Cole Permanent Forestry Project

Cole Permanent Forestry Project is a plantation forestry project located near the town of Kilkivan, approximately 50km west of Gympie in the Wide Bay-Burnett region of Queensland. Registered in June 2025, the project covers 71.03 hectares of land in an area historically characterized by beef cattle grazing, dairying, and commercial forestry operations.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Plantation Forestry) Methodology Determination 2022. Specifically, it involves the "transition to permanent forest" activity (Schedule 4). This methodology requires the proponent to take an existing commercial plantation, which might otherwise be harvested and converted to non-forested agricultural land, and instead manage it as a permanent forest. By ceasing commercial harvesting cycles, the project ensures the trees remain in the ground to sequester carbon for a defined permanence period (typically 25 or 100 years).

Environmental conditions in the Kilkivan region are subtropical and generally favorable for forestry, with moderate to high rainfall averaging between 800mm and 900mm annually. The local landscape features low rolling hills with soils that are predominantly loams and clays (Dermosols and Chromosols). These soils naturally support open forests of spotted gum, ironbark, and hoop pine, making the transitioning plantation well-suited to the local ecosystem.

The project proponent, James Brett Lochran Heading, manages this initiative to sequester carbon by maintaining the forest cover indefinitely. This transition not only generates carbon credits (ACCUs) but also contributes to local biodiversity by preventing the reversion of the land to cleared grazing pasture.