- Published:
- Friday 1 November 2024 at 9:31 am
The Conservation Regulator has successfully prosecuted a Victorian company and an individual over an illegal tree clearing incident at Glenisla near Hamilton last year.
An excavation company and an individual both pleaded guilty in Hamilton Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday to eight charges arising from the damage and removal of trees and protected flora along a fence line adjoining Glenisla State Forest.
The individual received fines totalling $15,000 and was ordered to pay costs of $7,500 for breaches of the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 and the Forests Act 1958, and the excavation company received fines totalling $10,000 and were ordered to pay costs of $7,500 for breaches of the same acts. Convictions were not recorded.
On 13 March 2023, the individual engaged the excavation company to clear native vegetation in Glenisla State Forest. The company assumed the individual had sought permission to remove the vegetation. The Conservation Regulator received a report of the works and investigated the matter.
The court was told that a fence line was cleared without approval, resulting in the removal of one hundred trees, damage to forty-nine trees and damage or destruction of five flora species listed under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 including Black Wattle, Grass Tree, Sphagnum Moss, Common Fringe Myrtle and Flame Heath.
Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge in sentencing noted the level of damage caused to native vegetation during the offending was not of the highest degree the court had seen. However, the fact that the offending stretched over two kilometres and involved protected flora and removal or damage to several significant sized trees meant that the sentence needed to be of a level to deter the offences.
Quotes attributable to Conservation Regulator, Manager Regulatory Operations, Barwon South West Glenn Sharp:
“This court outcome sends a strong message to discourage people from illegally felling trees or damaging other vegetation.
Updated