Yarawindah Carbon Project

The Yarawindah Carbon Project is a soil carbon sequestration project located in the rural locality of Yarawindah, approximately 20km south of the historic monastic town of New Norcia in Western Australia. Registered in August 2025, the project covers 751.70 hectares within the Shire of Victoria Plains. This region is part of the Western Australian Wheatbelt, an area traditionally dominated by mixed farming operations, including broadacre cropping and sheep grazing.

The project operates under the 2021 Soil Carbon methodology (Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration using Measurement and Models). This method credits landholders for increasing soil organic carbon levels through changes in land management. Unlike tree-planting projects, soil carbon projects focus on building carbon stocks below ground by enhancing plant growth and microbial activity. A key requirement of this methodology is establishing a baseline through physical soil sampling, followed by subsequent rounds of measurement or modelling to verify carbon increases over a 25 or 100-year permanence period.

Ecologically, the Victoria Plains region experiences a Mediterranean climate characterized by cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers, with an average annual rainfall of approximately 450mm–500mm. The local soil profiles are typically diverse, ranging from sandy loams and gravelly sands to heavier clay subsoils, which are characteristic of the wider Wheatbelt. The specific activity undertaken by the proponent, Agriprove Solutions, involves applying synthetic or non-synthetic fertilisers to address material nutrient deficiencies. This strategy aims to boost pasture or crop productivity, thereby increasing the biomass available to decay and sequester carbon into the soil profile.