Gear Carbon Project 2

Gear Carbon Project 2 is a soil carbon sequestration project located in the rural locality of Trawalla, approximately 40 kilometers west of Ballarat in Western Victoria. Registered in March 2024, the project covers a land area of roughly 252 hectares. This region falls within the Pyrenees Shire, an area traditionally characterized by mixed farming operations, including wool and prime lamb production, cattle grazing, and broadacre cropping of cereals and oilseeds.

The project operates under the 2021 Soil Carbon methodology, which credits landholders for measurable increases in soil organic carbon. To achieve this, the project involves a change in agricultural management practices designed to boost soil health and carbon retention. Specific activities for this project include altering grazing intensity to maintain vegetation cover, rejuvenating pastures through seeding, and applying synthetic or non-synthetic fertilizers to address nutrient deficiencies. By optimizing these factors, the project aims to sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the soil profile.

Environmentally, the site is situated on the Victorian Volcanic Plains, a region known for its fertile but often heavy basalt-derived clay soils. These soils can vary from grey-black cracking clays to lighter loams depending on the specific topography. The area experiences a temperate climate with a winter-dominant rainfall pattern, generally classified as moderate to high rainfall compared to the drier Mallee regions further north. The "Gear" project appears to be part of a cluster of registrations (Gear Carbon 1, Gear Carbon 2, and Gear Carbon 3) developed by Agriprove, Australia’s largest soil carbon project developer.