The Plantation Carbon Project

The Plantation Carbon Project is a soil carbon sequestration initiative located in the Liverpool Plains region of New South Wales, approximately 5 kilometers southeast of the small township of Premer and roughly 80 kilometers southwest of the major agricultural hub of Gunnedah. Registered in July 2024, the project covers 1,169 hectares of prime agricultural land. The project's name likely derives from the local property name or "Plantation Road," which runs through the immediate vicinity of Premer, rather than implying a timber plantation activity.

The region is situated within the renowned Liverpool Plains, an area celebrated as one of Australia's "food bowls" due to its highly fertile soil profile. The environment is characterized by black vertosols, deep, cracking clay soils that have high water-holding capacity and are exceptionally conducive to broadacre cropping and grazing. The climate is generally classified as warm temperate to semi-arid, with rainfall fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, though summer storms are common. The land use in this specific locale is predominantly mixed farming, with a heavy focus on winter crops such as wheat and barley, as well as sorghum and cattle grazing.

Operated by Loam Carbon, the project operates under the 2021 Soil Organic Carbon sequestration methodology. This method requires the proponent to estimate soil carbon stocks using a combination of physical soil sampling and modelling. The project activities involve changing land management practices to sequester more carbon in the soil than would occur under business-as-usual conditions. While the generic activity description mentions "applying nutrients," Loam Carbon is distinctively known for its microbial technology (CarbonBuilder), a fungal seed coating designed to increase the stability of carbon in the soil while simultaneously enhancing plant yields. This biological approach allows farmers to integrate carbon farming directly into their existing cropping cycles without taking land out of production.