically re-measuring carbon levels over time to calculate net sequestration, while strictly accounting for emissions from livestock or fertilizers.

The Rockhampton area is renowned as the beef capital of Australia, with regional land use heavily focused on cattle grazing and broadacre agricultural operations. The environment is characterized by a subtropical savanna climate with highly variable rainfall and distinct wet summers, while the soils are generally heavy cracking clays, commonly known as "black soils", along with alluvial soils.

This project was set up to build soil carbon in the agricultural system by applying synthetic or non-synthetic fertilizers to address material soil deficiencies. It also focuses on re-establishing or rejuvenating pastures through seeding and pasture cropping, and altering the stocking rate, duration, or intensity of grazing to promote better soil health and vegetation cover. Interestingly, this project is managed by Agriprove, a major Australian soil carbon developer, and is part of a larger aggregated cluster of at least 11 numbered "Swartz" properties. To date, the project has successfully sequestered enough carbon to be issued 2,976 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs).