Jetties Act 1926

any jetty, pier, wharf, quay, grid, slip, landing place, stage, platform (other than a platform that is a vessel for the purposes of the Western Australian Marine Act 1982) or similar structure, whether fixed or floating, erected or placed, wholly or in part, in, on or over any waters; and

any ramp which is or which may be used for the purpose of launching or landing a vessel;

regulating and appointing and empowering officers to regulate and appoint the manner, times, places, and order of mooring and fastening vessels at public jetties, and of loading, unloading, handling, warehousing, storing, and depositing goods at, from, or on public jetties or any premises appurtenant thereto or used in connection therewith;

relating to the special precautions and measures to be taken in relation to the landing, shipping, trans‑shipping, deposit, removal and keeping of flammable liquids, gunpowder and other explosive substances, or other dangerous goods at, on or from jetties or any premises appurtenant thereto or used in connection therewith;

regulating and empowering officers to regulate the landing and embarking of passengers and the taking in and delivery of ballast at, on, or from public jetties;

the appointment of persons to preserve order on jetties, the regulation of the traffic thereon, and prescribing the means of transport to be used thereon;

the regulation of the use on jetties of cranes and other conveniences belonging to the Government;

the cleansing, repair, maintenance, preservation, replacement and removal of jetties;

requiring consignees, consignors, and others desiring to land or load cargo at any port to make use of a public jetty when such jetty is available;

imposing on the master of every vessel moored at any public jetty or in connection with which a public jetty is made use of an obligation —

to report his arrival to an officer within a specified time;

to produce the vessel’s certificate of registry to any officer on demand;

to give an officer a true and complete copy of the manifest of the cargo or other complete inventory of all goods intended to be unshipped or landed, together with the names of the respective consignees thereof;

to give an officer the prescribed notice of the intended time of unloading;

imposing on intending shippers of goods from any public jetty an obligation to furnish to an officer full and true accounts of the goods intended to be shipped;

the imposition, fixing, levying, collection, and payment of —

berthing dues;

wharfage dues;

handling charges;

storage charges;

charges for the use of cranes;

haulage charges; and

other charges,

defining and limiting the liability of the Government in respect of goods landed, discharged, deposited, stored, carried, or left on or in any public jetty or any premises appurtenant thereto or used in connection therewith, or loaded or shipped by the department from any jetty or any such premises;

exempting the Government from liability for or in respect of —

damage to any such goods caused or contributed to by insufficient protection or packing;

damage to or loss of any such goods for which no receipt has been given by the department;

damage to or loss of any such goods in any case in which no claim in respect thereof has been made within the prescribed time;

prescribing the times within which claims must be made against the Government or the department;

prescribing the conditions to be inserted in any lease granted under this Act;

prescribing the fees to be payable for any licence granted under this Act;

the suspension or cancellation of licences granted under this Act;

the imposition of a penalty not exceeding a fine of $12 000 for any contravention, by act or omission, of any regulation.

adopt, either wholly or in part or with modifications and either specifically or by reference, any rules, regulations, codes, instructions or other subordinate legislation made, determined or issued under any other Act or under any Act of the Parliament of the Commonwealth or the United Kingdom, or any of the standards, rules, codes or specifications of the bodies known as Standards Australia, the British Standards Institution, The Association of Australian Port and Marine Authorities, or other like body specified in the regulations; and

provide that where by reason of unavailability of materials or other reason that the department considers valid any requirement adopted by the regulations cannot be conformed to, the department may approve such use of materials or other matters as it considers to be consistent with the achievement of the objects of the regulations.

Regulations made under this Act —

may be general or restricted in their application, and may be limited to any particular jetty or work;

may be declared to be applicable and shall then apply to jetties under the control of any local government, but subject to any local law made under the Local Government Act 1995 and for the time being in operation;

shall not, except where subsections (2), (3) and (4) provide otherwise, apply to jetties forming part of any Government railway or under the control of the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia established by the Public Transport Authority Act 2003 section 5;

except as in this section otherwise provided, shall not, unless made pursuant to the power defined in section 4(3), (4), (5), (13), (13a), (14), or (15), apply to private jetties.

Where the Governor, as he is hereby empowered to do by Order in Council, declares regulations made under this Act to apply to any jetty referred to in subsection (1)(c), regulations made under this Act, whether before or after the coming into operation of the Jetties Act Amendment Act 1957, shall apply in respect of the jetty accordingly.

Where a regulation made before the coming into operation of the Jetties Act Amendment Act 1957, purports to apply to any jetty referred to in subsection (1)(c), if after the coming into operation of that Act an Order in Council is made under subsection (2) applying the regulation to the jetty, the Order in Council shall be deemed to have been effective immediately prior to the making of the regulation, and anything done in pursuance or purported pursuance of the regulation shall be deemed to have been validly done and is hereby confirmed.

The Order in Council published in the Gazette of 14 December 1951, purporting to apply regulations made under this Act to the public jetty at Port Hedland is hereby validated and confirmed.

The Governor may authorise the Minister to —

acquire any private jetty from any person who is entitled thereto;

lease, close, or remove any public jetty.

The provisions of Part 9 of the Land Administration Act 1997 shall apply to the acquisition of any jetty under this Act as if it were land required for a public work, and compensation shall be claimable, payable, and assessed in respect thereto as in that Act provided and not otherwise.

Subsection (1)(c) does not affect the operation of the Marine and Harbours Act 1981.

The chief executive officer may grant a licence on such terms and conditions as he thinks fit to any person for the erection or construction of a jetty or for the maintenance and use of any jetty.

The chief executive officer may by instrument in writing signed by him delegate to an officer the power conferred on him by subsection (1).

Where the erection or construction of a jetty is required to be approved under the Swan and Canning Rivers Management Act 2006 section 70, or under the Metropolitan Region Scheme or the Swan Valley Planning Scheme as those terms are defined in the Planning and Development Act 2005, a licence shall not be granted under this section —

unless that approval has been granted; or

on any term or condition that is contrary to or inconsistent with an approval so granted.

If an approval referred to in subsection (3) has been granted for the erection or construction of a jetty, a licence shall not be refused under this section but may be granted, in accordance with subsection (3)(b), subject to compliance with any condition.

This Act, other than sections 13 and 14, does not apply to a jetty wholly or partly within the boundaries of a port as defined in the Port Authorities Act 1999 section 3(1), and a lease or licence cannot be granted under this Act in respect of such a jetty.

Subsection (1) is enacted to avoid doubt and does not limit the Port Authorities Act 1999 section 32.

A person whose application for a licence under section 7 has been —

refused; or

granted subject to terms or conditions which are unacceptable to the applicant,

In this section —

The Minister may cause to be served on any person who constructs, uses or maintains a private jetty that is not licensed or the subject of a lease under this Act a notice in writing requiring that jetty to be removed within such period, being not less than 7 days after the date of service, as is specified in that notice.

Where a private jetty that is not licensed or the subject of a lease under this Act belongs to a person whose identity or whereabouts, or both, cannot be ascertained after the making of reasonable enquiries the Minister may, by notice published once in a newspaper circulating throughout the State, require that jetty to be removed within such period, being not less than 7 days after the date of publication, as is specified in that notice.

If a requirement under subsection (1) or (2) is not complied with, the Minister may cause the private jetty to be removed.

The cost of removal under subsection (3) is a debt due to the Crown and a first charge in priority to all other claims on the materials comprising the private jetty.

In accordance with the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Commonwealth) section 73(2)(a), it is declared that section 73(2) of that Act applies to a charge created under subsection (4).

The Minister may recover that cost of removal under subsection (3) by causing the materials comprising the private jetty to be sold.

If under subsection (5B) any materials comprising the private jetty are sold in good faith to a person and the person takes the property in good faith, the person receives good title to the materials against every other person including its true owner.

The proceeds of a sale referred to in subsection (5B) shall be applied —

first in payment of the cost of that sale; and

secondly in payment of the costs of removing the jetty,