Furnihurst Carbon Project 2026

Furnihurst Carbon Project 2026 is a permanent mallee planting project located at 1046 Riseborough Road in Lime Lake, approximately 7km east of Wagin and 13km north of Woodanilling in the Western Australian Wheatbelt. Registered on March 16, 2026, the project covers an area of 2,819.35 hectares. The surrounding region in the Shire of Wagin is well known for broadacre farming, specifically cropping and livestock grazing. Environmental conditions in this Mediterranean to semi-arid rainfall zone feature marginal, poorer-quality soils such as sandy loams and duplex soils that are suboptimal for agriculture and frequently prone to localised salinisation.

The project involves establishing and maintaining permanent native mallee eucalypt plantings. The Reforestation by Environmental or Mallee Plantings (FullCAM) 2024 methodology requires projects to plant native trees that have the potential to achieve a height of at least 2 metres and a crown cover of at least 20% across the planting area. Under this method, specific stocking densities must be maintained to ensure adequate carbon sequestration. For the Furnihurst project, trees are deliberately planted at a targeted density of 500 stems per hectare, substantially lower than traditional plantation forestry, to better accommodate the poorer soils, reduce fire risk, and facilitate the eventual reintroduction of livestock grazing once the trees mature.

An interesting feature of this project is its role in "Wheatbelt Connect," a major corporate joint venture between INPEX, ANZ, and Qantas. The initiative aims to integrate strategic revegetation into broadacre farming systems, providing local property owners with supplemental lease income for their least productive agricultural land while maintaining normal farm operations. Additionally, the project actively utilizes salt-tolerant mallee species to help alleviate localized soil salinity, offering a dual benefit of carbon sequestration and landscape repair.