Weeds & Legislation

As a land manager, Council must prevent, eliminate or minimise the risk posed by weeds found on land under its control. Council is also the Local Control Authority for the Snowy Valleys Council Local Government Area, which means Council is responsible for administering and enforcing the Biosecurity Act 2015 in respect to weeds. This includes inspecting private and public lands to ensure owners/managers of land carry out their obligations.

Your Role in Weed Control

All land owners or land managers have a ‘General Biosecurity Duty’ to prevent, eliminate or minimise the Biosecurity Risk posed or likely to be posed by weeds.

If a weed poses a biosecurity risk in a particular area, but is not the subject of any specific legislation, Council’s Authorised Officers may rely on the land owner's or land manager's 'general biosecurity duty' to manage that weed or prevent its spread.

If Council’s Authorised Officers believe that the owner/occupier of the land is failing in their biosecurity duty to control weeds on their land then they can issue a Biosecurity Direction to prevent, eliminate or minimise the biosecurity risk.  Other management enforcement tools are available including on-the-spot penalty notices of $1000 to $2000 for not complying with

  • General Biosecurity duty
  • Individual Biosecurity Direction to control weeds
  • Biosecurity undertakings to control weeds

General Biosecurity Duty Applies To Everyone

Any person who deals with any plant, who knows (or ought to know) of any biosecurity risk, has a duty to ensure the risk is prevented, eliminated or minimised, so far as is reasonably practicable.

Section 22 of the Biosecurity Act states that: any person (this means individual, company, organisation, corporation or body politic) who deals with biosecurity matter or a carrier and who knows, or ought reasonably to know, the biosecurity risk posed or likely to be posed by the biosecurity matter, carrier or dealing, has a biosecurity duty to ensure that, so far as is reasonably practicable, the biosecurity risk is prevented, eliminated or minimised.

For more information contact Council’s Biosecurity Officers:

The Biosecurity Act

From 1 July 2017 the Biosecurity Act 2015  and its subordinates came into effect replacing all or part of 14 Acts including the Noxious Weeds Act 1993.

The Biosecurity Act provides modern, flexible tools and powers that allow effective, risk-based management of biosecurity in NSW. It will increase efficiency and decrease regulation in responding to biosecurity risks and provides a streamlined statutory framework to protect the NSW economy, environment and community from the negative impact of pests, diseases and weeds.

Snowy Valleys Council is committed to maintaining an effective and efficient program to control biosecurity on both private and Council owned land.

Please take the time to review the updates and changes in legislation and Council’s role, as Local Control Authorities (LCAs), in administering and enforcing the Biosecurity Act 2015.

Biosecurity Act 2015

Biosecurity Regulation 2017