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Australia was one of the world's earliest adopters of carbon farming incentives via its 2011 Carbon Farming Initiative, with rangelands at the forefront of project development. Since that time, policy incentives for rangeland carbon sequestration have been introduced from Canada to China and the European Union has embraced the language of carbon farming. So, what has Australia learnt in the past 15 years that could provide insights for other countries embarking on their rangeland carbon journey? This paper traces the history of Australian carbon policy and presents perspectives from diverse stakeholders based on interview data collected through five research projects undertaken between 2009 and 2025. This analysis maps the changing issues and attitudes amongst rangeland landholders, government agency staff, researchers and the carbon industry. One notable trend apparent in the interview data is the way that concerns raised by landholders in earlier interviews, such as long commitment periods, taxation rules and inflexible trading rules were addressed through subsequent policy adaptation, only to be replaced by new concerns such as absenteeism, sequestration shortfalls or credit integrity. Whilst these concerns have evolved over time, the interviews also provide a record of carbon farming's progression from a potential income stream to a reality for many landholders, with reported benefits for economic resilience, sustainable land management and socio-cultural wellbeing. Amidst all this change, one factor that has been a constant throughout is the perception that carbon farming is a complex activity facing considerable uncertainty relating to biophysical outcomes, market conditions and policy shifts. These lessons may help other countries to anticipate issues that could emerge as their own carbon industries mature and design carbon farming policy proactively rather than reactively.