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This Act may be cited as the Border Fence Maintenance Act 1921 and shall come into force on a date to be notified by the Governor in the Gazette.
This Act shall apply to the Western Division only.
Unless the context otherwise requires:
Authorised person means a person authorised by the Commissioner or the board.
Board means the Border Fence Maintenance Board constituted under this Act.
Commissioner means the person appointed under section 3AA to exercise the functions of the Commissioner for the purposes of this Act.
Dog-proof fence means a fence which is sufficient for the exclusion of wild dogs.
Occupier means person entitled for the time being to possession of land, and includes the resident manager where the occupier does not reside on the land.
Owner includes:
the holder, or the holder subject to mortgage, of any lease or licence, or promise of any lease or licence, from the Crown, and
a person to whom the Crown has contracted to sell land under the Crown Lands Acts, and
persons for the time being in the authorised charge or possession of land.
Queensland Border Fence means the fence known by that name and erected on or near the northern border of New South Wales and extending from or near the western border of New South Wales at its junction with the said northern border for approximately 349 kilometres easterly to a point approximately 16 kilometres east of Hungerford, other than such portion of the fence as may, from time to time, be determined by the board and notified in the Gazette.
South Australian Border Fence means the fence known by that name and erected on or near the western border of New South Wales and extending from or near the northern border of New South Wales at its junction with the said western border for approximately 257 kilometres southerly, other than such portion of the fence as may, from time to time, be determined by the board and notified in the Gazette.
Western Division means that part of the State that is the Western Division within the meaning of the Crown Land Management Act 2016.
Wild dog includes any dingo or native dog, or any dog which has become wild, or any dog which apparently has no owner and is not under control.
Note—
The Interpretation Act 1987 contains definitions and other provisions that affect the interpretation and application of this Act.
Notes included in this Act do not form part of this Act.
The Minister may appoint a person to exercise the functions of the Commissioner for the purposes of this Act.
The Minister may revoke an appointment under this section at any time or for any reason.
A person appointed under this section (except a person who is an employee of a government sector agency within the meaning of the Government Sector Employment Act 2013) is entitled to be paid the remuneration (including travelling and subsistence allowances) that the Minister may from time to time determine in respect of the person.
There shall be constituted for the purposes of this Act a Border Fence Maintenance Board.
The board shall be a body corporate under the name of “The Border Fence Maintenance Board” with perpetual succession and a common seal and shall be capable by that name of suing and being sued and, subject to this Act, of purchasing, holding, granting, demising, disposing of or otherwise dealing with real and personal property and of doing and suffering all such other acts and things as bodies corporate may by law do and suffer.
All courts and persons having by law or consent of parties authority to hear, receive, and examine evidence shall take judicial notice of the seal of the board affixed to any document and shall, until the contrary is proved, presume that such seal was properly affixed thereto.
The board cannot employ any staff.
Note—
Staff may be employed under Chapter 1A of the Public Sector Employment and Management Act 2002 in the Government Service to enable the board to exercise its functions.
The board shall consist of six members.
The Commissioner shall be a member and the chairperson of the board. During such time as the Commissioner is prevented by absence, illness or otherwise from acting in the office of chairperson of the board a person to be nominated by the Commissioner shall act as chairperson of the board and while so acting the person shall be deemed to be a member of the board and shall have the powers, authorities, duties and functions of the chairperson.
The remaining members (hereinafter referred to as appointed members) shall be appointed by the Governor. Of the members so appointed:
3 are to be appointed on the nomination of Local Land Services,
(Repealed)
one shall be appointed on the nomination of the Pastoralists’ Association of West Darling,
one shall be appointed on the nomination of the New South Wales Farmers’ Association Western Division Council.
No person shall be nominated or appointed as a member of the board unless that person is ordinarily resident in the Western Division and is ordinarily engaged in pastoral pursuits on land within that Division.
The provisions of the Public Sector Management Act 1988 shall not apply to or in respect of the appointment of any member of the board, and any such member shall not, in his or her capacity as such member, be subject to the provisions of that Act during his or her term of office.
If the association or council specified in subsection (5) (d) or (e) is dissolved or ceases to exist (or any body which has in accordance with the provisions of this subsection been substituted for any such association or council ceases to exist):
the Minister may, by notice published in the Gazette, declare that some other body specified in the notice (being a body which, in the opinion of the Minister, has similar objects or represents similar interests to those of or represented by the association, council or body for which it is being substituted) is to be substituted for the association, council or body concerned, and
subsection (5) is to be taken to have been amended by deleting the name of the association, council or body and by inserting instead the name of the body so substituted.
An appointed member shall, subject to this Act, hold office for the term specified in the instrument of appointment (not exceeding 3 years) and shall, if otherwise qualified, be eligible for reappointment.
(Repealed)
Meetings of the board shall be held at such times and at such places as are from time to time determined by the chairperson but a meeting of the board shall be held not less than once in every three months.
A quorum of the board shall consist of the chairperson of the board or the person authorised by subsection (4) to act as chairperson and two other members of the board.
The chairperson of the board or in the chairperson’s absence the person authorised by subsection (4) to act as chairperson shall preside at all meetings of the board and, in the event of an equality of votes, shall have a casting vote as well as a deliberative vote.
No act or proceeding of the board shall be invalidated or prejudiced by reason only of the fact that, at the time such act or proceeding was done, taken or commenced, there was a vacancy in the office of any appointed member.
The appointed members shall be entitled to receive such fees and travelling or other expenses as the Minister may from time to time determine.
A person nominated by the Commissioner under subsection (4) is entitled, while acting in the office of the chairperson, to receive such fees and travelling or other expenses as the Minister may from time to time determine.
Where any statutory corporation, association, council or body entitled to make a nomination under section 3A does not forward such nomination so as to reach the Minister within the time limited by a notice forwarded to such statutory corporation, association, council or body by the Minister and requiring it to make such nomination the Minister may make such nomination which shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to have been made by such statutory corporation, association, council or body, as the case may be.
An appointed member shall be deemed to have vacated office if the member:
dies,
resigns the office by instrument in writing addressed to the Minister,
is absent from three consecutive meetings of the board, of which reasonable notice has been given to the member either personally or in the ordinary course of post, except on leave granted by the board,
is convicted of a serious indictable offence,
becomes a temporary patient, a continued treatment patient, a protected person or an incapable person within the meaning of the Mental Health Act 1958 or a person under detention under Part 7 of that Act,
becomes bankrupt, applies to take the benefit of any law for the relief of bankrupt or insolvent debtors, compounds with his or her creditors or makes an assignment of his or her remuneration for their benefit, or
ceases to hold office pursuant to subsection (2).
The Governor may:
upon a request to do so being made to the Governor by any board, association, council or body on whose nomination any member was appointed to the board, or by any body which has in accordance with the provisions of subsection (8) of section 3A been substituted for any such board, association, council or body, remove that member from office,
for any other cause which appears to the Governor to be sufficient remove any member, other than the chairperson, from office.
Where a casual vacancy occurs in the office of a member appointed by the Governor, the Governor may appoint a person to the vacant office. The person so appointed shall be appointed on the nomination of the statutory corporation, association, council or body on whose nomination the member whose office has become vacant was appointed, or where any body has in accordance with the provisions of section 3A (8) been substituted for any such statutory corporation, association, council or body, on the nomination of the body so substituted, and shall, subject to this Act, hold office for the term specified in the instrument of appointment (not exceeding 3 years).
Where the board has failed or neglected to make or levy rates as required by this Act or otherwise to exercise or discharge its powers, authorities, duties and functions under this Act in any material respect, the Governor may, by proclamation published in the Gazette, remove all the members of the board from office as such members.
Where the Governor has pursuant to subsection (1) removed the members of the board from office, the Governor may, by proclamation at the same or any subsequent time, appoint an administrator who shall have the powers, authorities, duties, functions and liabilities of the board and who shall be paid out of the Border Fence Maintenance Fund established by this Act such salary as the Governor may from time to time determine.
At any time after the appointment of an administrator as aforesaid, the Governor may in accordance with and subject to the provisions of section 3A appoint the persons to be appointed as members of the board under subsection (5) of that section and thereupon:
the Commissioner shall resume office as a member and the chairperson of the board, and
the administrator shall cease to hold office as such.
The board may, with the approval of the Minister of the Department concerned, and on such terms as may be agreed upon, arrange:
for the carrying out by such Department or by an officer or employee of such Department of any administrative work required or authorised by or under this Act to be carried out by the board or for the compiling and keeping of any records (including the rate-book to be kept by the board under section 13) necessary for the purposes of the board, and
for the purposes of this Act to have access to and make use of any records or documents kept or held by any such Department.
The board may delegate to any member or employee of the board any of its powers, authorities, duties and functions (other than the power conferred on the board by this subsection) and any such member or employee may exercise and perform such of the board’s powers, authorities, duties and functions as may have been so delegated to the member or employee.
Notwithstanding any such delegation the board may continue to exercise and perform any of the powers, authorities, duties and functions so delegated.
The board may at any time revoke any such delegation.
On and from the commencement of the Wild Dog Destruction (Amendment) Act 1957 the following provisions shall have effect:
All property (in this section referred to as transferred property) whether real or personal, which immediately before that commencement was held by the Commissioner for the purposes of this Act shall vest in and belong to the board for such purposes.
All moneys, liquidated and unliquidated claims which immediately before that commencement, were payable to or recoverable by the Commissioner under this Act shall be moneys, liquidated and unliquidated claims payable to or recoverable by the board.
All suits, actions and proceedings pending immediately before that commencement at the suit of the Commissioner in relation to any matters under this Act or the transferred property or any part thereof shall respectively be suits, actions and proceedings pending at the suit of the board.
All contracts, agreements and undertakings entered into for the purposes of this Act with the Commissioner and in force immediately before that commencement shall respectively be deemed to be contracts, agreements and undertakings entered into with the board.
The board may pursue the same remedies for the recovery of any such moneys and claims and for the prosecution of such suits, actions and proceedings as the Commissioner might have done but for the Wild Dog Destruction (Amendment) Act 1957.
All debts due and moneys payable by, and all claims, liquidated or unliquidated, recoverable against the Commissioner solely in relation to any matter under this Act or the transferred property or any part thereof shall be debts due and moneys payable by and claims recoverable against the board.
Every person who immediately before that commencement was an employee of the Commissioner employed under this Act shall upon that commencement become an employee of the board.
The period of service with the Commissioner of any person who by virtue of this paragraph becomes an employee of the board shall be deemed to be service with the board for the purposes of the terms and conditions, relating to annual leave, sick leave or long service leave, of any staff agreement or of any award or agreement made under the Industrial Arbitration Act 1940, or for the purposes of the Annual Holidays Act 1944 or the Long Service Leave Act 1955.
Any such person shall not be entitled to claim benefits under this Act as well as under any other Act in respect of the same period of service.
The board may for the purpose of maintaining an efficient barrier against wild dogs enter or authorise any authorised person to enter upon any land in the vicinity of the Queensland Border Fence or the South Australian Border Fence and erect thereon a dog-proof fence or convert any existing fence into a dog-proof fence and maintain or repair such fence.