Southern Wimmera Carbon Project

Southern Wimmera Carbon Project is an agricultural soil carbon project located in the Wimmera region of Victoria, approximately 22km north of Stawell and east of Glenorchy. It was registered in February 2026 and covers a project area of 1,101.86 hectares.

The project operates under the Estimation of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration using Measurement and Models 2021 methodology. Soil carbon projects involve altering agricultural land management practices to increase the amount of stable carbon stored in the soil. Standard requirements for this methodology include establishing a baseline carbon measurement, undergoing regular testing to model sequestration, and implementing one or more new or materially different land management activities.

The Wimmera region is a major agricultural hub, known primarily for extensive broadacre cropping, such as wheat, barley, and canola, and sheep grazing. The area generally experiences a semi-arid to Mediterranean climate, with an average annual rainfall between 400mm and 550mm. The primary soil types in this region include heavy clay loams, self-mulching grey cracking clays, and yellow duplex soils (sodosols) which can occasionally suffer from localized nutrient deficiencies.

To build soil carbon, this project focuses on applying nutrients to the land in the form of a synthetic or non-synthetic fertiliser to address a material deficiency, which boosts plant growth and root biomass. The project proponent, Loam Carbon Pty Ltd, is a division of the agricultural biotechnology company Loam Bio. Loam Bio specializes in pairing nutrient management practice changes with proprietary microbial fungi seed coatings (such as "CarbonBuilder") to maximize the long-term drawdown of atmospheric carbon into stable soil aggregates.