New South Wales Consolidated Acts

NATIONAL PARKS AND WILDLIFE ACT 1974 - SECT 61

61 Declaration of wild rivers

(1) Subject to section 61A, the Director-General may, by notification published in the Gazette, declare any river or part of a river (when within lands reserved under this Act) to be a wild river.

(2) The Director-General may, by further notification published in the Gazette, vary or revoke any such declaration.

(3) The Director-General may make a declaration under subsection (1):

(a) only with the concurrence of the Minister administering the Water Management Act 2000 , if the declaration will have an impact on functions carried out under that Act, and

(b) in respect of a river or part of a river in a state conservation area, only with the concurrence of the Minister administering the Mining Act 1992 , if the declaration will have an impact on functions carried out under that Act.

(4) The purpose of declaring a river or part of a river as a wild river is to identify, protect and conserve any water course or water course network, or any connected network of water bodies, or any part of those, of natural origin, exhibiting substantially natural flow (whether perennial, intermittent or episodic) and containing remaining examples, in a condition substantially undisturbed since European occupation of New South Wales, of:

(a) the biological, hydrological and geomorphological processes associated with river flow, and

(b) the biological, hydrological and geomorphological processes in those parts of the catchment with which the river is intrinsically linked,

so as to enable that river or part to be managed in accordance with subsection (5).

(5) A wild river is to be managed in accordance with the following principles:

(a) the restoration (wherever possible) and maintenance of the natural biological, hydrological and geomorphological processes associated with wild rivers and their catchments, including natural flow variability,

(b) the identification, conservation and appropriate management of Aboriginal objects and Aboriginal places.