Morgan Family Plantations

Morgan Family Plantations is a plantation forestry project located in the Mid North region of South Australia, situated approximately 15km north of Jamestown near the locality of Bundaleer North. Registered in August 2023, the project covers a significant area of 1,475 hectares. The site lies within the historic Bundaleer Forest precinct, an area recognized as the birthplace of plantation forestry in Australia, which shares the landscape with mixed farming and grazing operations.

The project operates under the 2022 Plantation Forestry methodology, which incentivizes the establishment of new plantation forests or the conversion of existing plantations to longer rotations. Unlike permanent environmental plantings, this method allows for commercial harvesting; carbon credits are calculated based on the long-term average carbon stocks of the trees and the carbon stored in the harvested wood products. This project involves establishing a new plantation, likely Pinus radiata or similar commercial softwood, managed specifically for future timber production.

The local environment features a Mediterranean climate with a winter-dominant rainfall averaging between 450mm and 550mm annually. The terrain is characterized by undulating rises with soils that are typically loamy surfaces over red clay subsoils, often referred to as red-brown earths. These conditions are historically proven to be ideal for forestry. A notable aspect of this project is its proponent, Morgan Sawmill Jamestown. The project appears to be part of a strategic initiative to replant and rehabilitate areas of the forest that were devastated by the 2013 Bundaleer and Bangor wildfires, thereby restoring the landscape and securing a long-term timber supply for the family-owned sawmill nearby.