Living Carbon: Riverina

Local Land Services is working with land managers to support:

• on-farm carbon management  
• NSW’s net zero emissions targets.

Project objectives

The Living Carbon Grants Program will:  

• provide financial and technical support to land managers  
• assist with design, planning and plantings  
• increase carbon and biodiversity across the Riverina.

Project background

Carbon planting helps:

• secure the health of land
• unlock new income streams
• revegetate habitats for threatened species.

Project delivery

Work includes:

• improving on farm biodiversity, sustainability and resilience for landholders
• diversifying income through earning carbon credits for landholders.

Work underway

Applications for grants closed on 30 September.

To learn more about the program objectives, view the grant process or the list of current recipients, please refer to the information below.

Living Carbon Grants

Creating diversity at Koolawarra

On Koolawarra, a 394 ha property near Henty in the Riverina region, the Leitch family have started a 30 ha carbon and biodiversity planting project. 

Through the Living Carbon project, they hope to transition the property from cereal and grain cropping to a more diverse enterprise, including pasture, livestock and carbon projects. This will also allow them to focus on restoring the properties natural assets and reducing its emissions intensity.

Koolawarra contains scattered woodland remnants across the property including along the Mundawaddery Creek line. Historic land management practices and damming of the Creek have reduced much of the remnant native vegetation on the property and subsequent biodiversity. 

Through Living Carbon, 4 sites will be planted with box-gum woodland species to:

• connect the existing woodland and paddock trees to the vegetation adjacent to the property
• create a wildlife corridor that benefits threatened species, including Squirrel Gliders and the Superb Parrot
• benefit future production by providing shade and shelter for livestock
• help offset farm emissions.

They will use the Accounting for Nature standards to measure biodiversity benefits under NV-06: Accounting for Nature and Landcare Native Vegetation Method.

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Video transcript

Living Carbon: ‘Koolawarra’

We have here Koolawarra,

which is 394 hectares, approximately 13 km west of Henty.

And our rainfall, average rainfall is about 400 to 450 ml

Living Carbon is a grants program being delivered through PIPAP.

It provides landholders with financial assistance

with the aim of creating carbon plantings

that will also provide habitat for threatened local species.

So it's been cropped for quite a while and we've had soil sampling done

and realized that you know, that's produced a few problems

and the yields are perhaps not as good as they have been.

And that's the reason we decided really it was a good time to transition

into this more diverse cultivation of the property.

So the planting and then the grazing with the soil carbon project around it.

Virginia Leach was one of the first landholders

in the Riverina to successfully receive a living carbon grant

and we're really excited to see her project get underway.

So we've decided to choose four sites that we can put

approximately 30 hectares of boxgum grassy woodland into.

An environmental planting is a registered

method under the Clean Energy Regulators ACCU scheme.

It involves planting a mixture of native trees and shrubs,

with the aim of establishing a new and permanent forest cover.

On this property we're looking at a 30 hectare carbon planting.

We're going to establish that using two methods.

So we're going to be direct seeding a range of acacia species, over

eight species as well as some Dodonaea or some hot bush, and then in conjunction

with that, to support that direct seeding, which is where we sow the seeds

directly into the ground with a direct seeding machine,

will be doing some tube stock planting.

So the tube stock will be concentrating on the eucalypt species

or the larger overstory species of the site, and that'll allow us

to strategically place them throughout the site to get good spacings.

Projects like Virginia's are registered with the Clean Energy Regulator

to generate carbon credits, which are also known

as ACCUs or Australian Carbon Credit units.

For every tonne of carbon dioxide stored

in the planting The landholder will receive one ACCU.

The landholder can choose to sell the ACCUs

through the carbon market for an added income stream, or they can choose

to hold on to them and contribute them to their farms carbon neutral status.

So Living Carbon aims to demonstrate that carbon plantings can also have

a biodiversity eco benefit which may in turn add value to the price of the ACCUs

This land has been cropped for a really long time, hence

there's not a lot of trees left and cattle particularly,

grazing properties, benefit from the shade, the shelter from the wind.

And these plantings should provide really well that shade and that shelter.

So Riverina Local Land Services is an onground support partner

in the Living Carbon Project.

We provide technical assistance to landholders

so we can help with things like mapping and project design

applying for your grant and the monitoring and reporting requirements.

So as part of the Living Carbon Project,

the project will be registered with accounting for nature

and an environmental account will be developed

to help monitor the biodiversity of the project.

Certainly my experience has been that there has been

a lot of support and a lot of help and I'm really grateful for that.

Yeah, look, this is very exciting for us.

The size and the scale of the carbon plantings is a really exciting thing,

particularly the added benefit

of the corridors that it's creating along the riparian areas on the property.

So yeah, I can't wait to come back in five years time and see how it looks.

So at the moment I'm feeling like I'm really winning

and it's a nice feeling.

Carbon-neutral meat at Eringoarrah Station

Eringoarrah Station covers 7,740 hectares along the Murrumbidgee River. Okeview Pastoral runs grass-fed cattle on the property and is working to make their meat carbon-neutral by fully offsetting emissions.

They are planting trees for carbon and biodiversity across 97 hectares at 6 separate areas. Each site measures between 4.6 and 29.2 hectares. Box-gum woodland species were selected for their ability to stabilise soil and support local wildlife. 

Their aim is for the new trees to: 

• create wildlife corridors that boost local biodiversity and help protect the threatened Superb Parrot.

Okeview Pastoral uses the Accounting for Nature standard to clearly show the positive changes their tree planting project is making for biodiversity and the environment. This method helps them track results over time and prove the real impact of their efforts. 

Diversifying income on Gilgal Station

Gilgal Station, a 3,641-hectare property in the heart of the Riverina near Cootamundra, is undergoing a transformation. Historically mixed farming, the property is now transitioning to a grazing-focused enterprise, with a strong emphasis on regenerative practices and environmental stewardship.

Gilgal Station, in partnership with Impact Ag Australia (IAA), has initiated a 197-hectare carbon and biodiversity planting project which will be assessed using the Accounting for Nature standard to track biodiversity improvements over time.

The planting project aims to show how to integrate:

• carbon sequestration
• biodiversity restoration
• sustainable agriculture.

Funding and partnerships

This project is funded and administered by Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, as a part of NSW Government’s Living Carbon Grants Program.