South Australian Consolidated Regulations

WATER RESOURCES (LOWER LIMESTONE COAST PRESCRIBED WELLS AREA) REGULATIONS 2004 - PREAMBLE

Preamble

1 A proclamation was made pursuant to section 41 of the Water Resources Act 1976 (the 1976 Act ) (see Gazette 9.1.1986 p19 ) declaring—

(a) an area of the State to be the Comaum-Caroline Proclaimed Region; and

(b) an area of the State to be the Naracoorte Ranges Proclaimed Region,

for the purposes of that Act.

2 A proclamation was made pursuant to section 33(2) of the Water Resources Act 1990 (the 1990 Act ) (see Gazette 1.7.1993 p96 ) in respect of the area (other than the area previously declared to be a proclaimed region)¹ comprising the Hundreds of Naracoorte and Robertson declaring—

(a) all wells situated in the area; and

(b) all wells drilled in the area after the making of the proclamation,

to be proclaimed wells.

1 See the proclamation referred to in clause 1.

3 A proclamation was made pursuant to section 33(2) of the 1990 Act (see Gazette 20.3.1997 p1293 ) declaring an area of the State to be the Lacepede Kongorong Proclaimed Wells Area.

4 Schedule 3, clause 2 of the Water Resources Act 1997 (the "current Act") provides—

(a) that a proclamation under section 33(2) of the 1990 Act in force immediately before the commencement of the current Act continues in force as though it were a regulation under section 8(1) of the current Act; and

(b) in the case of a proclamation under section 41 of the 1976 Act in force immediately before the commencement of the current Act—that the proclamation continues in force as though it declared the existing and future wells in its Proclaimed Region to be prescribed wells; and

(c) that a proclamation referred to in paragraph (a) or (b)—

(i) may be varied or revoked by regulation as though it were a regulation under section 8(1) of the current Act; and

(ii) in the case of a proclamation declaring a well, will, unless varied by regulation, be taken to exclude the operation of section 7(5).

5 It is now appropriate to make a regulation under section 8 of the current Act that will have the effect—

(a) of amalgamating the areas referred to in clauses 1 to 3; and

(b) of re-naming the amalgamated area as the Lower Limestone Coast Prescribed Wells Area (in keeping with practices under the current Act); and

(c) by removing the exclusion of the operation of section 7(5) of the current Act, of allowing occupiers of land situated in the Lower Limestone Coast Prescribed Wells Area to take water from a well that is on the land to use for domestic purposes or for watering stock (other than stock subject to intensive farming).

6 There is no need for a regulation to be made prescribing an establishment period or a prescribed period for the purposes of section 36 of the current Act in relation to the declaration of the Lower Limestone Coast Prescribed Wells Area, as the Lower Limestone Coast Prescribed Wells Area is simply the result of amalgamating currently existing prescribed wells areas.