Brinkley Station Revegetation Project

Brinkley Station Revegetation Project is a permanent mixed-species environmental planting project located at Brinkley Station near Wellington East, approximately 35-40km south-east of Murray Bridge in South Australia. It was registered in September 2024 and covers a massive 6000.43 hectares.

Environmental planting projects involve establishing permanent plantings of a mix of native tree species on land that was predominantly used for agriculture for at least five years prior. Under the Reforestation by Environmental Plantings FullCAM methodology, these trees must be planted at a sufficient density, such as a minimum of 200 stems per hectare for block plantings or 800 stems per hectare for belt plantings, and possess the potential to reach at least 2 meters in height and provide 20% crown cover to achieve true forest cover.

The Murraylands region around Wellington East and Lake Alexandrina is known for dryland cropping, irrigated fodder crops, and livestock grazing, including beef cattle and sheep. The area experiences a semi-arid climate with a low average annual rainfall of approximately 380mm to 400mm. Soils in this region are diverse but typically feature sandy loams, clay flats, and calcareous soils, often presenting with a shallow saline water table near the lake.

Historically, the project land was part of the historic 9,700-hectare Brinkley Station, managed by the McFarlane family for generations. The property famously transitioned from a traditional pastoral grazing operation to a more intensive legume and grass pasture-based enterprise, which involved clearing unpalatable tobacco bush to plant lucerne. Today, the carbon project is driven by the proponent Terra Carbon Pty Limited, which is a subsidiary of the major environmental market developer GreenCollar. This vast revegetation effort marks a large-scale shift toward using the historical agricultural land for native carbon sequestration, and forms part of GreenCollar's newly launched environmental planting ACCU fund.