Environmental Planning
The Queensland government has signed off on Adani’s black-throated finch management plan, one of two state approvals the company needs to begin preparatory construction for its Adani coalmine.
The Queensland Court of Appeal has recently confirmed that clearing category X vegetation, commonly termed “exempt clearing work”, is not accepted development under the Planning Regulation 2017 (Planning Regulation) and may still require a development approval under a local government planning scheme.
A decision by the Queensland Court of Appeal that will potentially expose landholders in the south-east to fines of more than half a million dollars for managing their vegetation is “governance gone mad”, according to AgForce CEO Michael Guerin.
The Palaszczuk Government has announced the first six successful projects under the $500 million flagship Land Restoration Fund, which supports carbon farming projects in Queensland and tackles climate change.
A Queensland grazier, whose bid to bulldoze native woodlands has the support of Federal Government MPs, has been hit with one of the state’s heaviest penalties for illegal land clearing.
New consumer research in Britain has found that around half of new home buyers and tenants under 40 years of age actively seek eco-aware homes, showing that the public is now more conscious of sustainability than ever before.
Graziers in south-west Queensland are scrambling to understand changes to tree and land clearing laws before they are passed through Parliament.
Rock band Pearl Jam is voluntarily offsetting the carbon emissions of its current tour in Brazil.
The band has partnered with Conservation International (CI) in purchasing carbon offsets for the estimated 2,500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions that will be generated by its Brazilian tour dates taking place this month.
Vegetation clearing laws are again in the spotlight, with the Queensland Government introducing the Vegetation Management and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2018 (the Bill) into parliament on 8 March 2018. The controversial Bill contains many components of the previous vegetation clearing “re-instatement” bill, introduced in 2016, which was defeated on the floor of parliament. The Bill re-establishes controls on regrowth vegetation and targets broad-scale clearing associated with agricultural activities.
ueensland’s Labor government this month tabled a bill to tighten the regulation of land clearing. Queensland is by far the worst offender in this area, following a litany of reversals of vegetation protection.
After a period of tightened laws between 2004 and 2013, the Newman government set about unwinding key reforms during its 2012-15 term.
The Berejiklian government has reinstated land clearing laws hours after they were ruled invalid, in what environmental advocates have described as “callous indifference to nature”.
The Land and Environment Court on Friday declared the code was invalid because Primary Industries Minister Niall Blair did not follow due process.
The Ballina upgrade of the Pacific Highway through core koala habitat has been listed as one of many reasons the iconic species appears doomed if the NSW Government fails to deliver its long-awaited Koala Strategy.
As one of the 2017 ‘Superstars of STEM’ (a Science and Technology Australia initiative to break down gender assumptions among the science, technology, engineering and mathematics research industries, by celebrating dynamic female minds), Dr Rebecca Johnson is one of our most important wildlife forensic scientists.
Last week, the Queensland government tabled a highly anticipated bill seeking to implement its promise to “end broadscale clearing in Queensland”.
Queensland is responsible for more tree clearing than the rest of the country combined, so making good on that promise would go a long way to halting Australia’s growing land clearing crisis.
Plans to convert a defence site into a freight hub in Sydney’s south-west can proceed, provided developers implement strict conditions to protect a rare flowering plant, the Land and Environment Court has decided.
The $120 million Port of Cairns upgrade is closer to completion following the Queensland Government’s approval of the Environmental Impact Statement.
AN UNWELCOME IMMIGRANT
Small, brown birds with a black head and a bright yellow beak, legs and eye patch; notoriously aggressive and quarrelsome; thought to compete with native species of birds and mammals for food and nesting space.
Five years after the controversial Maules Creek coalmine in north-east New South Wales was given approval to clear critically endangered native ecosystems, Whitehaven Coal has still not secured the biodiversity offsets demanded by the federal government, receiving a second extension in February.
IT’S one of the most inaccessible and unexplored places on the planet. Now Australian researchers have managed to haul in creatures from the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean, rarely seen by humans.
WORKS are about to start on the second stage of the $280 million Echuca-Moama bridge project, closing Warren St from early March 2018 to mid 2019.
‘‘We need to close Warren St between the Murray Valley Hwy roundabout and the Campaspe River bridge,’’ a project spokesperson said.
