Wilderness Definitions and Permitted Uses in Australia

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Introduction
Much of Australia's wilderness has been destroyed
since European settlement. Only 4-5 of NSW
remains in wilderness condition. Most of the
Australia's least damaged areas are now to be
found only in the remote Outback or in rugged
areas in the more settled eastern States and
Tasmania. Recent Australian scientific research
has confirmed the importance of wilderness for
nature conservation.
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Australia satellite photograph
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Australian Wilderness Quality Database
Australian Land Disturbance Database (formerly
the National Wilderness Inventory).
Database developed by Australian scientists using
a ranking system with four criteria

• Remoteness from Settlementremoteness from places
  of permanent occupation
• Remoteness from Accessremoteness from
  established access routes
• Apparent Naturalnessthe degree to which the
  landscape is free from the presence of permanent
  structures associated with modern technological
  society
• Biophysical Naturalnessthe degree to which the
  natural environment is free from biophysical
  disturbance caused by the influence of modern
  technological society.

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Wilderness Quality versus Wilderness Areas

• A distinction must be drawn between wilderness
  quality and wilderness area

Wilderness quality is the extent to which any
specified unit area is remote from and
undisturbed by the impacts and influence of
modern technological society. Wilderness areas
are places where wilderness quality is recognized
and valued by society and are defined using
arbitrary thresholds of remoteness, naturalness
and total area.
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Definitions in New South Wales Wilderness law

• Section 2(1) Wilderness Act 1987
• An area of land shall not be identified as
  wilderness by the Director -General unless the
  Director is of the opinion that
• (a) the area is, together with its plant and
  animal communities, in a state that has not been
  substantially modified by humans and their works
  or is capable of being restored to such a state
• (b) the area is of a sufficient size to make its
  maintenance in such a state feasible and
• (c) the area is capable of providing
  opportunities for solitude and appropriate
  self-reliant recreation.

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New South Wales
Section 6 (2) of the Wilderness Act allows the
Director-General to consider the following when
undertaking wilderness identification

• (a) the period of time within which the area of
  land could reasonably be restored to a
  substantially unmodified state
• (b) whether, despite development which would
  otherwise render it unsuitable, the area of land
  is needed for the management of an existing or
  proposed wilderness area and
• (c) any written representations received by the
  Director from any person (including a statutory
  authority) as to whether the area of land should
  be identified as wilderness.

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Definitions in South Australian Wilderness law
Wilderness Legislation in SA also does not
prescribe a rigid formula for wilderness
identification.
The statutory wilderness criteria in section 3(2)
Wilderness Protection Act 1992 state

• (a) the land and its ecosystems must not have
  been affected, or must have been affected to only
  a minor extent, by modern technology and
• (b) the land and its ecosystems must not have
  been seriously affected by exotic plants or
  animals or other exotic organisms.

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Wilderness criteria in Australian laws
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Wild Rivers legislation in Aust.

• World Heritage Properties Conservation Act 1983
  was used by Feds to prevent building of Franklin
  Dam (Tasmania)
• World Heritage provisions now in the Environment
  Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
  (Cth).
• Heritage Rivers Act 1992 (Vic)
• Queensland Parliament considering a Bill.
• Natl Parks Wildlife Act (NSW), s.61(4).

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Wild Rivers legislation in NSW

• Section 61(5) National Parks Wildlife Act 1974
• A wild river is to be managed in accordance with
  the following principles
• (a) the restoration (wherever possible) and
  maintenance of the natural biological,
  hydrological and geomorphological processes
  associated with wild rivers and their catchments,
  including natural flow variability,
• (b) the identification, conservation and
  appropriate management of Aboriginal objects and
  Aboriginal places.

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Permitted Uses in Australian legislation
The most contentious issues have included

• Access for recreation and 4WD/ roads
• Management and neighbours perceptions - Fire,
  weeds and feral animals
• Resource and extractive industries
• Wilderness declarations and private landholders
  (freehold and leasehold)

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Controls in Wilderness Zone of Tasmanias
Wilderness World Heritage Area Plan of Management
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Access policies in Tasmanian WHA Plan of
Management (Wilderness Zone)
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Federal restrictions on activities in wilderness
areas
The Commonwealth reserve or zone must be
maintained in its natural state. A person may
use the Commonwealth reserve or zone only for

• (a) scientific research authorised by the
  Director or
• (b) a purpose (except recovery of minerals)
  specified in the provisions of the management
  plan for the reserve that relate to the zone.
• EPBC Act, s.360.

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Federal controls EPBCA s.360(4)

• A person other than the Director must not do any
  of the following acts in the Commonwealth reserve
  or zone assigned to IUCN category - wilderness
  area
• (a) kill, injure, take, trade, keep or move a
  member of a native species
• (b) damage heritage
• (c) carry on an excavation
• (d) erect a building or other structure
• (da) carry out works
• (db) take an action for commercial purposes
• (e) establish a track
• (f) use a vehicle, aircraft or vessel
• (g) inundate land by means of a dam or other
  works for affecting the flow of water (whether
  they are inside or outside the reserve or zone)
• (h) extract water by canals or other works for
  affecting the flow of water (whether they are
  inside or outside the reserve or zone).

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Mining and Wilderness in Australia

• In NSW - wilderness identification gives no
  protection, only declaration. Existing mining
  interests are protected by law.
• SA has a problematic joint proclamation system
  75 of parks have been jointly proclaimed under
  parks and mining law, thereby allowing mining
  within reserves.
• SA Legislation allows mining in wilderness zones
  but not in wilderness areas.

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South Australian wilderness use restrictions

• Camping except in designated areas
• the lighting of fires
• the use of chainsaws
• the use of generators or alternators
• the use of metal detectors
• the possession and use of firearms (with
  exceptions for Aborigines)
• the possession and use of explosives or
  fireworks
• swimming or diving except in designated areas or
  with permission
• enter a cave without permission of the Director
  (or do a number of other specified acts inside
  caves)
• rock climbing, abseiling without permission,
  except in designated areas
• flying of model planes or gliders.
• Source Wilderness Protection Regulations 1992
  (SA), regs 7-17(2)

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Logging and wilderness law in Australia

• Federal law - EPBC Act ss.39-42 forestry is
  not regulated excluded by special exemption.
  
• NSW is the most relevant jurisdiction re
  forestry
• Where forest W identified or declared within
  national park, then protection is derived from
  the status of area as national park, not as
  wilderness.
• Where forest W identified within State forest
  then there is no protection from logging unless
  area is declared as wilderness, and there are
  significant impediments

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The effect of integrated forestry legislation in
NSW

• Forestry and National Parks Estate Act 1998 -
  prevents forested areas being identified and
  declared as wilderness
• An area in which forestry operations authorised
  by an integrated forestry operations approval
  cannot be proposed or identified as, or declared
  to be, a wilderness area under the Wilderness Act
  1987 or the National Parks and Wildlife Act
  1974.
• exempted State Forests from the Environmental
  Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (thereby
  removing the need for Environmental Impact
  Statements and Species Impact Statements),
• removed the rights of members of the public to
  enforce environmental laws (re forestry) in the
  Land and Environment Court.

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How wilderness identification affects private
landholders in NSW

• Wilderness identification
• does not stop a property being sold
• has no influence on how private property is
  currently managed or current land management
  activities such as grazing.
• does not restrict the existing legal access to,
  or use of, private or leasehold land by its
  occupiers
• does not preclude consent for vegetation clearing
  under the Native Vegetation Conservation Act 1997
  
• wilderness cannot be declared over freehold or
  Crown leasehold land without the landholders
  consent. Effectively all declared wilderness is
  restricted to public land.

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Conclusion

• Some Australian legislation provides for
  explicit statutory wilderness criteria
• SA Act provides for statutory expert wilderness
  advisory committee
• Agency and Ministerial discretion can be
  restricted but
• However it is impossible to remove the scope for
  political discretion in wilderness decision
  making.