Yarraville Carbon Project

Yarraville Carbon Project is a soil carbon project located approximately 45km southwest of Forbes in the Central West region of New South Wales, falling within the Forbes and Weddin local government areas. It was registered in May 2024 and covers 2,392.50 hectares.

The project operates under the Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration using Measurement and Models (2021) methodology. Soil carbon projects of this type involve changing land management practices to increase the amount of organic carbon stored in the soil, which is then verified and tracked through direct baseline soil sampling and subsequent modeling.

The Forbes and Weddin area is known for mixed agricultural activities, primarily broadacre cropping and livestock grazing. The region generally experiences a temperate climate with an average annual rainfall of around 525mm, and soils are typically characterized by red-brown earths and heavy clay loams.

The core activity for this project involves applying synthetic or non-synthetic fertilizers to the land to address a material nutrient deficiency. Correcting this deficiency helps increase the agricultural system's plant biomass, thereby increasing the amount of carbon naturally drawn down and sequestered into the soil.

The project's proponent is Loam Carbon Pty Ltd, an Australian biotechnology and carbon farming startup often operating as Loam Bio. Backed by significant investments, including a $105 million Series B funding round in 2023, Loam Bio specializes in microbial carbon removal technologies. They have developed a proprietary endophytic fungal seed coating known as CarbonBuilder. When applied to agricultural crop seeds, this inoculum forms a symbiotic relationship with plant roots to capture atmospheric carbon dioxide and bind it into stable micro-aggregates within the soil. This innovative approach is designed to efficiently sequester carbon at scale while also improving soil fertility, drought resilience, and overall crop yields for farmers.