BUSH FIRES ACT 1954 - SECT 66
BUSH FIRES ACT 1954 - SECT 66
66 . Proof of ownership or occupancy
(1) In a prosecution
or legal proceedings under this Act, in addition to other methods of proof
available —
(a) the
production of the rate record of a local government, or of a copy or extract
purporting to be certified by the mayor or president or chief executive
officer of that local government as a copy or extract of the rate record,
showing that a person is rated as the owner or occupier of land;
(b) the
production of a document purporting to be —
(i)
a certificate signed by the Registrar of Deeds and
Transfers or an assistant registrar of deeds and transfers that a person
appears from a memorial of registration of a deed, conveyance or other
instrument to be the owner of land; or
(ii)
a certificate signed by the Registrar of Titles or an
Assistant Registrar that a person’s name appears in the Register under
the Transfer of Land Act 1893 , as that of the owner of land; or
(iii)
a certificate signed by the chief executive officer of
the department principally assisting in the administration of the Land
Administration Act 1997 that a person is registered in that department as the
owner, lessee, or occupier of land; or
(iv)
a certificate signed by the chief executive officer of
the department principally assisting in the administration of the
Mining Act 1978 that a person is registered in that department as the lessee
or occupier of land or the holder of a concession or permit; or
(v)
a certificate signed by the chief executive officer of
the department principally assisting in the administration of the
Conservation and Land Management Act 1984 that a person is registered in that
department as the lessee or occupier of land or the holder of a timber lease,
concession or permit,
is, until the contrary
is proved, evidence that the person is, as the case requires, the owner,
lessee, or occupier of the land or the holder of the timber lease, concession
or permit.
(2) All courts, judges
and persons acting judicially shall for the purposes of this Act take judicial
notice of the signature to a certificate mentioned in subsection (1).
(3) The averment in a
claim, prosecution notice or other document in a prosecution or legal
proceedings instituted for the purposes of this Act that a person is or was at
the stated time the owner or occupier of land, is to be presumed as proved in
the absence of proof to the contrary.
[Section 66 inserted: No. 11 of 1963 s. 28;
amended: No. 14 of 1996 s. 4; No. 81 of 1996 s. 153(1); No. 57 of 1997
s. 26(3); No. 84 of 2004 s. 80; No. 28 of 2006 s. 392; No. 60 of 2006 s. 126;
No. 47 of 2011 s. 16.]