Commonwealth Compliance Teams and What it May Mean for Landholders in Queensland

When Tanya Plibersek was Minister for the Environment and Water, there was the suggestion that there should only be a single level of Environmental Compliance with the Commonwealth being that single level.

While the Commonwealth has always played a role in vegetation management….most notably with Matters of National Environmental Significance (MNES) and Threatened Ecological Communities (TECs), the Commonwealth has quietly expanded their authority with vegetation compliance at state level.

It’s not well known that the Commonwealth now has a number compliance teams on the ground investigating alleged vegetation clearing. Previously, their areas of concern focused on MNES and TEC’s, however it would appear now that the Commonwealth are investigating and issuing fines and rehabilitation orders on any vegetation clearing that has been reported to them.

The Commonwealth may use State mapping as a guide, but they have their own set of rules which are not clear or well documented.

Keep in mind that the Commonwealth doesn’t recognize PMAV’s where there is TEC or MNES vegetation, doesn’t differentiate between Cat C (High Value Regrowth), Cat B (Remnant) or even unmapped regrowth Cat X. From discussions with members of their compliance teams, my biggest concern is that as far as they are concerned, ANY vegetation that contains Koala food trees (ie Eucalypts), mapped or not, regrowth, remnant or Cat X…. can’t be touched because “it’s Koala Habitat”. 

Just recently, a landholder from the broader SE Qld region contacted me because someone reported to the Commonwealth that he was illegally clearing vegetation….that someone was the Local Government…..but more on that later.

Before I get right into this, I’ll set the scene:
• The property in question was a large rectangular block
• Over 1,000ha in center of the block was Cat X and PMAV’d with mid dense retained mature Eucalypts.
• Around the perimeter of the block were corridors of remnant eucalypt woodland mapped as Cat B with the blue hashed Essential Habitat overlay for Koala (see map).
• On the north of block was a small watercourse and  an area of Blue Gum on Alluvial Flats (see red circled area on the map). Under the Commonwealths legislation, forest blue-gum on alluvial near a watercourse is a Threatened Ecological Community (TEC). This was mapped as Cat X and PMAV’d as well.
• As is common on many properties in the region, Lantana is a major issue.
• The landholder wanted to get a small dozer in to push up the lantana and burn it so he could then control it by chemical means. He did not want to clear ANY trees.
• Just to make sure he was doing everything legally, he contacted the Department of Resources. He had it in writing that he could clear everything that was Cat X, but as he said to them in the email, “The stock needs the trees for shade so I’m not touching a single tree…..just the lantana”. 
• He then went to the Local Government to make sure he wasn’t breaking any local laws (despite State Govt overriding any local vegetation laws). He had it in writing from the Local Government that as it was Cat X, they had no concerns. A MAJOR point here….after he left the Local Govt office, it was the LG environment officer who reported him to the Commonwealth for intent to clear Koala habitat. The LG is NOT your friend….more on this in the next Blog.
• At the same time, he was pushing the lantana (this was in October ), a zoo  / Koala sanctuary contacted the landowner to ask if they could harvest Eucalypt branches for their population of Koala. His response….”go for it”.
• The landholder pushed up the lantana on the Eucalypt country as well as the lantana on the alluvial blue gum flats.
• No native vegetation was touched on the watercourse at all. Not a single native tree or shrub was touched in the Eucalypt woodland, in the blue gum on alluvial and most certainly, no vegetation at all (including weeds) in the Cat B with blue Koala overlay was touched.
• In February the following year (5 months later), the landowner gets a very disturbing letter from the Commonwealth telling him he is to be investigated for illegal land clearing and that substantial fines may apply as well as a rehabilitation order.
At the end of February, four people from the Commonwealth organized a property visit to “investigate the illegal clearing of Koala habitat” …..despite not a single native species being cleared. Of those four, two were Commonwealth Vegetation Compliance Officers and two were supposedly ecologists.

They walked the entire block with me as the ecologist representing the landholder as well as the landholder himself. They photographed everything and took copious notes……BUT…..they never even walked through or went near the blue gum on alluvial flats that was the TEC…..which should have been their prime concern.

During the walk through, I saw on the ground a very recently deceased Yellow-Footed Antechinus. The two ecologists pounced on it and proclaimed….” see what land clearing does…..it kills the wildlife”. I very happily informed them that the lantana control was completed in October, this was now end of February and that the deceased Yellow-Footed Antechinus had died only an hour before. I then turned the still limp animal upside down and showed them the extended ball -sack / scrotum and explained that the male Antechinus only has one good shag a year and dies while doing the deed. As ecologists, they should know this.

The four Commonwealth people spent all day on site. They photographed everything and took copious notes, but never once ventured on to the Forest Blue-Gum on Alluvial……which should have been their only reason for being on the property as it was the TEC.

I asked them a number of times why they were investigating PMAV’d grazing country that wasn’t a TEC and were focusing on grazing lands. Despite asking the question numerous times, they declined to answer, until the end of the day when I pressed them for a response……and here is their very concerning response; “Any vegetation that the Commonwealth feels is Koala habitat or contains Koala food trees, irrespective of it being PMAV Cat X, is protected and cannot be cleared….not a single tree”. I then stood there and waved my arms to the broader cleared country and posed the statement / question, “ so all this surrounding cleared country with dotted trees, is, in the Commonwealths opinion, Koala habitat and cannot be maintained? Their response “well….yes….its Koala habitat”.

Before the Commonwealth people left, I asked another question (not expecting to get an answer). I asked, “who reported the landholder for alleged land-clearing”. Surprisingly, they openly said that it was Local Government who reported the landholder……this was despite the LG putting it in writing they had no concerns with what the landholder was planning to do. More on Local Government is my next Blog.

The clincher to this is that it took the Commonwealth many months to get back to the landholder…..many months where the 80 year old gentleman sweated out it out on what was going to happen to him. The letter the Commonwealth sent back months later told him he was not in breach of any Commonwealth legislation……..however, “we would like you to consider putting the property under a vegetation protection order”. My response to the Commonwealth was less polite.
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