Marrable v Chief Executive, Department of Natural Resources

The case of Marrable v Chief Executive, Department of Natural Resources, heard in the Land Court in Brisbane, involves the determination of the unimproved value of a 63.22-hectare parcel of land located in Tallebudgera, Gold Coast City Council. The appellants, HW and DM Marrable, appealed the Chief Executive's valuation of the land at $320,000 as at 1 January 1995 and $380,000 as at 1 January 1996, contending that the land should be valued at $145,000 and $180,000, respectively. The key issue was whether the land should be valued under the provisions of section 17(1) of the Valuation of Land Act 1944 as land being used for the purposes of farming or as land not qualifying to be so valued.

The court examined the evidence presented by the appellants, including the testimony of David Charles Newcomb and Harvey Warren Marrable. The appellants argued that the land was used for grazing cattle and that the cattle were fed with waste bread from Gold Coast Bakeries, a company owned by the appellants. The court found that the farming activities on the subject land constituted a grazing business and that the land was used for the purposes of farming as defined in the Valuation of Land Act.

The court rejected the respondent's argument that the grazing business was inextricably bound up with the business of baking, finding that the actual use of the subject land was for grazing, regardless of the source of supplementary fodder. Both appeals were allowed, and the unimproved values of the land were determined to be $145,000 as at 1 January 1995 and $180,000 as at 1 January 1996.