FIT GT 2025 Carbon Project

FIT GT 2025 Carbon Project is a plantation forestry project located in the renowned "Green Triangle" forestry region, which straddles the border of South Australia and Victoria. The project area is dispersed across multiple sites, with key clusters situated approximately 20km south of Mount Gambier (SA) and extending east towards Casterton and Portland (Victoria). Registered on February 17, 2025, the project covers a significant area of approximately 3,861 hectares. This region is widely recognized as Australia’s premier timber production zone, characterized by a mix of intensive softwood and hardwood forestry, alongside livestock grazing and dairy farming.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Plantation Forestry) Methodology Determination 2022. It specifically targets two activities: establishing new plantation forests on land previously used for agriculture (Schedule 1) and converting existing short-rotation plantations, typically grown for woodchips, into long-rotation plantations destined for sawlogs (Schedule 2). By extending the rotation period (e.g., from a 10-year pulpwood cycle to a 30-year sawlog cycle), the trees sequester carbon for a significantly longer duration. Standard requirements for such projects include maintaining specific stocking densities and adhering to a commercial harvesting regime that permanently increases the carbon stock compared to the previous land use.

Environmentally, the Green Triangle is ideally suited for commercial timber due to its reliable high rainfall, generally ranging between 600mm and 800mm annually. The soil profile in this specific project area varies from free-draining sandy loams over limestone (typical of the South Australian "Limestone Coast" side) to heavier basalt-derived clays and volcanic soils closer to the Victorian border. These deep, fertile soils support rapid growth rates for Pinus radiata (Radiata Pine) and Eucalyptus globulus (Tasmanian Blue Gum), the dominant commercial species in the region.

An interesting aspect of this project is its proponent, The Trust Company (Australia) Limited as trustee for Forestry Investment Trust (FIT). FIT is a major investment vehicle managed by New Forests, a global investment manager of nature-based real assets. This suggests the project is part of a large-scale institutional forestry portfolio, likely integrating carbon sequestration with traditional timber production to optimize asset value. The variation noted in September 2025 indicates an active expansion of the project, adding further land to the aggregation shortly after initial registration.