The former graincorp chair and prominent wheat farmer Ronald Greentree has been handed a record fine of more than $1m for illegal land-clearing in the north-west of New South Wales.
Greentree and his company Auen Grain were sentenced in the state’s land and environment court on Friday for offences related to illegal clearing of an area larger than Sydney airport on the property “Boolcarrol”, north-west of Narrabri.
The sentence follows a 2022 court decision that found Greentree and Auen Grain guilty of eight separate land-clearing events at the property between December 2016 and January 2019.
The 1,262 hectares (3,120 acres) of native vegetation cleared included critical habitat for 30 threatened species, including the koala and Glossy Black Cockatoo, to make way for a private airstrip, crops and cattle yards, the NSW government’s environment department said.
Greentree was fined $1,015,200, the largest ever fine for an individual for unlawful land-clearing in the state. Auen Grain was fined $1,072,800. The court also ordered Greentree and his company to pay $278,000 for the prosecution’s legal costs.
Ingrid Emery, from the NSW environment department, said: “We are pleased with the outcome of this case, particularly given the landholder’s prior convictions for similar offences.”
A judgment published on Friday said the prosecutor had noted there was “no evidence of insight, contrition, or remorse from the defendants and the defendants concede that there is no evidence of remorse.”
The defendants pleaded not guilty.
The court had heard evidence that nine threatened species were “highly likely” to have been present prior to clearing – including the pale-headed snake, south-eastern glossy black-cockatoo, spotted harrier, brown treecreeper, painted honeyeater, grey-crowned babbler, hooded robin, diamond firetail and yellow-bellied sheathtail-bat.
There was further evidence that 17 threatened species were “moderately likely” to have been present prior to the clearing, including the stripe-faced dunnart, koala, little pied bat and barking owl.
The court heard evidence the clearing also likely caused significant damage to the habitat of eight threatened plant species.
The Greens MP and environmental lawyer Sue Higginson said that “Greentree should be remorseful for his criminally and seriously harmful land damage, but I suspect he is laughing all the way to the bank.
“It is clear from the judgment that Greentree doesn’t accept the criminality of his actions,” Higginson said.
“The court did not accept his evidence and found he held no remorse for destroying so much biodiversity which included endangered ecological communities and threatened species habitat for his own profit and profit he made.
“The fact Greentree has a history of destroying biodiversity suggests a level of impunity a sense that he thinks he’s above the law.”
