The terrain is steep, rising from approximately 450 metres at the homestead, to over 900 metres along the northern boundary. While there are some river flats, most of the country is rocky, making the ground unviable for grazing or cropping in its own right.
Why were the trees cleared in the first place? While the actual reasons are lost to history, the ancient trees that once existed were most likely felled as part of a soldier settlement program after World War I, and to also provide timber and fuel for mining activities in nearby Cassilis.
What’s Your Vision?
Our vision is to establish a new permanent native forest for the benefit of generations to come. The trees will filter and clean the air and water, soak up carbon, prevent erosion, and provide food and shelter to insects and animals.
This is no easy task. Sometimes it feels marvellous, other times madness. But this we know… each stem we plant is one small step in the right direction as we change the world one tree at a time.
What’s Happened So Far?
Carriage Range was purchased in mid 2018. The first twelve months was spent planning and preparing for planting. In late Spring of 2019 we planted approximately 185,000 trees, however this proved to be most unfortunate timing given the drought (December that year was the driest on record) and fires that burnt to boundary fence that year. It was devastating to see many of the trees that we’d planted die.
We didn’t give up though. We regrouped and re-strategised, made changes to our plans and protocols. In the years since we have planted hundreds of thousands of trees topping up where survival was low, and in new country not previously planted. Our experience over the past three years couldn’t be more different to 2019 – wetter than normal and excellent growing conditions.
What’s To Come?
In addition to managing the 300,000+ trees already in the ground, we plan to plant another 100,000 stems in May/June 2023, with more planting in 2024 and 2025.
Our management and maintenance footprint increases as we plant more territory, and this consumes more and more time, labour and resources. It’s a large task, but with your help and support, we’re well placed to succeed.
How To Play Your Part
You are warmly invited to support and partner with us on this project. You can participate by sponsoring trees, cancelling your carbon, and / or volunteering.
If you have any questions then please email [email protected]