Wilyun Pools 2022

Wilyun Pools 2022 is a plantation forestry project located near Wellstead, approximately 100km northeast of Albany in Western Australia. It was registered in May 2023 and covers 259.60 hectares.

Plantation forestry projects sequester carbon by establishing new plantation forests or converting short-rotation harvest plantations to permanent, long-term forests. Standard requirements for this method typically include adequate site preparation, such as deep ripping, and maintaining an appropriate stocking density, the number of live stems per hectare, to ensure effective canopy cover and robust forest growth.

The Wellstead area and the broader Great Southern region are widely recognized for broadacre agriculture, historically dominated by sheep grazing and grain cropping. The environment features a Mediterranean to semi-arid climate with moderate, winter-dominant rainfall averaging 400 to 600mm annually. The local soils are generally characterized as sandy duplex soils over clay or lateritic gravels.

This project sequesters carbon by transitioning an existing plantation forest to a permanent planting, explicitly protecting it from the risk of being converted back into non-forested agricultural land. Interestingly, the Wilyun Pools farm has become part of a groundbreaking collaborative nature-based investment model. A $3 million interest-free loan from Transition Accelerator unlocked $6 million in commercial investment from Wollemi Capital. Beyond carbon sequestration, this blended finance structure establishes a pathway for the local First Nations custodians, the Wirlomin Noongar people, to gradually assume full ownership of the property, utilizing it as a cultural base. The project saw two variations to expand its area in June and September 2024, and the primary proponent was officially transitioned from Carbon Neutral Pty Ltd to Jarrah Climate Pty Ltd in February 2026.