New South Wales Consolidated Acts

FORESTRY ACT 1916 - SECT 27

27 Penalty for unlawfully taking timber, products or forest materials

(1) A person who:

(a) on any Crown-timber lands:

(i) cuts, strips, obtains, removes, destroys or damages any timber, or

(ii) digs for, extracts, obtains, removes, destroys or damages any products, or

(iii) causes or knowingly suffers any of the things referred to in subparagraph (i) or (ii) to be done, or

(b) on any State forest or flora reserve quarries, digs for, extracts, obtains, removes, destroys or damages any forest materials or causes or knowingly suffers any of those things to be done,

is guilty of an offence and liable to a penalty not exceeding 50 penalty units or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 6 months, or to both such penalty and imprisonment and where in the commission of the offence any tree is destroyed or damaged to an additional penalty not exceeding $10 for each such tree.

(2) Without limiting the generality of subsection (1), the provisions of that subsection have effect in respect of Crown-timber lands notwithstanding the provisions of this or any other Act or any terms or conditions subject to which any tenure of the Crown-timber lands is held, and where any such terms or conditions require the taking or destruction of any timber or products those terms and conditions shall be construed as imposing that requirement subject to the holder of the tenure obtaining a timber licence, products licence or clearing licence.

(3) A person is not guilty of an offence under subsection (1):

(a) by reason of the person doing any of the things referred to in subsection (1):

(i) in pursuance of a timber licence, products licence, forest materials licence, clearing licence or other authority issued or granted by the commission,

(ia) in pursuance of and in accordance with the Native Vegetation Act 2003 (including any instrument made under that Act),

(ii) in pursuance of and in accordance with the provisions of the Mining Act 1992 or any mineral claim or mining lease under that Act,

(iii) in respect of any tree on Crown-timber lands (not being Crown-timber lands referred to in paragraph (a) or (c) of the definition of "Crown-timber lands" in section 4) or on land the subject of a forest lease, where the commission has certified in writing that the tree, in its opinion, had been planted or established and had been maintained by careful tending and improvement as part of a woodlot or forest or for the purpose of tree-farming, or where the tree is or was situated on an authorised plantation within the meaning of the Plantations and Reafforestation Act 1999 ,

(iv) in respect of any tree on lands the subject of a profit à prendre reserve under section 25F where the commission has certified in writing that the tree is not subject to the profit à prendre by reason of the operation of paragraph (a), (a1) or (b) of subsection (5) of section 25F,

(iva) in pursuance of and in accordance with a forestry right within the meaning of section 87A of the Conveyancing Act 1919 and any restriction on use or covenant imposed under Division 4 of Part 6 of that Act in connection with the forestry right,

(v) in the course of the person’s employment by the commission,

(va) in respect of any timber removed, felled or destroyed in accordance with section 89 of the Rural Lands Protection Act 1998 , or

(vi) in pursuance of and in accordance with the provisions of the Petroleum (Onshore) Act 1991 or any petroleum title under that Act,

(b) by reason only of the person’s taking timber or other materials as authorised by Schedule 6 to the Crown Lands (Continued Tenures) Act 1989 or section 18D (b) of the Western Lands Act 1901 or as referred to in section 25F (7), or

(d) where the person is a lessee under a conditional lease applied for before 1 January 1910, by reason of the person’s ringbarking or otherwise killing or destroying any tree on the land the subject of the conditional lease.

(4) Nothing in this section affects the operation of section 155 or 159 of the Crown Lands Act 1989 , but a person shall not be liable to more than one penalty for the same offence.

(5) A penalty may be imposed under this section in addition to any penalty, fine or forfeiture imposed by any lease or licence under which the Crown-timber lands concerned or the lands the subject of the forest lease are held or by the provisions of the Act under which the Crown-timber lands or the lands the subject of the forest lease are held.