In September 2018, the former Department of the Environment and Energy received an allegation of land clearing impacting the Lavinia Ramsar site on King Island, Tasmania.
The department’s investigation found that the landowner had conducted earthworks and land clearing causing changes to hydrological flows, consequently impacting the protected wetland. These actions were in contravention of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
It is a civil offence under Part 3 of the Act to take an action that has or will have a significant impact on the ecological character of a declared Ramsar wetland site without approval under the Act.
The Lavinia wetlands are home to many species including the King Island scrubtit and King Island brown thornbill, both of which are threatened species and are not found anywhere else in the world.
A remediation determination is a penalty that addresses the environmental impact caused by a contravention of Part 3 of the Act by requiring a person to take action to repair or mitigate that damage.
In responding to the contravention of the Act, the Delegate to the Minister for the Environment made a remediation determination on 9 June 2020 requiring the landowner to repair the damage, by restoring water flows between the property and the Lavinia Ramsar site.
This compliance outcome is consistent with the department’s published Compliance Policy.
The remediation determination is available at our
