Wards Mistake Soil Carbon Project

Wards Mistake Soil Carbon Project is a soil carbon project located at Wards Mistake Station, approximately 37km east of Guyra in the Northern Tablelands of NSW. It was registered in December 2023 and covers 2,938.95 hectares.

Soil carbon projects operating under the "Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration using Measurement and Models" methodology involve changing land management practices to increase the amount of carbon stored in the soil, which is tracked through rigorous baseline and ongoing soil sampling. For this specific project, the methodology involves applying nutrients to the land in the form of a synthetic or non-synthetic fertiliser to address a material deficiency in the soil.

The Guyra area is considered a high rainfall region and is widely known for widespread sheep and cattle grazing operations. The local landscape's soil profile generally consists of granite with pockets of basalt.

Interestingly, this carbon project came about through the proponent's desire to holistically rehabilitate the property. The owner of Wards Mistake Station, Andrew Munro, is an engineer by trade who observed that historic "over-supering" (excessive superphosphate application) of the land under previous ownership had created a dense, impermeable soil layer about six inches deep, forcing plant roots to grow sideways. Working alongside agronomy firm Precision Pastures, the enterprise applied soil amendments like lime and liquid humus to break down this compacted layer. This allowed the roots to grow deeper, which not only improved pasture production and overall soil health for the sheep and cattle business, but also sequestered substantial amounts of carbon within the expanding root systems. The project has a nominated permanence period of 25 years.