Oreen Station Plantation

Oreen Station Plantation is a plantation forestry project located near the rural locality of Bellbrook, approximately 55km northwest of Kempsey in the Mid North Coast region of New South Wales. Registered on April 30, 2025, the project covers an area of 202.64 hectares within the larger "Oreen Station" property. The surrounding Upper Macleay Valley is traditionally utilized for cattle grazing and timber production, characterized by a mix of cleared pasture valleys and steep, forested hinterland.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative-Plantation Forestry) Methodology Determination 2022. Specifically, it focuses on transitioning an existing plantation forest into a permanent planting. This activity generates carbon credits by canceling the scheduled harvest of commercial timber and instead maintaining the trees as a permanent forest carbon sink. This approach is particularly applicable where a plantation might otherwise be at risk of conversion to non-forested land (such as pasture) or where the commercial viability of harvesting is low, allowing the carbon stock to remain stored in the biomass.

Environmentally, the Bellbrook region experiences a warm, humid subtropical climate with relatively high rainfall, supporting dense vegetation and forestry operations. The terrain in this upper catchment area is often hilly, with soils generally consisting of kurosols or loams derived from sedimentary rock, suitable for sustaining long-term forest cover.

An interesting aspect of this project is its proponent, ACF (No.1) Pty Ltd, which holds the trademark for "Australia Forest Carbon." This suggests the project is part of a specialized portfolio managing forest carbon assets. The property itself, Oreen Station, has previously been marketed as a significant rural holding (approx. 964 ha) suitable for cattle, indicating that this project likely integrates carbon sequestration alongside active farming operations on the remainder of the estate.