Ms O’CONNOR question to MINISTER for PARKS, Mr DUIGAN
Minister, the Nature Conservation Act proclamation tabled yesterday, excises nearly 3.5 hectares of Crown land located in the Mount Roland Regional Reserve and converts it to non-reserved land. Why did this occur?
ANSWER
Mr President, I thank the member for the question. The creation of the Mount Roland Regional Reserve is part of an agreement between the Tasmanian and Australian governments to develop a system of comprehensive, adequate and representative forest reserves back in 1997.
The purpose of the proclamation before parliament is to revoke a small section of the Mount Rowland Regional Reserve that was inadvertently included as part of the original proclamation in the year 2000. Revocation of the regional reserve status of the land will revert the land status to unallocated Crown land.
The Mount Roland Regional Reserve is approximately 7145 hectares in size and has complex boundaries along roads and other land tenures. The parcel at the subject of this process is a small 3.3 hectare parcel of land that was inadvertently included at the time of the proclaiming of that reserve.
This was a mistake at the time that is now being rectified.
Ms O’CONNOR – Just now being rectified, interesting.
Mr DUIGAN – The small parcel of land proposed for revocation from the reserve is separated, I imagine you would have seen the map, is separated from the rest of the regional reserve by Rysavy Road(ok). The land was offered for sale to the owners of Silver Ridge Retreat back in the late 1990s, prior to the reservation process.
A contract of sale was prepared; however the parcel was then included in the regional reserve and so the sale lapsed. The land is a site that does not have significant conservation values.
In May 2021, it was confirmed that the land consists of 60 per cent modified land with buildings, fencing, signage, a dam, burn piles and tracks throughout the block. The other 40 per cent is dry Eucalypt forest.
The assessment concluded that the land is unlikely to support significant natural values. The assessment also found no recorded Aboriginal heritage sites within the property and concluded that there is a low likelihood of any Aboriginal heritage being present.
Revocation of the reserve status over the parcel of land does not impact the natural values of the area.
However, importantly, it will provide the current owners of Silver Ridge Retreat the opportunity for certainty over their interests in the area with an intention to sell the land to the current occupants, as was originally planned.
For those who are interested in a better view without the opportunity potentially to travel to the site, any of your mapping Google Earth or Apple Maps will give you a good understanding of the block and the kind of look of it.
SUPPLEMENTARY QUESTION
Ms O’CONNOR – I have a supplementary question.
Mr PRESIDENT – The honourable member for Hobart, a supplementary question.
Ms O’CONNOR – Minister, was it the owners of the Silver Ridge Retreat who approached government about the excision of an area of land, regardless of its values, and we can take you on trust on that, but once the government starts removing pieces of land from the reserve estate, it is something that parliament should take notice of.
Were you approached by the Silver Ridge Retreat with an offer for that land? Do you recall that in the State of the Environment Report one of the recommendations is to increase the size of Tasmania’s reserve estate and shrink it. Perhaps you could detail to the Council the genesis of this decision because it is not like it was 25 years in understanding a mistake has been made. There has obviously been an approach for some change in recent months for your government to bother tabling a revocation.
Mr DUIGAN – Thank you, Mr President.
As I said in my previous answer, as I understand it, it was a mistake in the original scheduling of the reserve and an agreement of sale was in place prior to the proclaiming of the reserve. I understand it is an opportunity to correct that long-standing mistake.
