Gregory Downs MMV Soil Carbon Project

The Gregory Downs MMV Soil Carbon Project is a soil carbon sequestration initiative located on the extensive Gregory Downs Station, situated immediately south of the small township of Gregory in North West Queensland. Registered in August 2024, the project covers a specific 585-hectare area within the station's massive 266,425-hectare holding. The site lies approximately 110 kilometers south of Burketown and roughly 250 kilometers north-northwest of Mount Isa, in the remote Gulf Country region known for large-scale cattle breeding operations.

The project operates under the 2021 Soil Carbon (Measurement and Models) methodology, which credits landholders for increasing Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) stocks through new management activities. For this specific project, the proponent, Paraway Pastoral Company, is focusing on re-establishing and rejuvenating pastures by seeding legume species. The addition of legumes is designed to fix atmospheric nitrogen into the soil, thereby boosting pasture growth and increasing the volume of carbon stored in the soil profile. As a "Measurement and Models" project, the carbon gains will be calculated by comparing new measurements against a baseline, potentially using predictive models to lower sampling costs over the project's permanent life (usually 25 or 100 years).

Environmentally, the region is characterized by a tropical savanna climate with a distinct wet and dry season. The area typically receives around 600mm of annual rainfall, predominantly falling during the summer monsoon, followed by an extended dry winter. The landscape at Gregory Downs features a mix of "black soil" downs country (fertile cracking clays or vertosols) and seasonally flooded river flats along the Gregory River. This specific project is noteworthy as a pilot trial; Paraway Pastoral has publicly stated that soil carbon dynamics in the North West Queensland climate are "largely unknown," making this 585-hectare site a critical test case for the viability of carbon farming in the Gulf region.