Crown Lands Act 1976

Crown Lands Act 1976

This Act may be cited as the Crown Lands Act 1976.

This Act shall commence on a date to be fixed by proclamation.

In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears –

assigned land means – land occupied by or on behalf of the Crown; and land assigned to the Crown under section 46;

biological diversity means the variety of – plants, animals and micro-organisms; and the genes contained in plants, animals and micro-organisms; and the ecosystems of which plants, animals and micro-organisms form part;

Conservation Management Trust means a Conservation Management Trust established under section 12I;

contract means an agreement entered into between a purchaser of Crown land and the Minister under this Act or Commissioner of Crown Lands under any previous Act for the sale and purchase of the land mentioned in the agreement;

Crown land means land which is vested in the Crown, and which is not contracted to be granted in fee simple; and includes land granted in fee simple which has revested in the Crown by way of purchase or otherwise;

Director-General means the Director-General of Lands appointed pursuant to section 7;

geological diversity means the natural range of geological, geomorphological and soil features, assemblages, systems and processes;

improvements means all work done and materials used on or for the benefit of any land which visibly and effectively improves or increases the value of the land;

land includes land covered by the sea or other waters, and the part of the sea or those waters covering that land;

management plan has the meaning assigned to that expression by section 12C(5);

managing authority, in relation to any Crown land reserved as a public reserve, means the managing authority for that land pursuant to section 12G;

mining operations means mining operations within the meaning of the Mineral Resources Development Act 1995;

mining right means any right accruing – under the Mineral Resources Development Act 1995 to the holder of a mineral tenement within the meaning of that Act; and to any person who has made an application under section 70 or 96 of the Mineral Resources Development Act 1995;

Portfolio Department means the State instrumentality that has the primary responsibility for controlling or managing portfolio land;

portfolio land means Crown land, the control and management of which is the primary responsibility of a State instrumentality other than the Department;

Portfolio Minister, in relation to any portfolio land, means the Minister responsible for the State instrumentality that has the primary responsibility for controlling or managing that land;

prescribed body means – a public authority having jurisdiction over the locality in which the Crown land reserved as a public reserve is located; or a body corporate – whose objectives or purposes in the opinion of the Minister are primarily conservation purposes; and that in the opinion of the Minister has a structure and capacity to effectively exercise the functions of a managing authority; or a Conservation Management Trust;

public authority has the same meaning as in the National Parks and Reserves Management Act 2002;

public reserve means Crown land that has been reserved to the Crown as a public reserve under section 8;

purposes of reservation, in relation to any Crown land reserved as a public reserve, means the purposes for which that land was reserved;

resource management and planning system objectives means the objectives of the resource management and planning system of Tasmania as set out in Schedule 3;

rural land means land used for agricultural, pastoral, horticultural, viticultural, forestry, growing of trees for commercial or industrial purposes, or for any other purpose of primary production;

State instrumentality means – a Government department within the meaning of the State Service Act 2000; and a State authority within the meaning of the State Service Act 2000;

statutory power has the same meaning as in the National Parks and Reserves Management Act 2002;

works includes the following:any change to the natural or existing condition or topography of land; any building work within the meaning of the Building Act 2016; any other works the Governor, by proclamation, declares to be works for the purposes of this Act.

This Act does not apply to any Crown land that is –

reserved land within the meaning of the Nature Conservation Act 2002; or permanent timber production zone land within the meaning of the Forest Management Act 2013.

Subject to this Act, the Minister has power to reserve, set aside, manage, lease, license and transfer or otherwise dispose of Crown land.

In exercising any powers or performing any functions under this Act in relation to any Crown land that is reserved as a public reserve, a person must have regard to the resource management and planning system objectives.

In the case of a public reserve for which there is a management plan, if there is any inconsistency between the resource management and planning system objectives and the provisions of the management plan, the provisions of the management plan prevail.

In the case of a public reserve for which there is not a management plan, if there is any inconsistency between the resource management and planning system objectives and the management objectives specified in Schedule 4 or the purposes for which that land was reserved, the latter objectives and the purposes prevail.

existing at the commencement of this Act are continued for the purposes of this Act.

The Governor may by proclamation constitute, abolish, define, re-define, or name land districts and parishes for the purposes of this Act.

A parish for the purposes of this Act shall not include any land within a city or town, and when a city or town is extended the area of the parish affected thereby shall, by virtue of the instrument effecting the change in the city or town, be contracted by the area so affected.

For the purposes of this Act the Governor may by proclamation constitute, abolish, define, or re-define areas of town lands – which may include lands other than Crown lands; and which are – adjacent to a city or town; or intended by the Governor to be sites for towns, villages, or hamlets.

Areas constituted in accordance with subsection (1)(b)(ii) may, on the recommendation of the Place Names Advisory Panel established by the Place Names Act 2020, be assigned names in the proclamations constituting them.

Crown land shall be disposed of in accordance with this Act and not otherwise.

Nothing in subsection (1) is to be taken as limiting the operation of any provision of the Crown Lands (Shack Sites) Act 1997 in relation to the sale of a shack site under that Act.

The Governor may appoint a State Service officer or State Service employee to be Director-General of Lands and that officer or employee is to hold that office in conjunction with State Service employment.

Subject to and in accordance with the State Service Act 2000, persons may be appointed or employed for the purposes of this Act.

The Minister may, by order, reserve any Crown land to the Crown as a public reserve – if the land possesses any of the values specified in Column 2 of Schedule 5; and for any of the purposes specified in Column 3 of Schedule 5.

Except as otherwise specially provided, no land reserved under this section shall be sold, leased, or otherwise disposed of under this Act while the order reserving the same remains in force.

Where the Minister is satisfied that any land comprised in an order issued under subsection (1) is unsuitable or not required for the purpose for which it was reserved, the Minister may, by order, revoke the order and thereupon the land comprised in the order shall become freed from the reservation.

Where the Minister is satisfied that any land reserved by an order under subsection (1) is not required for the time being for the purpose for which it was reserved, the Minister may authorise the land to be used during the period that it is not so required for some other purpose if that other purpose does not adversely affect the purpose for which it is reserved.

After the commencement of the Land Use Planning and Approvals Act 1993, any littoral or riparian reserve, within the meaning of the Local Government Act 1962, is deemed to be reserved under this section free of any limitation as to its use but any grant or sale of that reserve must be carried out in accordance with section 64(1)(c) and (d) and (2).

Orders-in-council made under section 22 of the Lands Resumption Act 1957, including proclamations referred to in subsection (7), and in force immediately before the commencement of this Act are to be taken to have continued in force and to have had effect after that commencement as if they were orders made under subsection (1) and may be revoked or amended accordingly.

Proclamations made under section 68 of the Lands Resumption Act 1910 and in force immediately before the commencement of the Lands Resumption Act 1957 are to be taken to have continued in force and to have had effect after that commencement as if they were orders-in-council made under section 22 of the Lands Resumption Act 1957.

When any Crown land reserved as a public reserve for the purpose of the creation and use of public roads or streets or other internal communications is no longer required for that purpose, the Minister may, by order published in the Gazette, revoke the order or other instrument which effected the reservation in respect of that land.

An order under subsection (1) revoking another order takes effect – if the revocation is consented to by the owners of the land adjoining the land comprised in the order before the publication of the order in the Gazette, on the date on which the order is so published; or if the revocation is consented to by those owners after the publication of the order in the Gazette, on the date on which the consent to the revocation is published in the Gazette; or if the revocation is not consented to by those owners or if any of those owners lodge with the Minister, within 60 days after the order is gazetted, an objection to the withdrawal of the land from reservation, on the date on which that period expires.

When an objection is lodged with the Minister under subsection (2)(c), the Minister may, before the period referred to in that subsection expires, withdraw the order or modify it and, where the Minister modifies an order, the order as modified takes effect under that subsection.

Where an order revoking another order has taken effect under subsection (2), the land comprised in that other order becomes freed from the reservation and may be dealt with by the Minister in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

An order under this section is not a statutory rule within the meaning of the Rules Publication Act 1953.