Quarry company hit hard in court for clearing endangered plant
Friday, 13 July 2007
A company responsible for damaging a threatened plant species at a quarry near Tomerong on the South Coast has been fined $10,000 and ordered to pay $5,000 in costs after appearing in Nowra local court.
Gregory Todd, director of Tomerong Quarry Pty Ltd, appeared in court to answer charges relating to the illegal clearing in January 2005 of Melaleuca biconvexa which is listed in NSW as being a threatened species.
The Court heard that prior to the offence the company had submitted a development application to the Shoalhaven City Council for the development of a composting and vermiculture facility at the property.
Inspections of the site by council staff had revealed that there was a population of the threatened plant.
Within a month a subsequent inspection by council officers revealed that a considerable number of the plants had been removed with an excavator in the area proposed for development.
The matter was promptly referred by Shoalhaven Council to the Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) which began an investigation leading to this prosecution.
Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) Director General Lisa Corbyn said today that this latest case should send a clear message.
“Melaleuca biconvexa, normally known as a species of paperbark, is not well represented in national parks or nature reserves and mostly exists on private land in a handful of locations. Its distribution in NSW has been badly affected in the last 20 years by coastal development which is largely why it is now listed as a threatened species and why clearing it is such a serious offence.”
“NSW has strong legislation designed to protect threatened and endangered species. When these laws are broken the DECC will not hesitate to enforce them and commence prosecutions.”
“DECC has been successful in a securing prosecutions in a number of recent threatened species cases and so this should hopefully send the message that those people who flout the state’s environmental laws are taking big risks,” Ms Corbyn said.
