Boogardie Murrum Regeneration Project

Boogardie Murrum Regeneration Project is a Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) project located approximately 20km west of Mount Magnet in the Mid West region of Western Australia. It was registered in July 2022 and spans an expansive 251,724.09 hectares across the historic Boogardie and Murrum pastoral leases.

Human-Induced Regeneration (HIR) projects involve establishing permanent, even-aged native forests through assisted regeneration. The standard requirements for this methodology mandate that landowners cease or alter activities that have actively suppressed tree growth for at least 10 years prior to the project. This allows native vegetation to naturally recover from in-situ seed sources, rootstock, and lignotubers. To achieve this, the proponents of this project are making active land management changes by controlling the timing and extent of livestock grazing to relieve pressure on the regenerating landscape.

The Mount Magnet region is traditionally known for extensive open-range sheep grazing and historic gold mining operations. The local climate is classified as semi-arid to arid, experiencing low, highly variable rainfall that averages around 220mm to 260mm annually. The environmental conditions feature resilient mulga woodlands growing in predominantly red loamy and sandy earths, which often sit over a siliceous hardpan interspersed with stony plains.

This project has a deep pastoral legacy. The proponent, Guymon Pty Ltd, is managed by the Jones family, who originally established Boogardie Station around 1880. Remarkably, the property has remained in continuous family ownership for over 140 years, and they expanded their operation by acquiring the adjacent Murrum Station in 2006. In recent years, the family faced devastating challenges from prolonged droughts and severe wild dog predation, which heavily impacted their sheep flocks. By reducing grazing and utilizing carbon farming, the family is giving the land a restorative ecological makeover while diversifying their income. Additionally, the property is famous for the Boogardie Orbicular Granite outcrop, a rare 2.7-billion-year-old geological formation found on the station. Since its initial registration, the project area has undergone two variations (in March and November 2023) to remove certain parcels of land from the overall project boundary.