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Court fines company which cleared bushland |
A company contracted to undertake tree clearing and excavation on a development site was fined $52,000 for removing indigenous bushland, shrubs, sandstone rocks and trees, including two Red Bloodwood trees, whose retention was a condition of development consent. |
The company appealed, not against the penalty for removal of the two trees, which was $15,000, but against the sentence for clearing the rest of the native vegetation - the western corner of the site, it admitted, was effectively a 'flat, level, gravel ground', by the time it had finished. |
The maximum penalty for such offences is over $1 million. The judge on appeal would have liked to double the penalty, noting the seriousness of the offence, that the company was an experienced contractor, it knew the bushland needed to be retained, and had removed it because it made it easier for it to turn its trucks. General deterrence as well as material environmental damage was relevant in sentencing. |
However, to be able to increase the sentence, the court would have had to warn the company that might be going to happen, and give it the opportunity to withdraw its appeal. |
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