Country : Australia
Assignment Task:

Destruction of Wildlife and their Habitat

Any person who causes to be killed, injured or disturbed any wildlife or animal habitat during the course of a bushfire or any fire prevention activities shall be guilty of an offence punishable by up to 2 years in prison or a fine of up to $500,000.

Robyn and Johnnie are long-time friends and have been charged with separate offences under the Bushfire Prevention and Management Act 2019 (Cth) (the Act).  

Johnnie and Robyn grew up together in Bermagui and were childhood sweethearts. They broke up after they graduated from the local Narooma High School and went their separate ways. Thirty years later, they bumped into each other again in the car park of the Bermagui Woolworths.  They soon found out that they had both, by chance, returned to Bermagui to live.  Their respective partners were not thrilled by this co-incidence.

Robyn has been the President of the Cuttagee Coastcare Group for the last 2 years and Johnnie, encouraged by Robyn, is a member of the Group and is one of its most devoted volunteers.  

Cuttagee Coastcare is a volunteer group organized under the auspices of Landcare Australia.  Their members are dedicated to the preservation and restoration of native vegetation, birdlife and wildlife along the local dunes in the Bermagui/Cuttagee area.  They refer to themselves as the ‘Dune Brigade’.

On Sunday 21 April 2019, the Cuttagee Coastcare Group held their annual Sausage Sizzle charity event to help raise funds for research into possible biodynamic means to eradicate Bitou Bush (ie., Chrysanthemoides monilifera an introduced species from South Africa) and eco-friendly ways to reduce the invasive spread of Australian Cheesewood (ie. Pittosporum undulatum) along the local dune environments.

Members and friends of the Cuttagee Coastcare Group met on the headland reserve at Bermagui (just behind the war memorial) on the preceding Sunday to prepare the site. The headland reserve was part of the National Parks and Wildlife reserve that stretched along the shore from Bermagui to Cuttagee. Most of the preparations involved removing litter but where the barbeques were going to be erected, the team had to level the grassed site with shovels and mattocks and then lay down beach sand to prevent possible embers starting a fire.  During the course of leveling the site, Johnnie came across a rabbit hole. He went to collapse and fill in the rabbit hole, but in doing so, his shovel sank into the ground and it decapitated a rabbit that was in the hole and it died immediately. As he considered rabbits pests, he later boasted about his kill to members of the group while he was at the Bermagui Pub after the preparation activities were complete.

On the day of the sausage sizzle, over 1000 local people and visitors attended the sausage sizzle event.  Cuttagee Coastcare Group raised just under $10,000 from their barbeque and from donations. As the members were packing up, someone did not turn off one of the LPG gas bottles properly and as Robyn was leaning over to pick up the gas bottle (with a cigarette in her mouth) the gas bottle caught alight.  A long flame was propelled out of the gas bottle toward a nearby patch of Bitou Bush.  The Bitou Bush quickly caught alight and ended up burning over 5 hectares of nearby dune vegetation forming part of the local coastal reserve, but it was all densely vegetated Bitou Bush, so Robyn and the Group were very pleased. In fact, they all sat back drank champagne and celebrated the fact that this meant there were 5 hectares less Bitou Bush they had to clear.

A week later, a resident whose property abutted the coastal reserve, walked into the Bermagui Police Station to complain about the destruction of the Bitou Bush at the foot of her property.  The Bitou Bush provided a valuable wind break for her vegetable garden and since the bush had been burned, the salt laden wind from the nearby beach had burnt her entire lettuce crop.  Since the local reserve was vested in the National Parks and Wildlife service, the local police referred her complaint to the Federal Police in Canberra.  The Federal Police conducted a broad ranging investigation into the coastal fire and the Sausage Sizzle event.  On 25 May 2020, an officer of the Australian Federal Police charged Robyn with committing an offence under section 6 of the Act.

She also charged Johnnie with committing an offence under section 7 of the Act.

Applying the rules of statutory interpretation, advise Robyn and Johnnie.

 

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  • Uploaded By : Alex Cerry
  • Posted on : July 03rd, 2019
  • Downloads : 330

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