This web site has been designed principally for use by farmers, growers and students. Those wishing to know more about potential investment opportunities in the industry are welcome to contact the Oil Mallee Company for further information.

The Oil Mallee Project aims to develop an industry that will produce eucalyptus oil, charcoal, activated carbon and 'green electricity' as bulk industrial products from selected eucalypt species across a range of Wheatbelt conditions.

The project is based on the assumption that the fastest way to increase the rate of planting Oil Mallees in a bid to address land degradation issues, is to make it profitable to do so.

The focus on Oil Mallees as a potentially commercial crop is the product of a careful and deliberate screening of options. There are broad limitations to the development of commercial farm forestry in the WA Wheatbelt.
The low rainfall, high evaporation rates, incidence of frost and the ancient soils of the area will limit the species selection and lengthen the rotation in much of the landscape.

The Oil Mallee project was initiated by CALM in 1994 with support from the National Landcare and Farm Forestry Programs. A more formal growers representative body was necessary and the Oil Mallee Association (OMA) was formed in 1995. In 1997 the OMA formed the Oil Mallee Company of Australia (OMC) to more effectively deal with the technical and commercial issues facing the emerging industry, such as harvest, extraction and marketing.

The Oil Mallee Project has target plantings of 500 million mallees, to be planted over 1 million hectares, by the year 2025. This is approximately 1/3 of the revegetation target set by the State Salinity Council in The Salinity Strategy (March 2000). 3 million hectares is suggested as being the minimum area of revegetation needed to have an impact on the spread of salinity. This target will be continually reviewed in the light of new information.