Land clearing fine reduced

His fine was reduced to $30,000 and the judged ruled that there had been no environmental harm and that there had been minimal improvement to the property’s value.

The 43-year-old agronomist and retailer originally pleaded guilty to two charges of carrying out assessable development without a permit contrary to a section of the Integrated Planning Act 1997 when he cleared native vegetation on leasehold land at Alpha station, Wyandra on two occasions, in 2007 and again in 2009.

A dejected Mr Hindman described the decision as rushed and said he had hoped for a more considered opinion that took into account the wider implications of vegetation management laws.

“Fair enough, I rushed in and did the development work without a permit, but the judge did the same,” he said.

Part of his appeal arsenal was a 51 page report prepared by woodland ecologist Dr Bill Burrows, which he said “tore the arguments by the government officers to shreds”.

Three specialist reports were submitted at the 2011 court hearing in Charleville by state government botanists, including a biodiversity report undertaken by a desktop assessment.

At the time they were roundly criticised by Property Rights Australia chairman Joanne Rea, who described the $110,000 fine for renovating country degraded by Turkey Bush (Eremophila Gilesii) so that native grasses could be allowed to regrow, as showing the unacceptable activism of some government officers.

Ms Rea this week said the appeal to the original prosecution was a “hangover from a dark period in the history of Queensland where landholders had good reason not to trust their own state government”.

She said the case again demonstrated the undesirability of the use of desktop studies in prosecutions, and added that the deterrent fine of $30,000 was a large sum of money for most cattle producers.

Mr Hindman, who lives in Brisbane and has the 40,000 acre mulga block leased, said the amount, although substantially reduced, would be a “catastrophic” amount to pay in the current climate for most cattlemen.

“When I bought it I capped the bore, did a bit of fencing and was working on improvements.

“It all just ground to a halt when this happened. I had a go at doing things and I just couldn’t get anywhere.”

He said the judgement raised bigger issues going forward, and wondered when people would take the time to understand what landholders see daily.

“I think the judge should have taken the time to study the report we prepared and found that there have been injustices done to all landholders by the Vegetation Management Act.”