Warburton Environment Inc v VicForests (No 5) - [2022] VSC 633

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA

Not Restricted

AT MELBOURNE

COMMON LAW DIVISION
VALUATION, COMPENSATION AND PLANNING LIST

S ECI 2020 02461

WARBURTON ENVIRONMENT INC (ABN 28 781 873 830)	Plaintiff
v
VICFORESTS	Defendant

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JUDGE:	GARDE J
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATES OF HEARING:	21-24 February, 3 March, 14 July and 8 September 2022
DATE OF JUDGMENT:	25 October 2022
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	Warburton Environment Inc v VicForests (No 5)
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2022] VSC 633

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ENVIRONMENTAL LAW – Timber harvesting within State forests in Central Highlands region – Central Highlands Regional Forest Agreement – Tree Geebung – Endangered species – Code principles – Protection of long-lived understorey species – Protection of individual trees with a DBHOB of at least 10 cm from disturbance where reasonably practicable – Precautionary principle – Conduct of timber harvesting and regeneration burning – Bushfire Management Manual – Statutory construction – Relief – Injunctions – Standing – Conservation, Forests and Lands Act 1987 (Vic) ss 31, 39; Sustainable Forests (Timber) Act 2004 (Vic) ss 1, 5, 12A, 13-16, 37–38, 41, 43–46; Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 (Vic) ss 3(1), 4(a)–(e), 4A(b)–(f); State Owned Enterprises Act 1992 (Vic) ss 14, 17; Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014 (as amended 2022) cls 1.2.2, 1.2.8, 1.2.10, 1.3, 2.2.2, 2.2.2.2, 2.2.2.10; Schedule 1: Management Standards and Procedures for timber harvesting operations in Victoria’s State forests cls 1.2, 4.2.1.1, 4.2.1.3; VicForests v Kinglake Friends of the Forest Inc (2021) 248 LGERA 28.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Plaintiff	Mr J Korman with Dr K Weston-Scheuber	Oakwood Legal
For the Defendant	Mr E Nekvapil with Ms M Narayan	Johnson Winter & Slattery

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction........................................................................................................................................ 1

Tree Geebung..................................................................................................................................... 2

Central Highlands Regional Forest Agreement........................................................................... 2

Relevant legislation and subordinate instruments..................................................................... 4

Conservation, Forests and Lands Act 1987 (Vic)........................................................................... 4
Sustainable Forests (Timber) Act 2004 (Vic).................................................................................. 4
FFG Act........................................................................................................................................... 9
Legislation establishing VicForests.......................................................................................... 11
Allocation orders......................................................................................................................... 11

The Code and Standards................................................................................................................. 12

The Code....................................................................................................................................... 12
The Standards.............................................................................................................................. 20

Precursors to the Code..................................................................................................................... 21

VicForests’ Special Management Plan......................................................................................... 22

Bushfire Management Manual...................................................................................................... 31

Interlocutory injunctions................................................................................................................ 32

The issues.......................................................................................................................................... 35

Evidence............................................................................................................................................. 36

Mr Mueck’s evidence...................................................................................................................... 37

First report filed 4 August 2020................................................................................................ 37
Description of Tree Geebung........................................................................................... 37
Disturbance of Tree Geebung.......................................................................................... 38
Search requirements.......................................................................................................... 39
Targeted surveys............................................................................................................... 40
Protection of Tree Geebung............................................................................................. 40
Setbacks............................................................................................................................... 41

Second report filed 18 September 2020.................................................................................... 42
Risk management.............................................................................................................. 42
Buffer configuration.......................................................................................................... 42

Third report filed 20 October 2021............................................................................................ 43
Mature Tree Geebung....................................................................................................... 43
Juveniles.............................................................................................................................. 43

Fourth report filed 21 October 2021......................................................................................... 43
Fifth report filed 24 December 2021......................................................................................... 44
Survival and persistence................................................................................................... 45
Observations as to the 2021 SMP..................................................................................... 46
Tree Geebung habitat........................................................................................................ 48
Efficacy of the 2021 SMP................................................................................................... 49

Oral evidence............................................................................................................................... 49
Climate change................................................................................................................... 51

Professor Feller’s evidence............................................................................................................. 52

First report filed 20 October 2021.............................................................................................. 52
Risks of regeneration burns............................................................................................. 52
Advance planning............................................................................................................. 53
Planning and conduct of regeneration burns................................................................ 53

Second report filed 24 December 2021..................................................................................... 54
Oral evidence............................................................................................................................... 54

Mr Gunn’s evidence........................................................................................................................ 56

Affidavits filed 30 November…

Grounds of appeal

[14] The appellant contends that the primary judge erred in finding that the respondent had discharged the onus of establishing the matters required under the relevant provision.

[15] It was submitted that his Honour failed to give adequate weight to the evidence of the second witness, and that the findings of fact were not reasonably open on the material before the Court.

[16] The respondent, for its part, submits that no error is disclosed, and that the conclusions reached were well within the range of outcomes available to the primary judge.

Consideration

[17] It is convenient to deal first with the question of construction, as the resolution of that issue informs the remaining grounds advanced by the appellant.

[18] For the reasons that follow, we are of the view that the appeal should be allowed in part and the matter remitted for further determination.

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Details

Case: [2022] VSC 633
Decision Date: 25 October 2022

CaseChat Overview and Summary

Warburton Environment Inc sought injunctions and declarations against VicForests to enforce the environmental protections relating to Tree Geebung (Persoonia arborea) set out in the Code of Practice for Timber Production 2014 (as amended 2022) and in Schedule 1: Management Standards and Procedures for timber harvesting operations in Victoria’s State forests. The Code and the Standards, including their predecessor versions, are the primary instruments for regulating timber harvesting in Victoria’s State forests. VicForests is required by law to comply with the Code and the Standards. VicForests contends that compliance with its Special Management Plan for Tree Geebung is sufficient to satisfy the relevant requirements of the Code and Standards. The principal issues in the case were whether compliance with the Special Management Plan by VicForests was sufficient to meet the requirements of the Code and Standards, and, if it was not, what relief (if any) should be granted by the Court. The Court held that compliance with the Special Management Plan by VicForests was not sufficient to meet the requirements of the Code and Standards. The Court found that the Special Management Plan was inadequate to achieve the minimum necessary to comply with the Code and Standards. It was inadequate to achieve the necessary protection of mature Tree Geebungs from destruction or damage by timber harvesting operations, regeneration burning and subsequent exposure and windthrow. The Court found that the measures necessary to comply with the Code and Standards were to conduct targeted pre-harvest surveys of coupes to identify and locate mature Tree Geebungs, the provision of proper buffers during timber harvesting, and wider firebreaks to protect mature Tree Geebungs within buffers from the destructive effects of regeneration burning. The Court ordered that VicForests, its servants, agents or contractors were restrained from carrying out timber harvesting operations in any Wet Forest Coupe in the Central Highlands, including the Pat’s Corner coupe, unless prior to commencing timber harvesting operations: (i) a person experienced in the identification of Tree Geebungs surveys the coupe utilising transects spaced at a maximum of 30m; (ii) VicForests identifies and records the location of each individual Tree Geebung with a DBHOB of at least 10cm; (iii) VicForests ensures that the relevant coupe map identifies a protective buffer comprising at least a 50m radius circle, measured in the horizontal plane, of undisturbed vegetation around each specified Tree Geebung within the coupe, with each specified Tree Geebung located at least 15m horizontally from the perimeter of that circle; and (iv) VicForests ensures that the relevant coupe plan provides adequate specifications and conditions to ensure that the vegetation within buffers remains undisturbed in the course of the timber harvesting. In the course of conducting timber harvesting operations, including regeneration burns, VicForests was required to do all things reasonably necessary and practicable to ensure that: (i) vegetation within the buffers as specified in the relevant coupe map in fact remains undisturbed and the specifications and conditions in the relevant coupe plan are followed; and (ii) prior to conducting regeneration burns, a firebreak of at least 10m in width is created to separate buffers around specified Tree Geebungs from the area of the regeneration burn. The injunctions would be conditional. VicForests need not comply with these injunctions if in the case of any individual coupe, or part of a coupe, it was not reasonably practicable to do so. In order to ensure accountability in such a case, the destruction or damage of one or more mature Tree Geebung was to be recorded in the relevant coupe log, setting out the reason or reasons why it was not possible to comply with the injunctions, and signed by the Senior Forest Officer or other senior person within VicForests responsible for the harvesting or regeneration burning of the coupe. The Court also gave directions for the parties to bring in orders to give effect to these reasons, and hear the parties as to the final orders to be made by the Court (if necessary) and as to costs.

Orders