New South Wales Consolidated Acts

NATIONAL PARKS AND WILDLIFE ACT 1974 - SECT 58R

58R Restrictions as to timber, vegetation, plants etc in karst conservation reserves

(1) Subject to section 58P (2), a person shall not fell, cut, destroy, injure, pick, remove or set fire to any tree, timber, plant, flower or vegetation in a karst conservation reserve.

(2) A person shall not be in possession of any native plant within a karst conservation reserve.

(3) A person who commits an offence arising under subsection (1) or (2) is liable to the penalty prescribed by section 175 for an offence against this Act or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, or both.

(4) A person shall not be convicted of an offence arising under subsection (1) or (2) if the person proves that the act constituting the offence was done, or that the state of affairs constituting the offence existed--

(a) under and in accordance with or by virtue of the authority conferred by an authorisation under section 171, or

(b) in pursuance of a duty imposed by or under any Act.

(5) A person, being a lessee or occupier of any lands within a karst conservation reserve, or a person authorised by such a lessee or occupier in that behalf, shall not be convicted of an offence arising under subsection (1) or (2) in respect of the felling, cutting, destroying, injuring, picking or removing of or setting fire to any tree, timber, plant, flower or vegetation, or the possession of a native plant (not being a plant of a threatened species), that is or was growing within those lands.

(6) The regulations may make provision for or with respect to exempting, subject to the prescribed conditions and restrictions (if any), any person or class or description of persons from the provisions of subsection (1) or (2), or both.

(7) Without limiting subsection (6), this section does not prevent--

(a) an Aboriginal owner on whose behalf the lands of a karst conservation reserve are held by one or more Aboriginal Land Councils in accordance with Part 4A, or

(b) any other Aboriginal person who has the consent of the Aboriginal owner board members,

from picking within the reserve any tree, timber, plant (including a native plant), flower or vegetation for food for domestic purposes or for ceremonial or cultural purposes (including a protected native plant but not including a plant of a threatened species or a plant protected by the plan of management for the reserve).