Gippsland 2024 Carbon Project

Gippsland 2024 Carbon Project is a plantation forestry project with its primary sites situated in the Strzelecki Ranges, approximately 15km south of Traralgon in the Gippsland region of Victoria. It was registered in June 2024 and covers an initial area of 672.01 hectares. Though primarily located in Gippsland, the project includes additional land parcels spanning the Latrobe, Wellington, Pyrenees, and Towong local government areas. The regional land use across these areas is dominated by commercial timber forestry, dairy farming, and livestock grazing.

Plantation forestry projects that focus on avoided conversion involve continuing an existing or recently harvested plantation forest that is otherwise at risk of being converted to non-forested land, such as agricultural pasture. Standard requirements dictate that the land must be maintained as a plantation forest and that standard silvicultural practices, such as replanting seedlings or managing coppice regrowth, must be carried out following any timber harvest.

The project areas in Gippsland and North East Victoria are considered high rainfall zones, providing ideal environmental conditions for sustained timber growth. The soils across these regions generally consist of deep clay loams, brown earths, and fertile volcanic ferrosols that are highly supportive of commercial plantation tree species.

Operated by Hancock Victorian Plantations (HVP Plantations), the project sequesters carbon by preserving vulnerable plantation land. HVP has actively expanded its operations recently, acquiring around 1,500 hectares of new land and planting approximately 1 million seedlings during their 2024 winter planting program. The project has a nominated permanence period of 25 years. Notably, it has seen steady expansion, undergoing six separate variations between April and October 2025 to continually add newly qualified plantation areas into the project's footprint.