ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ACT 1994 - SECT 579 Compensation

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ACT 1994 - SECT 579

579 Compensation

(1) This section applies if a person (the
"responsible person" ) who, under this Act, must comply with an environmental requirement, enters, or authorises someone else to enter, land to which the requirement relates to comply with the requirement.

(2) Compensation is payable from the responsible person to any owner or occupier of the land for any compensatable effect the owner or occupier suffers because of—

(a) the entry; or

(b) work conducted in relation to the land to comply, or purport to comply, with the environmental requirement.

(3) However, compensation is not payable under subsection (2) (b) if the work was conducted by someone other than the responsible person and the responsible person did not authorise the other person to conduct the work.

(3A) If the land is a licence area under the Forestry Act 1959 —

(a) the plantation licensee or plantation sublicensee, as defined under that Act, for the licence area is an occupier of the land for the purposes of this section; and

(b) compensation is payable as provided under this section to the plantation licensee or plantation sublicensee as occupier of the licence area and the State as owner of the State forest of which the licence area forms part in the proportions decided by a court of competent jurisdiction.

(4) The compensation may be claimed and ordered in a proceeding brought in a court of competent jurisdiction, including, for example, in an application under any of the following provisions to which the responsible person and the owner or occupier are parties—

(a) the Mineral Resources Act , section 281 or 283B ;

(b) the Petroleum Act 1923 , section 79R ;

(c) the P&G Act , section 533 ;

(d) the GHG storage Act , section 321 ;

(e) the Geothermal Act , section 256 .

(5) A court may order the payment of the compensation only if it is satisfied it is just to make the order in the circumstances of the particular case.

(6) In this section—


"compensatable effect" means all or any of the following in relation to the land—

(a) deprivation of possession of its surface;

(b) diminution of its value;

(c) diminution of the use made, or that may be made, of the land or any improvement on it;

(d) severance of any part of the land from other parts of the land or from other land that the owner or occupier owns;

(e) any other cost or loss arising from the work.

"enter" includes an entry with the consent of the owner or occupier.


"owner" includes—

(a) for land under the Land Act 1994 for which there are trustees—the trustees; or

(c) for land that, under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land Holding Act 2013 , is lease land for a 1985 Act granted lease or a new Act granted lease—the lessee; or

(d) for a conservation park or resources reserve under the Nature Conservation Act 1992 (the
"NCA" ) for which there are trustees—

(i) if, under the NCA, the park or reserve has trustees whose powers are not restricted—the trustees; or

(ii) otherwise—the chief executive of the department in which the NCA is administered; or

(e) the State, for land that is any of the following—

(i) unallocated State land;

(ii) a reserve under the Land Act 1994 for which there is no trustee;

(iii) a national park (scientific), national park, national park (Aboriginal land), national park (Torres Strait Islander land) or forest reserve under the NCA;

(iv) a State forest or timber reserve under the Forestry Act 1959 ;

(vi) a State-controlled road.