Flinders Carbon Project 1

Flinders Carbon Project 1 is a soil carbon project located roughly 85km southwest of Mildura, near the small locality of Meringur in the Mallee region of Victoria. Registered in August 2024, the project covers approximately 200 hectares of agricultural land. The site sits within the broader Millewa-Mallee landscape, an area historically utilized for dryland cropping and grazing near the South Australian border.

The project operates under the 2021 Soil Carbon methodology (Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration using Measurement and Models). This method allows land managers to earn carbon credits by sequestering carbon in agricultural soils. Unlike older methods that relied solely on expensive physical sampling, the 2021 determination introduces a hybrid approach using both physical measurement and approved soil models to estimate carbon stocks over time. To generate credits, the project involves implementing new management activities designed to increase soil carbon, such as altering stocking rates to improve ground cover, rejuvenating pastures through seeding, and maintaining permanent pasture on land that was previously cropped or fallow.

Environmentally, the Mallee region is characterized by a semi-arid climate with low and variable rainfall, typically averaging between 250mm and 300mm annually. The soils in this area are predominantly calcareous earths, sandy loams, and red-brown earths, often referred to as "Mallee loams." These soils can be light and susceptible to wind erosion, making the project's focus on maintaining vegetation cover and improving soil health particularly beneficial for long-term land resilience. The project is facilitated by Agriprove, a major Australian soil carbon developer, and appears to be part of a larger aggregation or multi-stage development, as indicated by the concurrent registration of "Flinders Carbon Project 2" in the same vicinity.