South west of Cobar, in the semi-arid rangelands of NSW, Kia Ora is home to a family-run grazing enterprise and abundant native wildlife that is flourishing thanks to its native forest protection project.

Kia Ora is classed as highly ecologically significant due to species on the land that are vulnerable to local extinction, so by choosing to protect important areas of native forest the Whytcross family are boosting the local ecosystem as well as their own business.

The income from the carbon project has enabled the investment in infrastructure and cleaning up areas of the property that had been overrun with invasive native scrub. Now restored to biodiverse forested grassland, native wildlife has returned including lizards, red, grey and black kangaroos, Mulga parrots, grass parrots, honey eaters, bower birds and stubble quail.

The return of grasses to the property also benefits the grazing enterprise, which is now carefully managed with rotational grazing, while improved water infrastructure and equipment funded by the carbon project has increased productivity.

Paul and Donna Whytcross have supported their local community and local businesses in their reinvestment into the property and now also employ someone to help manage both the project and their day to day running of their property.

“If we don’t look after and manage the land we have nothing to hand on to the next generation” Paul said. “With our carbon project, we can run our stock more conservatively to avoid pushing the land too hard, and it’s incredible to see the wildlife that’s returned. As far as we’re concerned our carbon project has been a good thing for us, a good thing for the environment and a good thing for the district in which we live.”