Gippsland 2024 Carbon Project

Gippsland 2024 Carbon Project is a plantation forestry project primarily located across a broad portfolio of sites in Victoria, with key parcels situated roughly 10km south of Traralgon in the Latrobe Valley, as well as additional plots spread across the Wellington, Towong, Pyrenees, and West Wimmera local government areas. It was registered in June 2024 by Hancock Victorian Plantations Pty Limited (HVP) and currently covers 1,065.39 hectares.

Plantation forestry projects under the 2022 Methodology Determination sequester carbon by establishing new plantation forests, converting short-rotation plantations to long-rotation, or preventing existing plantations from being permanently cleared. This specific project utilizes the "avoided conversion" activity. This means that instead of converting an existing or recently harvested plantation forest to non-forested land (such as pasture for agriculture), the proponent commits to replanting and maintaining the land as continuous forestry.

Because the project parcels span multiple geographically distinct Victorian regions, the environmental conditions and surrounding land uses vary. The core Gippsland sites are located in high-rainfall regions dominated by commercial timber, dairy farming, and grazing, characterized by fertile clay loams and podzolic soils. The western (Pyrenees/West Wimmera) and north-eastern (Towong) sites generally fall within moderate-to-high rainfall belts featuring sandy loams and basalt soils, also traditionally suitable for silviculture and livestock grazing.

An interesting aspect of this project is its rapid and systematic expansion. Despite being named the "Gippsland" project, the geospatial coordinates confirm the aggregation of multiple state-wide forestry blocks. Furthermore, the project has undergone seven separate area variations between April 2025 and April 2026, indicating that HVP is continuously identifying and adding new harvested blocks to the carbon project as they commit to reforestation rather than agricultural conversion.