Barwick Carbon Project 3

Barwick Carbon Project 3 is a soil carbon sequestration project located near Kaniva in the West Wimmera region of Victoria, approximately 25 kilometers east of the South Australian border. Registered in March 2022, the project covers 261.76 hectares of agricultural land. The region is predominantly utilized for mixed farming, combining cropping (wheat, barley, pulses) with sheep and cattle grazing.

The project operates under the Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration using Measurement and Models (2021) methodology. This method requires landholders to implement new management activities to increase soil carbon levels, which are measured via physical soil sampling and estimated using models. Key activities for this project include addressing material nutrient deficiencies through synthetic or non-synthetic fertilizers and retaining crop stubble to improve soil organic matter.

Environmental conditions in the Kaniva district are characterized by a semi-arid climate with an average annual rainfall of approximately 340mm. The local terrain features predominantly loam topsoils with patches of clay and varied subsoil profiles, including grey and brown vertosols (cracking clays) common to the Wimmera.

This project is part of a broader farming enterprise managed by landholder Geoff Vivian, which has been highlighted as a significant success story in the Australian soil carbon market. The wider Barwick aggregation has been credited with one of the largest soil carbon ACCU issuances in Victoria, attributed to a transition toward biology-led fertilizer programs that improve nutrient efficiency and soil structure.