More than 1200 hectares of native trees felled and burned to make way for an airstrip, crops and cattle yards on a northern NSW farm were illegally cleared, a judge has found.
Auen Grain Pty Ltd and its director Ronald Lewis Greentree bulldozed, ploughed and burned vegetation in an area larger than the size of Sydney Airport.
The offending occurred on the 34,000ha Boolcarrol property, on the NSW North West Slopes near Narribri which was controlled by Auen Grain and Greentree.
In a decision on December 23, the NSW Land and Environment Court found the pair guilty of eight criminal offences for carrying out or authorising the illegal removal of native flora eight separate times between December 2016 and January 2019.
The partners had claimed the clearing was permitted, including through bushfire hazard reduction and the removal of noxious weeds.
But Judge John Robson rejected this, finding the trees and vegetation had been cleared without an approved development application or property vegetation plan.
Greentree authorised the clearing as majority shareholder and his firm did not do anything to prevent it, the judge said.
"Mr Greentree (although he was reluctant to use the word 'clearing') admitted that he, or persons acting under his instruction, removed vegetation on the land the subject of a number of the clearing events," Judge Robson said.
"In circumstances where I have found that this removal was clearing of native vegetation, I find beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Greentree carried out, or authorised the carrying out of, the clearing of native vegetation ... and is therefore liable for each clearing event."
The NSW Department of Industry, Planning and Environment prosecuted Auen Grain and 63-year-old Greentree and its partners in the Boolcarrol farm - Merrywinebone and director Kenneth Bruce Harris.
However, the court acquitted Merrywinebone and Mr Harris, finding they were not heavily involved in the operations of the farm, were unaware of the clearing and only visited the property infrequently.
"I do not find that the clearing undertaken by Mr Greentree arose as a material consequence of any conduct, positive act, instruction or chain of operations put in place by Merrywinebone or its sole director, Mr Harris," Judge Robson said.
Greentree and Auen Grain will be sentenced at a later date.
Prosecutors are considering an appeal against the non-guilty verdicts against Mr Harris and Merrywinebone.
