Wettenhall Carbon Project

Wettenhall Carbon Project is a soil carbon sequestration project located approximately 22km northeast of Trangie and 30km north of Narromine in New South Wales. It was registered in July 2023 and covers 550.65 hectares.

Soil carbon projects under the Measurement and Models 2021 methodology allow landholders to earn Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) by increasing and measuring carbon stored in agricultural soils. The standard requirements dictate that proponents must undertake one or more new or materially different land management activities to increase soil carbon against a baseline. For this project, the chosen activity involves applying nutrients to the land in the form of a synthetic or non-synthetic fertiliser to address a material deficiency.

The local area surrounding Trangie and Narromine is situated in the fertile Macquarie Valley, a region well known for grain production, cotton farming, citrus, and livestock grazing. The region experiences a semi-arid climate, typically receiving a moderate but variable annual rainfall of approximately 526 mm. The agricultural soils in the Macquarie Valley largely consist of fertile alluvial plains, red-brown earths, and cracking clays that are well-suited to broadacre cropping but require careful land management to retain organic matter.

An interesting note about this project is its proponent, Loam Carbon Pty Ltd. Loam Bio is a prominent agricultural biotech start-up co-founded by Mick Wettenhall, an experienced local grazier and grains farmer from the Trangie area. Loam Bio has developed a unique microbial seed-coating technology using endophytic fungi that naturally supercharges a plant's ability to draw down atmospheric carbon and store it stably in the soil. Given the matching project name and location, this project is being implemented on Wettenhall's own farming property to directly increase carbon in the soil of his agricultural system, showcasing the company's pioneering carbon-building technologies in a commercial setting.