New South Wales Consolidated Acts

WATER ACT 1912 - SECT 20CA

20CA Application for authority by persons who do not occupy land on which works are to be constructed

(1A) This section does not apply to or in respect of an existing work.

(1) The occupiers of the whole of the lands supplied or proposed to be supplied with water obtained by means of a joint water supply scheme (hereinafter in this section referred to as the "supply work") who desire to construct and use the supply work for the purpose of domestic water supply, stock water supply or irrigation, but one or more of whom do not occupy:

(a) the whole of the lands on which they desire to construct the supply work, or

(b) the whole of the lands on which they desire to construct works (hereinafter in this section referred to as the "conveying works") to convey the water from the supply work to the lands on which they desire to use the water,

and who cannot obtain occupation of the land required for the supply work or conveying works may apply to the Ministerial Corporation for an authority to construct the supply work and to take and use for the purpose or purposes specified in the application the water, if any, conserved or obtained thereby.

(2) The provisions of sections 13A (2) (c) and (e), 20 (2) and 20A (1), (1A), (1B), (1C) and (1D) shall mutatis mutandis apply to an application under this section.

(3)

(a) After the expiry of a period of twenty-eight days after the date of the publication of the later of such advertisements, the Ministerial Corporation shall decide whether the application should be granted or refused.

(b) In any case where the decision of the Ministerial Corporation is that the application should be refused, the applicants shall be notified in writing of such decision.

(4) In any case where the decision of the Ministerial Corporation is that the application should be granted, the following provisions shall have effect:

(a) the Ministerial Corporation shall direct the local land board or a Magistrate to hold a public inquiry as to the desirability of granting the application,

(b) the Ministerial Corporation shall notify the owners and occupiers of the intervening lands of the application and of the reference thereof to the local land board or the Magistrate,

(c) the holding of the inquiry shall be notified once in the Gazette and once in a newspaper published and circulating in the district where the supply work is or is proposed to be situated,

(d) the Ministerial Corporation, the owners and occupiers of the intervening lands, and:

(i) where, at the time the application is made, the supply or conveying works are, or are proposed to be, situated within a declared local area, any local occupier or statutory authority (being an occupier or an authority whose interests may be affected by the granting of the application), or

(ii) where, at the time the application is made, the supply or conveying works are not, or are not proposed to be, situated within a declared local area, any person whose interests may be affected by the granting of the application,

shall be permitted to attend at the inquiry and be heard in support of, or in opposition to, the granting of the application,

(e) the local land board or Magistrate, as the case may be, holding the inquiry shall announce the board’s or Magistrate’s decision in open court and shall thereupon report in writing upon the inquiry to the Ministerial Corporation,

(f) where the decision of the local land board or Magistrate is in favour of granting the application, the local land board or Magistrate, as the case may be, shall also make recommendations to the Ministerial Corporation as to:

(i) the arrangements which should in the board’s or Magistrate’s opinion be made by the applicants in respect of the provision, construction, operation, maintenance and renewal of the works, the apportionment between them of the water taken by means of such works and any payments to be made by any of them in respect of the works or the water supply (hereinafter in this section referred to as the "works arrangements"), and

(ii) the period for which the authority should be granted, the terms, limitations and conditions which should be applied to the authority concerning the occupancy and use of the intervening lands by the holders of the authority, the payments (if any and by whom) to be made in respect of such occupancy and use and the construction, use and maintenance of the supply work and conveying works,

(g) on receipt of the report of the local land board or Magistrate deciding in favour of granting the application, the Ministerial Corporation shall determine the works arrangements and the period, terms, limitations and conditions including those relating to the taking of water,

(h) the decision of the local land board or Magistrate as to the desirability or otherwise of granting the application shall be notified by the Ministerial Corporation to the applicants and to the owners and occupiers of the intervening lands and to any person who attended at the inquiry and was heard by the local land board or Magistrate in support of or in opposition to the granting of the application,

(i) where such decision is in favour of the granting of the application the Ministerial Corporation shall in such notification include the period, terms, limitations and conditions to be applied to the authority and, in the notification to the applicants, the works arrangements determined by the Ministerial Corporation,

(j) any owner or occupier of the intervening lands may, within twenty-eight days after the posting to the owner or occupier of the Ministerial Corporation’s notification, appeal to the Land and Environment Court against the decision of the local land board or Magistrate or the determination by the Ministerial Corporation of the period, terms, limitations and conditions to be applied to the authority,

(k) the decision of the Court shall be final,

(l) the appeal shall be made as prescribed by rules of court of the Land and Environment Court and be accompanied by a fee of ten dollars as security for the costs of the appeal. Notice of appeal in the prescribed form shall be given by the appellant to the Ministerial Corporation upon the lodging of the appeal in the Land and Environment Court.

(5) In dealing with the application the Ministerial Corporation, local land board, Magistrate or Land and Environment Court, as the case may be, shall mutatis mutandis be governed by the provisions of section 13A (5).

(6)

(a) The Ministerial Corporation shall, in compliance with any decision of the local land board or Magistrate upon an inquiry held under subsection (4) or of the Land and Environment Court upon appeal favouring the granting of the application for an authority on payment of the prescribed fee, issue to the applicants an authority subject to the works arrangements determined by the Ministerial Corporation and subject to the period, terms, limitations and conditions determined by the Ministerial Corporation or set out in the decision of the Land and Environment Court, as the case may be.

(b) No authority shall be issued under this subsection for a period that, except in such circumstances as may be prescribed, exceeds 10 years.

(c) No authority shall be issued under this subsection pending any appeal.

(d) An authority under this section shall be issued only upon payment of a fee calculated in the manner and according to the scale prescribed by regulations under this Act.

(e) If the applicants fail to pay to the Ministerial Corporation within the time prescribed the fee payable upon the issue of the authority the Ministerial Corporation may at any time thereafter reject the application.

(f) Where an application is rejected under paragraph (e) the deposit accompanying such application or any part of such deposit may, in the discretion of the Ministerial Corporation, be retained by it.

(8)

(a) Upon the issue of an authority under this section the holders thereof may, during the currency of the authority, enter, occupy and use, subject to the terms, limitations and conditions applied to the authority, the intervening lands set out in the authority for the purpose of providing, constructing, operating, maintaining and using the supply work and the conveying works.

(b) In the event of the authority lapsing or being cancelled, the holders’ rights thereunder to enter, occupy and use the intervening lands shall, subject to the provisions of subsection (11), terminate.

(9) In the event of any of the holders of the authority failing to comply with any of the terms, limitations, or conditions of the authority relating to the holder’s entry upon, occupancy or use of the intervening lands, the Ministerial Corporation shall, on being satisfied of such failure, cancel the authority.

(10) For the purpose of subsections (8) and (9) "holders" shall include servants and agents of the holders.

(11) For the purpose of sections 21B and 22 each person who was, immediately before the lapse or cancellation of the authority, the holder of an authority issued under this section shall be deemed to be the occupier of the intervening lands set out in such authority.