EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
WORLD HERITAGE PROPERTIES CONSERVATION ACT 1983
WORLD HERITAGE PROPERTIES CONSERVATION REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
1988 No. 68
Subsection 21(1) of the World Heritage Properties Conservation Act 1983 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed.
Subsection 9(1) of the Act states:
“9(1) Where an act is prescribed for the purposes of this subsection in relation to particular property to which this section applies, it is unlawful, except with the consent in writing of the Minister, for a person to do that act, or to do that act by a servant or agent, in relation to that property.”
On 18 December 1987 the Commonwealth Government, under Article 11 of the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (the Convention), submitted the Wet Tropical Rainforests of North-East Australia (the Queensland rainforests) to the World Heritage Committee as suitable for inclusion in the World Heritage List. The Government thereby identified the Queensland rainforests as property forming part of the natural heritage in Australia for the purposes of the Convention. Australia has the international obligations under Articles 4 and 5 of the Convention in relation to the property.
On 31 March 1988 the Governor-General, being satisfied that the Queensland rainforests were likely to be damaged, by Proclamation under subsection 6(3) of the Act declared the property to be property to which section 9 of the Act applies. Regulations were made on the same day prohibiting commercial forestry operations in the property.
A road is now being constructed from the Mount Molloy area northwest of Cairns to the coast at Wangetti, 40 kilometres distant. The road would pass through the Queensland rainforests and cause serious, in some respects irreparable, damage to them. The Queensland Government has endorsed the project and given all necessary permits, etc. for the road to cross the various kinds of State-owned land in its path. At the present rate of construction, the road will be complete by mid-May.
The present amendment to the World Heritage Properties Conservation (the ‘Principal’) Regulations prohibits the construction of the road.
Regulation 1 deals with interpretation.
Regulation 2 inserts a new regulation 3B into the Principal Regulations. The new regulation prohibits the construction or establishment, and work preparatory to or associated with the construction or establishment, of a road or vehicular track in the relevant property which is within the Parishes of Dulanban and Garioch and, whether alone or in conjunction with other roads, existing or under construction, connects the Captain Cook Highway and the Peninsula Developmental Road.