NATIONAL PARKS AND WILDLIFE ACT 1974 - SECT 57 Restrictions as to timber, vegetation, plants etc in nature reserves

NATIONAL PARKS AND WILDLIFE ACT 1974 - SECT 57

57 Restrictions as to timber, vegetation, plants etc in nature reserves

(1) Subject to section 55 (2), a person shall not fell, cut, destroy, injure, pick, remove or set fire to any tree, timber, plant, flower or vegetation in a nature reserve.

(2) A person shall not have in the person's possession any native plant within a nature reserve.

(3) A person who commits an offence arising under subsection (1) or (2) is liable to the penalty prescribed by section 175 for an offence against this Act or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or both.

(4) A person shall not be convicted of an offence arising under subsection (1) or (2) if the person proves that the act constituting the offence was done, or the state of affairs constituting the offence existed--

(a) under and in accordance with or by virtue of the authority conferred by an authorisation under section 171, or

(b) in pursuance of a duty imposed on the person by or under any Act.

(5) A person, being a lessee or occupier of any lands within a nature reserve, or a person authorised by such a lessee or occupier in that behalf, shall not be convicted of an offence arising under subsection (1) or (2) in respect of the felling, cutting, destroying, injuring, picking, removing of, or setting fire to any tree, timber, plant, flower or vegetation, or the possession of a native plant (not being a plant of a threatened species), that is or was growing within those lands.

(6) The regulations may make provision for or with respect to exempting, subject to the prescribed conditions and restrictions (if any), any person or class or description of persons from the provisions of subsection (1) or (2) or both.

(7) Without limiting subsection (6), this section does not prevent--

(a) an Aboriginal owner on whose behalf the lands of a nature reserve are held by one or more Aboriginal Land Councils in accordance with Part 4A, or

(b) any other Aboriginal person who has the consent of the Aboriginal owner board members,

from picking within the reserve any tree, timber, plant (including a native plant), flower or vegetation for food for domestic purposes or for ceremonial or cultural purposes (including a protected native plant but not including a plant of a threatened species or a plant protected by the plan of management for the reserve).