Mid North producers takes up carbon project

Across their 4600 hectare property used predominantly as a cropping enterprise the Nottle family have zoned off 20 hectares to be utilised for the project.

Farmer Shaun Nottle said they were doing 20ha of their holding because of the way the world governments are leaning.

"You have got to have carbon credits or you will be taxed out of existence," he said.

"I really wanted to get into a biochar plant as I think long term that'll be the only way I can sequester enough carbon as a farmer.

"But I like planting trees so it's just a bonus."

They first engaged with planning their carbon project in October 2021 which included consultation with the family, lawyers and the accountant.

Mr Nottle's cousin Janne Hoepner, Nantawarra, said the family and lawyers were all on the same wavelength to be sustainable so the 25 year length contract was not much of a concern.

They then submitted their project to the federal climate change, energy, the environment and water department who undertook aerial images to determine sustainable regions and areas which were suitable to be planted.

The Northern and Yorke Landscape Board then assisted in the project through conducting an inspection and determined the native vegetation and advised the family where they had to avoid plantings.

"We went around in consultation with them so that we weren't actually depleting the natural grasses," Ms Hoepner said.

"We avoided those areas and then went with the direct seed.

"We will keep monitoring it and then every year, we need to report to the Clean Energy Regulator regarding the growth, the status, if we've had any mortality, and all that.

"Each year we will report on how it's going and the effectiveness of the project."

She said they take photos of the site with height markers they have set up.

"They are all at a certain height, so then we'll do exactly the same location the following year, and you'll be able to see once they are growing the increase in the sizes," she said.

Ms Hoepner said the plantings included a mixture of common species native to the area of trees, shrubs and ground cover.

She said the paperwork side of the project was a long haul.

"It is a regulatory body - we had to go through the Clean Energy Reguator," she said.

"It's just the legal side of making sure we've got all the leases and applications and legal entities and that we're not crossing over on anything with power lines or aboriginal rights.

"But if we do end up with credits from the project we will keep them - we did have the option with a 25 year plan if we wanted to market and sell them and that was where some of the legal advice also came into it."

She said she would recommend speaking to as many people as you could, from the legal side of carbon farming, before taking the leap.

"The application process was quite daunting and took around eight months but we got there in the end," she said.

Ms Hoepner said once the project was signed off they had nine months to finish the project.

"We can have an extension for whatever reason if it's beyond our control, whether it's weather or having to replant - which we're hoping not to," she said.

"The program needs to be a bit longer in the timeline from once you commence because the nine months is quite a short period to be able to get organized and to work around rain events to get the best effective outcome.

"Ultimately we want the trees to grow and not to be to struggling with the weather and unfortunately this year is not great with rain naturally - so we will see how we go."

She said she would recommend speaking to as many people as you could, from the legal side of carbon farming, before taking the leap.

Mr Nottle said the area had been fenced off and was an exclusion zone to the rest of their everyday farming.

"The main area where we planted the trees, we used to run cows up there, but now that we've decided to do a carbon project, it's just all fenced off," he said.

"I sprayed out the areas where the direct seeding was going to go and the fencing was done by Steve Heinjus so hopefully nothing can get in there.

"Hopefully the rabbits will stay out as well.

"In the long run, we're hoping to get carbon credits out of it to offset whatever the future governments do."

The Carbon Series was produced in collaboration with the Australian Science Media Centre with support from the META Public Interest Journalism Fund administered by the Walkley Foundation.