(1) Subject to
subsections (1a) and (1b) the owner or occupier of land that abuts upon Crown
land (other than land set apart for roads or land comprised in closed roads),
a reserve or other land that is unoccupied by abandonment except forest land,
may enter upon that Crown land, reserve or other land for the purpose of
clearing or clearing and ploughing fire-breaks not more than 3 m in width
situated not more than 200 m distant from the boundary of that Crown land,
reserve or other land, and may burn the bush between those fire-breaks and the
boundary of the land of the owner or occupier if the burning is not contrary
to the provisions of section 17 and is carried out in accordance with the
provisions of section 18.
(1AB) Before any
fire-breaks are burnt under the provisions of subsection (1), a permit to so
burn shall be obtained from a bush fire control officer of the local
government in whose district the burning is to take place and where a permit
is granted the bush fire control officer shall state in the permit the width
to which a fire-break may be burnt up to a maximum of 200 m in width from the
boundary of the land or reserve.
(1AC) A bush fire
control officer may subject to the provisions of sections 17 and 18 enter upon
any Crown land or reserve except forest land with such servants and workmen or
with such vehicles, machinery and appliances as he may think necessary for the
purpose of burning bush, in order to reduce or abate a fire hazard which
cannot practicably be reduced or abated otherwise than by burning.
(1a) Where —
(a) the
person, body or Government department responsible for the care, control and
management of a reserve, after consultation with the local government or local
governments in whose district or districts the reserve is situated, tenders to
the FES Commissioner a plan setting out the measures taken and proposed to be
taken to prevent, control and extinguish bush fires on the reserve; and
(b) the
FES Commissioner is satisfied that the measures set out in the plan will
provide adequate fire protection in relation to the reserve and that the
exercise of the powers conferred by subsections (1) to (1AC) would be likely
to interfere with the development of the reserve,
the FES Commissioner
may, by notice published in the Gazette and in a newspaper circulating in the
district in which the reserve is situated, order that the powers conferred by
subsections (1) to (1AC) shall not be exercised in relation to the reserve.
(1b) A notice
published under subsection (1a) —
(a) has
effect according to its tenor;
(b) may
be varied or cancelled by a subsequent notice so published.
(2) Where an agreement
for the purpose of making fire-breaks is not made between the CALM Act CEO and
the owner or occupier of land adjoining or adjacent to forest land, if the
CALM Act CEO has established on the forest land marginal and internal
fire-breaks, he may at any time and from time to time, give notice in writing
to the owner or occupier within a time specified in the notice to do all or
any of the things mentioned in section 33(1)(a) and (b) upon that part of the
land of which he is the owner or occupier and which is nearest to the forest
land as though the CALM Act CEO were the local government referred to in those
paragraphs and the provisions of the paragraphs apply mutatis mutandis as
though they were expressly incorporated in this subsection.
(3) When and as often
as the CALM Act CEO gives notice to an owner or occupier of land as provided
for in subsection (2), the provisions of section 33(3), (4) and (5) mutatis
mutandis apply and have effect in the same manner and to the same extent as if
they were expressly incorporated in this section.
[Section 34 amended: No. 11 of 1963 s. 16; No. 94
of 1972 s. 4 (as amended: No. 83 of 1973 s. 3); No. 65 of 1977 s. 33; No. 51
of 1979 s. 5; No. 14 of 1996 s. 4; No. 42 of 1998 s. 16; No. 28 of 2006 s.
389; No. 19 of 2010 s. 52(4); No. 22 of 2012 s. 69.]