Connor Carbon Project

The Connor Carbon Project is a soil carbon project located approximately 15km southwest of Thangool and 25km south of Biloela in Central Queensland. Registered in April 2022, the project covers a land area of roughly 205 hectares within the Banana Shire, a region heavily utilized for dryland cropping and beef cattle production.

The project operates under the 2021 Soil Carbon methodology (Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration using Measurement and Models). This framework requires landholders to establish a baseline of soil carbon and then implement new management activities to sequester additional carbon over time. Specific activities for this project include altering grazing intensity to improve vegetation cover, applying synthetic or non-synthetic fertilizers to address nutrient deficiencies, and rejuvenating pastures through seeding. Unlike older methods that relied solely on physical sampling, the 2021 method allows for the use of models to estimate carbon stocks between sampling rounds, potentially reducing ongoing compliance costs.

Environmentally, the Thangool and Biloela region is characterized by a sub-tropical climate with summer-dominant rainfall, averaging approximately 680mm annually. The local landscape, part of the Callide Valley, typically features fertile alluvial soils and cracking clays (Vertosols) often associated with the Brigalow Belt. These soils generally have high agricultural potential but can be susceptible to compaction and organic matter loss without careful management, making them ideal candidates for soil carbon sequestration projects.

The project is developed by Agriprove, Australia's largest soil carbon project developer. Agriprove often partners with landholders to implement specific pasture cropping techniques, such as multispecies pasture renovation, which aligns with the project's listed activity of "re-establishing or rejuvenating a pasture by seeding."