Northern Territory Consolidated Acts Northern Territory Consolidated Acts15. Obstruction of or interference with waterway prohibited
(1) In this section, waterway includes shallow ground water immediately underlying the bed or bank of a waterway.
(2) Subject to subsection (6), a person shall not, unless authorised to do so by or under this Act:
(a) interfere with, or cause, suffer or permit another person to interfere with, a waterway; or
(b) do, or cause, suffer or permit another person to do, an act likely to obstruct the flow of water in a waterway.
Penalty: For a first offence - $2,000.
For a second or subsequent offence - not less than $2,000 or more than $10,000 or imprisonment for 2 years.
Default penalty: $200.
(3) In a proceeding for an offence against subsection (2), proof of the existence of a structure or other obstruction:
(a) on land; or
(b) on, in or below a waterway,
by which the waterway is capable of being interfered with or the flow of water in which is capable of being obstructed is prima facie evidence that the waterway was interfered with, or the flow of water in it was obstructed, as the case may be, at the time the structure or other obstruction existed.
(4) The Controller may, by notice in writing served on the owner or occupier of land:
(a) comprising the bed and banks of a waterway; or
(b) immediately adjacent to both banks or part of a waterway in which an obstruction or interference to the flow or likely flow of water exists,
require the owner or occupier to take such reasonable action to remove or abate the obstruction or interference as is specified in the notice and by the time or within the period so specified.
(5) An owner or occupier served with a notice under subsection (4) shall not contravene or fail to comply with the notice.
Penalty: $2,000.
Default penalty: $200.
(6) The Minister may, by notice in the Gazette , exempt a category or class of obstruction or interference from the application of this section and, on the publication of that notice, this section, other than this subsection, ceases to apply to or in relation to obstructions or interferences of that category or class.