Australian Capital Territory Consolidated Acts

NATURE CONSERVATION ACT 1980 - SECT 51

    (1)     A person shall not, except in accordance with a licence, take a plant that—

        (a)     has special protection status; or

        (b)     is a protected native plant; or

        (c)     is a native plant growing on unleased land.

Maximum penalty:

        (a)     if the plant has special protection status—100 penalty units, imprisonment for 1 year or both; or

        (b)     if the plant does not have special protection status but the court finds that the defendant intended to sell it—50 penalty units, imprisonment for 6 months or both; or

        (c)     in any other case—50 penalty units.

    (2)     Subsection (1) does not apply where—

        (a)     an occupier of land not in a built-up area—

              (i)     cultivates a protected native plant on the land; or

              (ii)     takes seeds from a protected native plant growing on the land for the purposes of cultivating such a plant on the land; or

        (b)     an occupier of land takes a protected native plant growing on the land which had been planted or caused to be planted by the occupier; or

        (c)     a person takes seeds for domestic use from a native plant (other than a plant having special protection status or a protected native plant) growing on unleased land; or

        (d)     an occupier of land in a built-up area takes a protected native plant growing on the land; or

        (e)     an occupier of land outside any built-up area takes a protected native plant in the course of preparing or using the land for primary production in accordance with the lease or licence under which the land is occupied; or

        (f)     a conservation officer or public servant takes a native plant in the exercise of his or her functions.

    (3)     Where, in a prosecution for an offence against subsection (1), the plant to which the offence relates is seaweed, it is a defence to the prosecution that the quantity of seaweed picked by the defendant was not reasonably sufficient to enable the seaweed to be used for commercial purposes.

    (4)     In this section:

"cultivates", in relation to a native plant, means sowing its seeds, fertilising it, applying chemicals to it or trimming, lopping or digging it up—

        (a)     for a purpose reasonably beneficial to the plant, or to a protected native plant growing in close proximity; or

        (b)     for the purpose of its propagation.

"native plant" does not include native timber.

"protected native plant" does not include native timber.