Scribbly Gum Soil Carbon Project

Scribbly Gum Soil Carbon Project is a soil carbon sequestration project located near Tallong, approximately 10km southeast of Marulan in the Southern Highlands of NSW. Registered in November 2022, the project covers approximately 175 hectares. The property, fittingly named "Scribbly Gum," has historically been utilized as grazing land for sheep and cattle. The project proponent, Frontier Carbon, highlights this initiative as a "whole-of-farm" approach, where the landowners decided to transition their management practices to participate in the carbon market while maintaining agricultural productivity.

The project operates under the 2021 Soil Carbon methodology (Measurement and Models), which credits landholders for increasing Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stocks. This is achieved through regenerative activities such as altering stocking rates to improve ground cover, re-establishing pastures with legume species, and applying lime or synthetic nutrients to correct material soil deficiencies. The "measurement and models" variant of the methodology requires physical soil sampling to establish a baseline, followed by a combination of modeling and subsequent sampling to verify carbon increases over the 25-year crediting period.

Environmentally, the Tallong region is characterized by a cool climate with reliable rainfall, averaging between 650mm and 900mm annually. The local landscape often features shallow soils overlying sandstone, though agricultural pockets in the Southern Highlands typically contain acidic texture-contrast soils (Chromosols or Podzolics) or clays. The presence of "Scribbly Gum" (Eucalyptus rossii) in the project name and surrounding bushland suggests native vegetation consistent with the sandy, often low-fertility soils of the tablelands, which frequently benefit from the remediation activities, such as liming and nutrient application, included in the project plan.