Water Act 2000

This section applies if, immediately before the commencement—

a person is carrying out destruction of vegetation in a watercourse, lake or spring under one of the following documents approved by the chief executive (the activity guidelines)—

the document called ‘Guideline—Activities in a watercourse, lake or spring carried out by an entity’;

the document called ‘Guideline—Activities in a watercourse, lake or spring associated with a resource activity or mining operations’;

the document called ‘Guideline—Activities in a watercourse, lake or spring carried out by a landowner’;

the document called ‘Guideline—Activities in a watercourse or lake undertaken by a holder of an interim resource operations licence, resource operations licence or distribution operations licence’; and

there is no development approval for the destruction; and

the destruction is not a destruction activity for which—

a permit has been issued to the person under section 269(1); or

the person has applied, under section 266, for a permit that has not been issued under section 269(1).

From the commencement—

the destruction is taken to be assessable development for which a development approval has been granted; and

the area of vegetation is taken to be the land to which the development approval is attached; and

the development approval has effect as if it were a development approval for the destruction; and

any requirement of the activity guidelines takes effect as if it were a development condition of the development approval.