St Peters Pass Plantation Project

St Peters Pass Plantation Project is a Plantation Forestry project located at St Peters Pass, approximately 15km north of Oatlands and 20km south of Ross in the Tasmanian Midlands. It was registered in April 2023 and covers 412.04 hectares.

Plantation forestry projects sequester carbon by establishing new plantation forests or by avoiding the conversion of existing or harvested plantations to non-forested land. These projects continue to manage the trees for commercial harvesting of wood products while storing carbon in the landscape. To be successful, they must adhere to standard forestry requirements, such as maintaining commercially viable stocking densities and following specified planting and harvesting rotation cycles.

The Oatlands and St Peters Pass region is traditionally known for extensive agricultural operations, primarily focusing on sheep grazing for meat and wool, along with beef cattle farming. Environmentally, the area sits within the Tasmanian Midlands' "rain shadow," which results in a dry, sub-humid climate with an average annual rainfall of approximately 500mm. Local soils generally consist of shallow profiles situated over dolerite slopes, mixed with some alluvial plain soils in the valleys.

This project is spearheaded by the proponent An Cala Pty Ltd, which is managed by fifth-generation farmer Dougal Morrison. The forestry initiative was set up to diversify the family's farm enterprise income for future generations while directly offsetting the carbon footprint of their livestock commodities, helping them meet stringent environmental meat and wool market certifications. Interestingly, the St Peters Pass woodlot serves as an integrated farm forestry demonstration site supported by Private Forests Tasmania's "Stems for CO2" program. This showcases to the wider community how commercial timber and carbon plantings can successfully complement traditional agricultural landscapes. In October 2025, a variation to the project was recorded to officially amend the specific project area mappings.