Sleatbank Carbon and Biodiversity Project

Sleatbank Carbon and Biodiversity Project is a plantation forestry project located at the historic "Sleatbank" property in Yulecart, approximately 12km west of Hamilton in Victoria's Western District. It was registered in July 2024 and covers a project area of 408.24 hectares.

Plantation forestry projects operating under the 2022 methodology generate carbon credits by establishing new plantations, transitioning short-rotation plantations to long-rotation, or maintaining existing forests. In this specific case, the project sequesters carbon by avoiding the conversion of an existing or recently harvested plantation forest to non-forested land, ensuring the continuous presence of the trees. Standard requirements under this methodology dictate that the project must maintain appropriate tree stocking densities for the chosen species and strictly ensure the land is not permanently cleared for agricultural conversion.

The Yulecart and Hamilton area sits within the broader Green Triangle, a region renowned for significant timber and forestry operations as well as traditional livestock grazing, such as sheep and cattle farming. The area experiences a temperate, Mediterranean climate with reliable high rainfall averaging between 650mm and 675mm annually. The environmental conditions feature fertile, well-drained rolling loamy banks and red gum country over underlying limestone, which are highly suitable for commercial forestry.

This project is managed by the Green Triangle Plantation Forest Company of Australia Pty Ltd (GPFL), an entity originally formed in 1997 to establish Eucalyptus plantations across western Victoria to secure hardwood chip resources. An interesting historical note about the project's location is that the Sleatbank property is an iconic piece of local pastoral history, featuring a notable Edwardian-era homestead built around 1910.