Crescent Nine Pastoral Soil Carbon Project

Crescent Nine Pastoral Soil Carbon Project is a soil carbon project located approximately 50km west of Springsure in the Central Highlands region of Queensland. It was registered on April 7, 2026, and covers 4310.47 ha.

Soil carbon projects under the Measurement and Models methodology store carbon in agricultural soils by changing land management practices. Proponents must implement new or materially different eligible management activities and demonstrate carbon sequestration through physical soil sampling and modelling over time. For this project, the core activities involve altering the stocking rate, duration, or intensity of grazing to promote soil vegetation cover and improve overall soil health. Carbon Link Operations Pty Ltd is participating as the project developer to help manage the technical sampling and measurement requirements.

The Central Highlands region surrounding Springsure is well known for beef cattle grazing and broadacre cropping. The area experiences a semi-arid to sub-tropical climate, characterised by summer-dominant and occasionally erratic rainfall averaging roughly 600mm annually. The environment at the project site specifically features light red soils with a red granite parent material, primarily classified as Chromosols.

This project is run by fifth-generation farmers Matthew and Nevitta Marshall, who operate a mixed enterprise growing grain, livestock, and hay alongside a Red Angus and Limousin cattle stud. After noticing a decline in soil health, such as low infiltration rates and dropping organic carbon levels, following decades of synthetic fertiliser use, the Marshalls transitioned the farm to organic certification starting in 2015. As part of their holistic biological approach, they now brew up to 100,000 litres of liquid biofertilisers annually and plant 15-species cover crops to fuel biological soil cycling and prepare the ground for livestock and cropping.