New South Wales Consolidated Acts

GOVERNMENT TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT 2018 - SECT 34C

34C Interference with telecommunications infrastructure by trees

(1) This section applies if the Authority or an ETNO reasonably believes that a tree situated on premises could--

(a) destroy, damage or interfere with the Authority's or the ETNO's telecommunications infrastructure, or

(b) make the Authority's or the ETNO's telecommunications infrastructure become--

(i) a potential cause of bush fire, or

(ii) a potential risk to public safety.

(2) The Authority or the ETNO--

(a) may serve a written notice on the owner of the premises requiring the owner to trim or remove the tree (a
"tree removal notice" ), or

(b) in an emergency--may, at the Authority's or the ETNO's own expense, trim or remove the tree.

(3) A tree removal notice must specify--

(a) the work to be carried out, and

(b) a reasonable time within which the work must be carried out.

(4) A tree removal notice must include an undertaking by the Authority or the ETNO to pay the reasonable costs of carrying out the work unless--

(a) an owner or occupier of the premises planted the tree, or permitted the tree to be planted--

(i) after the telecommunications infrastructure was installed, and

(ii) in circumstances in which the owner or occupier should have known that destruction of, damage to or interference with the infrastructure would result, or

(b) when the tree was planted, the premises in or on which the tree is located, and on or over which the infrastructure is located, was the subject of an easement for the benefit of--

(i) the Authority or the ETNO, or

(ii) a predecessor of the Authority or the ETNO.

(5) If the work is not carried out as required by the tree removal notice, the Authority or the ETNO may carry out the work.

(6) The cost of the work carried out by the Authority or the ETNO may be recovered by the Authority or the ETNO in a court of competent jurisdiction as a debt owed to the Authority or the ETNO by the owner of the premises on which the tree is located, but only in the circumstances referred to in subsection (4).

(7) This section applies despite the existence of--

(a) a tree preservation order in relation to the tree, or

(b) an environmental planning instrument relating to the land on which the tree is located, other than a State environmental planning policy.

(8) Nothing done for the purpose of carrying out the work required by a tree removal notice constitutes an offence against a law under which a tree preservation order or environmental planning instrument, other than a State environmental planning policy, relating to the land is made.