Native vegetation management

Native Vegetation Reforms

The Native Vegetation Act 2003, which will end broadscale landclearing in NSW while providing long-term certainty for farmers, will come into effect on December 1, 2005.

The Native Vegetation Act 2003 sets a framework for:

• ending broadscale clearing unless it improves or maintains environmental outcomes
• encouraging revegetation and rehabilitation of land with native vegetation, and
• rewarding farmers for good land management.

Catchment Management Authorities have been established to administer the new system, which is based on voluntary agreements between landholders and CMAs called Property Vegetation Plans (PVPs). It is the most comprehensive and practically focussed system available in Australia and has the potential to lead to a revolution in the way we manage native vegetation across NSW.

$436 million has been directed to protect and restore landscapes, with at least $120 million of those funds earmarked to assist landholders improve native vegetation through PVPs.

Click here to access information sheets for the Native Vegetation Act 2003.

Native Vegetation Contacts

For routine native vegetation enquiries, please contact the Catchment Officer in your local Western CMA office:

Cobar - Paul Theakston p.02 6836 1575

Bourke - Bourke Office p.02 6872 2144

Walgett - Claire Bergin p.02 6828 1272

Broken Hill - Louise Turner p.08 8087 8400

Jessica Cohen , Catchment Officer (PVPs)
p. 02 6872 2144

Enquiries regarding cultivation/Western Lands lease issues should be directed to your local office of the Far West Region of the Department of Natural Resources.

Native Vegetation History

The history of the vegetation of the Western Catchment can be more closely examined in books such as Dick Condon’s ‘Out of the West’ published in 2002 or Jim Noble’s ‘The Delicate and Noxious Scrub’ published in 1997. Both of these publications document the legislative controls on clearing within the area and the proliferation of regrowth scrub and ‘woody weeds’ over much of the land following European settlement.

Prior to European settlement and the introduction of domestic grazing animals, the vegetation of the Catchment was managed by its Aboriginal owners. It is believed that fire played a significant role in this native vegetation management.

Since settlement, the land of the Catchment has largely continued to be Crown Land under various leasehold arrangements and since 1901 it has been administered under the Western Lands Act. This Act and the subsequent Native Vegetation Conservation Act 1997 and the Native Vegetation Act 2003 have carefully managed any clearing of the native vegetation. This legislation, together with the semi-arid nature of the catchment means that only limited clearing of the native vegetation has occurred.

Currently less than 5% of the Catchment has been cleared for change of land use, this makes the catchment unique within NSW. While clearing of native vegetation has been limited there are significant native vegetation issues within the catchment relating to the thickening of open woodland communities and the invasion of open grasslands with native woody shrubs. The protection and re-establishment of open woodlands and grassland areas are a priority within the Catchment.

Native Vegetation Publication