Blue Hill 2026

Blue Hill 2026 is a plantation forestry project located in the Central Highlands approximately 13km northwest of Bothwell in Tasmania. It was registered in June 2026 and covers 322.81ha.

Plantation forestry projects involve activities such as establishing a new plantation forest, maintaining a pre-existing plantation, or transitioning from short-rotation to long-rotation forests. These activities sequester carbon over an extended timeframe by storing it in both standing biomass and the eventual harvested wood products.

The Central Highlands and Bothwell region is well known for extensive sheep and cattle grazing, wool production, and commercial forestry operations. The area typically experiences moderate to high rainfall, and the regional soils are generally derived from basalt, dolerite, and sandstone.

This project was set up to sequester carbon by converting an existing short-rotation plantation forest to a long-rotation plantation forest for the commercial harvesting of wood products.

Interestingly, the project's proponent, Peter Downie, is a prominent sixth-generation farmer who has managed the 24,000ha Dungrove property for decades. He is a pioneer in sustainable land management and the Tasmanian carbon market, having helped establish Australia's first carbon project development company around 2007. In addition to carbon farming and forestry, Downie and his family are heavily involved in local large-scale renewable energy infrastructure, co-developing the nearby Cattle Hill Wind Farm, the Weasel Solar Farm, and the proposed Cellars Hill Wind Farm.