Nortongong Biodiversity Restoration Project

Nortongong Biodiversity Restoration Project is an environmental planting project located near Coonamble and Gulargambone, roughly 160km north of Dubbo in central-western New South Wales. It was registered in May 2025 and initially covered an area of 4597.64ha, though a variation in November 2025 removed some areas from the original project boundary.

Environmental planting projects involve establishing permanent plantings of a mix of native tree and shrub species that reflect the structure and composition of the local native vegetation community. Under standard methodology requirements, these projects are designed to achieve permanent forest cover, which typically requires planting native trees at a density of at least 200 stems per hectare to effectively sequester carbon and restore natural habitats.

The central-western plains region surrounding the project is known for large-scale mixed farming, typically combining winter cropping with sheep and cattle grazing. The area experiences a semi-arid climate with moderate rainfall averaging around 500mm annually. Soils across these fertile open plains generally range from heavy black self-mulching clays to red and brown clay loams.

This project is managed by the proponent Wilga Farming (Australia) Pty Ltd, which acquired the broader 8,500-hectare Nortongong aggregation as part of a $200 million sustainable agriculture platform. This large-scale initiative is backed by the global investment group CDPQ and Australia's Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC). The carbon project was established to demonstrate how traditional agricultural productivity can be optimized and seamlessly integrated with carbon sequestration, low-emissions technologies, and biodiversity conservation to make the farming sector more resilient.