Stephen Cupitt, an environmental scientist and consultant with more than 30 years experience, told the Property Rights Australia forum in Roma, that with three tiers of Government now to deal with there has never been a more difficult time to navigate the regulatory environment in his career than now.

AN 84-year-old grazier spent seven months fearing he would lose his property after clearing only lantana weed on land mapped as Category X vegetation, which enabled it be cleared without a permit under Queensland State law.

However, while also being careful not to remove any trees which the Category X designation also enabled him to clear, he found himself facing a $1.2 million Commonwealth fine after he was referred to the Federal Government by his local council – which had ironically earlier advised him it supported his clearing plans.

The alarming recent real-life case was raised by an environmental consultant at last Saturday’s Property Rights Australia conference in Roma as an example of the increasingly complex and highly stressful maze of vegetation laws now confronting Australian landholders.

Some Local Councils overriding State laws

Environmental consultant Stephen Cupitt said many landholders assume that State vegetation approvals under Property Map of Assessable Vegetation (PMAV) automatically clear them to proceed with routine vegetation management on land designated as Category X, also known as white areas on PMAVs,. The category means that area of land is not considered remnant and clearing is generally allowed without requiring a state permit.

However, Mr Cupitt warned that in addition to the complexity and uncertainty created by the recent changes to Federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act which overlays State law, there are now also confusingly instances where Local Government law is also being used to override State law on vegetation management matters.

Mr Cupitt said some local councils have been moving to apply powers granted to them to protect biodiversity under Queensland’s State Planning Act to prevent landholders with Category X land from managing those areas.

“How can local override state? That is how they’re doing it,” he said.

“It can be mapped as Category X PMAV at state level, but protected as regionally significant vegetation at local level.”

A strategy being used by some Councils to over-ride State law was to report “illegal clearing activity” to the Federal Government.

“What they do is, and I have struck this a number of times, is they report it to the Commonwealth Government as illegal land clearing.

“So if you go in to maintain your Category X PMAV, and they don’t like it and they want to keep it, they report it as illegal land clearing.

“It doesn’t matter if that is correct or not, that is irrelevant, the Commonwealth must investigate. Once they get that report they have to investigate illegal land clearing. That is a real concern.”

Harder to work with laws now that at any point of last 30 years

Mr Cupitt said that in now having to deal with three tiers of Government, environmental scientists and consultants were now grappling with a system that was harder to interpret and navigate than at any point in his 30-year career.

“I spend just about two or three hours every day trying to read different websites and trying to keep up with this. It is not easy, and how you guys (landholders) do it, I don’t know.”

Each tier of government had their own information and did not share between each other, he said.

“So when you deal with it you have got to deal with the three levels individually.

“The legislation changes daily. What I can tell you today can change tomorrow, next week, next month. Whatever you do, don’t take my word as gospel today and then go and do it. Always check.”

Minister says councils should no go beyond remit

Minister for Local Government and Water of Queensland, Ann Leahy, addressing the 2026 PRA conference in Roma.

Queensland Local Government Minister and Member for Warrego, Ann Leahy, who also attended the Roma forum,  said councils should not be operating beyond their legislative remit.

“So as the Minister for Local Government, I like them to stick to their knitting, and not go out of their area of expertise of roads, rates, and rubbish.”

She told the conference her Department can conduct audits to make sure councils are “doing what they should be doing and not going over and above the state legislation.”

84-year-old landholder’s seven-month ordeal

To illustrate the challenges landholders can face while trying to follow due process in the new highly complex regulatory environment, Mr Cupitt detailed a recent real-life case involving an 84-year-old grazing property owner in South East Queensland.

The landholder wanted to clear lantana in a central part of his property which was marked Category X.

Other parts of the property contained areas of protected vegetation and koala habitat that the landholder deliberately avoided.

Even though Category X designation would have allowed the landholder to clear trees in the same area – primarily forest bluegum at a population of about 80 trees plus per hectare – he did not touch a single tree Mr Cupitt said.

Clearing the lantana was his only interest.

According to Mr Cupitt, the only work undertaken involved using a positrack (a small compact rubber-tracked loader) to push up the dense lantana infestations into burn piles and to later spot-spray lantana regrowth.

Before conducitng the work and despite holding Category X PMAV mapping over the relevant area, the landholder still sought advice from both State and local government in advance of the work proceeding.

Mr Cupitt said representatives of both levels of Government both said that because he had Category X over that land he was fine to proceed.

However, weeks later, the 84-year-old received correspondence relating to an investigaion of alleged illegal clearing, including threats of penalties including fines of up to $1.2 million fine and 25 year rehabilitation orders, which would mean no stocking of country for that length of time, if the breaches were proven.

“He is an 84 year old man, you can imagine the stress that that caused him,” Mr Cupitt said.

“He came to me, and he said, “Steve what do I do with this?

I said, “Well, we’ve just got to work through it. And work through it we did.”

Mr Cupitt said Commonwealth compliance officers and ecologists later conducted a full-day inspection of the property, taking measurements and counting trees across most of the property.

At one point he said one of the officers told him that all of the country with its open, rolling hill was koala habitat.

“What does that mean for the landholder?,” Mr Cupit said he asked. He said the response was that as koala habitat it could not be touched, even if it had a Category X PMAV in place.

“I said how are you supposed to maintain the country? He said ‘not my problem’. That was his response.”

What followed was a seven month wait before the landholder finally received a response.

“In that seven months he stressed every day,. What’s going to happen? Am I going to lose my country?

After seven months he received a reply stating the Commonwealth was not proceeding with its investigation..

“I said well why couldn’t you tell us that seven months ago?” Mr Cupitt siad.

“And then a letter came to me, saying as the consulting ecologist we’d like you to put the consider putting the entire property under the protection of koala habitat.

“And my four page response back was pretty brutal, I didn’t hear back from them again.”

‘Document everything’

Mr Cupitt’s strongest message to landholders to “document everything”.

“Document who you spoke to and when, get their name, record the date and time in your diary, get their response in writing or via email, and ask of you can record the conversation on your phone, so you’ve got a record of  it.

“They may say no, you can’t do it. Don’t say ‘I’m going to do it anyway’, because if it’s not done with their authority or approval, well, it’s meaningless. Still ask, it doesn’t hurt to try.

“Take photographs of vegetation before you clear it, that’s critical. Absolutely critical.

“If you have got a drone or your grandson or your sons have got a drone, stick the drone up, shoot it at about a 20 degree angle, you get the best coverage that way, fly it about 30 meters above vegetation.”

He also recommended downloading a free smartphone app that will embed the time, date and GPS coordinates on any pictyre taken to provide irrefutable evidence.

He personally uses an app called Conoto.

“If you use a photo with no data behind it, they will say the photo could have been taken anywhere, any time.

“The most important thing is if you don’t know or understand, ask advice from somebody.”

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