Fine for felling national park trees
MORE than 100 ancient trees aged from 250 to over 400 years old were illegally chopped down from a Far North national park, leaving a man with a $15,000 fine.
The fine follows a long investigation sparked by traditional land owners of the Rinyirru National Park, at Lakefield, zoned part of Cape York Peninsula Aboriginal land.
In 2020, the Kyerrwanhdha Thingalkal Land Trust entered into an agreement to log Cooktown ironwood trees on two stations that border the national park.
KTLT then directed its timber company Oga Alugul
Pty Ltd to forge ahead with the operation, but the latter had in turn hired contractors, including the man ultimately fined, to perform the work.
“The man was hired by the timber export company to conduct harvesting activities and he hired other people to conduct the felling,” the Department of Environment and Science said in a statement following its investigation.
“Between September 18 and October 22, 2020, an unknown timber cutter employed by the man felled 113 trees in the Rinyirru National Park.
“The man was charged with one offence of taking a natural resource of a protected area without authority, in contravention of section 62(1) of the Nature Conservation Act 1992.
“He was fined $15,000 and ordered to pay $250 in legal costs. As no conviction was recorded, he cannot be named.”