Ruddock Carbon Project

Ruddock Carbon Project is a soil carbon project located approximately 17km southwest of Millmerran and 85km southwest of Toowoomba in the Darling Downs region of Queensland. It was registered in May 2024 and covers a project area of 154.59 hectares. The Darling Downs region is well-known as a major grain-producing agricultural zone, where the general land use is a mix of intensive broadacre cropping and livestock grazing.

Soil carbon projects, officially registered under the Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration using Measurement and Models methodology, involve increasing the amount of carbon stored in agricultural soils. This is achieved by undertaking new or materially different land management activities. Standard requirements for this methodology include conducting rigorous baseline soil sampling before practice changes are fully implemented, followed by ongoing physical soil measurements and modelled estimates to verify the carbon sequestration over the project's 25-year crediting period.

The Toowoomba and wider Darling Downs region features a sub-humid to semi-arid climate with highly variable rainfall, generally averaging between 600mm and 800mm annually. Soils in the area often include deep cracking clays (vertosols) and friable red soils. However, certain agricultural areas are characterized by sodic or magnesic clays that require chemical remediation to be fully productive and support dense plant growth.

To build soil carbon and improve the agricultural system, the Ruddock Carbon Project focuses on applying gypsum to remediate these underlying sodic or magnesic soils. In addition to soil treatments, the proponent, Agriprove Solutions Co No.2 Pty Ltd, an entity tied to one of Australia's largest regenerative soil carbon developers, is actively altering the stocking rate, duration, and intensity of livestock grazing. These targeted grazing management strategies, along with re-establishing and rejuvenating pasture through seeding and pasture cropping, are designed to promote continuous vegetation cover, improve overall soil health, and maximize carbon drawdown.