Soil Conservation Act 1986

The chief executive may, in accordance with an approved project plan, give a soil conservation order to an owner, or where the owner is not in occupation then the occupier, within the project area requiring that person to undertake, construct and maintain in or on the person’s land the soil conservation measures specified in the order.

Without limiting the generality of the provision of subsection (1) a soil conservation order may require the person to whom it is given to take action—

to prevent or mitigate the erosion, drift or movement of soil or water on or from land specified in the order;

to remove, alter or repair a bank, channel, ditch, vegetation or other thing whether constructed, excavated or accumulated by nature or by the act of humans or to refrain from the construction, excavation or accumulation of the bank, channel, ditch, vegetation or other thing;

to undertake, construct, excavate, or maintain soil conservation measures which in the opinion of the chief executive are necessary for the effective implementation of soil conservation;

to do or take any other step which is required to be done or taken by the person to comply with the approved project plan.

A soil conservation order shall specify the period of time within which all the matters specified in the order shall be completed and may require any of those matters to be done under the supervision of a delegate of the chief executive.

A soil conservation order binds not only the owner, or where the owner is not in occupation the occupier, to whom it is given but also every other person who subsequently becomes the owner, or where the owner is not in occupation the occupier, of the land in question whether or not he or she had or would be deemed in law to have had notice of the existence of the order.

Where a person fails to comply with a soil conservation order the chief executive may do or cause to be done such acts as, in the chief executive’s opinion are necessary to fully comply with the order and, if the chief executive does so, the person who failed to comply with the order shall be liable (and in the case of more than 1 person, jointly and severally liable) to pay to the chief executive the expenses incurred by the chief executive in effecting compliance with the order and those expenses together with the legal costs of recovering those expenses may be recovered as a debt at the suit of the chief executive in a court of competent jurisdiction or by way of complaint under the Justices Act 1886.

The fact that the chief executive undertook or constructed or, on occasion, maintained works shall not absolve the person to whom a soil conservation order is given of the duty, imposed by this section, to maintain those works.

Notwithstanding subsections (5) and (5A), where a person fails to comply with a soil conservation order the chief executive may apply to the Supreme Court for an order or an injunction directing that person to comply with or, as the case may be, to refrain from contravening the order.

For the purposes of an application made pursuant to subsection (6) the chief executive shall be deemed to possess a sufficient interest or right in law to support the granting of such a remedy.