Natural Gas Authority Act 1967

The Minister may grant the Authority a lease (a pipeline lease) of land of the Crown over which a leasehold interest had been created (in favour of the Authority or some other person) before 1 July 1993.

A pipeline lease must be in the form prescribed by the regulations.

A pipeline lease is taken to be a perpetual lease under the Crown Lands Act 1929.

The holder of a pipeline lease is entitled to reasonable access (with vehicles and equipment) to the land comprised in the lease across land that separates the land comprised in the lease from the nearest public road, the servient land or land comprised in another pipeline lease.

If a pipeline lease is granted over land already subject to a lease or licence under the Crown Lands Act 1929 or the Pastoral Land Management and Conservation Act 1989 (a Crown tenement), the grant of the pipeline lease operates to resume the land subject to the pipeline lease from the land comprised in the earlier Crown tenement (without however giving rise to any right to compensation).

If a pipeline lease is granted over land of the Crown that has been dedicated for a particular purpose, the grant revokes the dedication to the extent that it relates to land subject to the lease.

However, the Minister may, by instrument in writing, exclude land from the operation of subsection (5) or (6).

If a pipeline lease is granted over land excluded from the operation of subsection (5) (excluded land), the grant of the pipeline lease does not operate as a resumption of the excluded land, but the holder of the excluded land that is subject to the pipeline lease holds the land as a sub-tenant of the lessee under the pipeline lease on the same terms as the land was held from the Crown.

A pipeline lease cannot be assigned or dealt with in any other way without the approval of the Minister; but if the Minister approves the assignment or other dealing, no further consent or approval is required.

The Registrar-General must, on application by an interested person accompanied by documents required by the Registrar-General, record transactions under this section in the Register of Crown Leases.

The rights conferred by a pipeline lease, or by this section, on the holder of a pipeline lease, are subordinate to rights relating to the pipeline subject to Pipeline Licence No. 2 under the Petroleum Act 1940.