NATIONAL PARKS AND WILDLIFE ACT 1974 - SECT 185A Special areas under the Hunter Water Act 1991

NATIONAL PARKS AND WILDLIFE ACT 1974 - SECT 185A

185A Special areas under the Hunter Water Act 1991

(1) This section applies to land that--

(a) is reserved as a national park, historic site, state conservation area, regional park, nature reserve, karst conservation reserve or Aboriginal area, and

(b) is wholly or partly within a special area within the meaning of the Hunter Water Act 1991 .

(2) Except as provided by this section, nothing in any provision of, or made under, this Act prevents or prohibits, or requires authorisation for, development for the purpose of the extraction, treatment, reticulation or replenishment of groundwater if the development is--

(a) carried out, by or on behalf of the Hunter Water Corporation, on land to which this section applies, and

(b) authorised or permitted under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (whether before, on or after the commencement of this section).

(3) Subsection (2) extends to--

(a) development for the purpose of any pumping station, or other infrastructure, that is connected with or incidental to the extraction, treatment, reticulation or replenishment of groundwater, or

(b) development for the purpose of the installation, replacement or maintenance of sealed sewerage pipes and of pumps, and the use of those pipes and pumps for conveying sewage (but not any other development for the purpose of sewage discharge or treatment).

(4) For the avoidance of doubt, a lease, licence to occupy or use, or an easement or right of way through, on or in, land to which this section applies is not required to enable development to be carried out in accordance with this section.

(5) Development carried out in accordance with this section may be carried out despite any plan of management applying to the land to which this section applies. However, no operations (including any development) are to be carried out on that land, on or after the adoption of any such plan prepared by the Secretary (or a local council) and the Chief Executive Officer of the Hunter Water Corporation as referred to in section 75, unless the operations are in accordance with the plan.

(6) If an environmental planning instrument provides that development referred to in subsection (2) is permitted on the land to which this section applies if it is authorised under this Act, the development is taken to be authorised under this Act if it is otherwise authorised or permitted under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 .

(7) Without affecting the generality of section 185, nothing in any provision of, or made under, this Act affects a prohibition or restriction imposed by or under the Hunter Water Act 1991 or the Water Management Act 2000 in its application to the land to which this section applies.

(8) For the avoidance of doubt, this section prevails over section 47I.

(9) In this section--


"development" has the same meaning as it has in the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 and includes an activity within the meaning of Part 5 of that Act.


"environmental planning instrument" has the same meaning as it has in the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 .