Nock Carbon Project

The Nock Carbon Project is a soil carbon sequestration initiative located near Bogan Gate in the Central West region of New South Wales. Situated approximately 45 kilometers west of Parkes and roughly 100 kilometers west of Orange, the project is positioned within a significant agricultural belt known for broadacre cropping and livestock production. Registered on October 30, 2023, the project covers a substantial area of 2,245.8 hectares. The proponent, Loam Carbon Pty Ltd, is an Australian carbon developer co-founded by Tegan Nock, whose family owns and operates the farming aggregation where this project is likely established.

The project operates under the Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration using Measurement and Models (2021) methodology. This framework allows landholders to generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) by sequestering carbon in agricultural soils. Unlike older methods that relied solely on expensive physical sampling, this methodology permits the use of validated models to estimate carbon stocks, reducing compliance costs while maintaining rigorous standards. The specific "new" activity registered for this project involves applying nutrients to the land to address material deficiencies. In the context of Loam Carbon's operations, this typically involves the integration of their proprietary "CarbonBuilder" technology, a fungal seed inoculum designed to increase the stability of soil carbon, alongside standard fertiliser strategies to enhance soil health and sequestration rates.

Environmentally, the Bogan Gate region is characterized by a semi-arid to temperate climate with an average annual rainfall of approximately 450–550 millimeters. The landscape is dominated by red earth soils, specifically Red Chromosols and Kandosols, which are well-suited for winter cereal cropping (wheat, barley) and canola, as well as pasture for livestock. These soils are often naturally low in organic carbon due to historical cultivation, making them ideal candidates for sequestration projects that aim to restore soil structure and fertility.

A notable aspect of this project is its deep connection to the proponent's leadership. Tegan Nock, a co-founder of Loam Carbon, is a sixth-generation farmer from the Bogan Gate area. This project likely serves as a flagship or commercial-scale demonstration of Loam's microbial carbon removal technology, which coats seeds with beneficial fungi to sequester carbon in more stable forms within the soil profile. The "Nock" name in the project title directly references this family heritage, bridging the gap between cutting-edge ag-tech and traditional generational farming.