Local Land Services Act 2013

This section applies to an area of the State to which this Part applies during the period from the commencement of this Part until the area has been designated on a native vegetation regulatory map (the transitional period).

For the purposes of this Part, the area is taken, during the transitional period, to be—

category 1-exempt land, if this Part requires the land to be designated as category 1-exempt land on the native vegetation regulatory map, or

category 2-regulated land, if this Part requires the land to be designated as category 2-regulated land on the native vegetation regulatory map (except as provided by paragraph (c)), or

category 2-vulnerable regulated land, if the land is designated on a transitional native vegetation regulatory map published by the Environment Agency Head as steep or highly erodible land, as protected riparian land or as special category land.

For the purposes of this Part, an area is taken, during the transitional period, to be low conservation value grasslands if it comprises only groundcover whose clearing was permitted by section 20 of the Native Vegetation Act 2003, as in force immediately before the repeal of that Act.

A provision of this Part that determines the relevant categorisation of land by reference to a reasonable belief of the Environment Agency Head about a particular matter is to be construed, for the purposes of this section, as a reference to what a reasonable person would believe about the matter.

The Environment Agency Head may, in connection with any legal proceedings against a landholder, issue a certificate that the land described in the certificate is (for the reasons set out in the certificate) category 1-exempt land or category 2-regulated land (including category 2-vulnerable regulated land). The certificate is, in those legal proceedings, prima facie evidence of the category of the land during the transitional period.

The regulations may make further provision with respect to the application of this Part during the transitional period, including—

provisions applying to the identification of low conservation value grasslands, and

the issue of certificates by the Environment Agency Head, at the request of a landholder, as to the relevant categorisation of land, and

the preparation and publication of draft native vegetation regulatory maps for the purposes of the publication of maps at the end of the transitional period and the application of provisions of this Part in relation to those draft maps.