Coastal Protection Regulation 2011

The Coastal Protection Act 1979 is the principal legislation relating to coastal management in New South Wales. Key provisions of the Act include requirements relating to Ministerial concurrences for certain developments in the coastal zone, and requirements relating to preparing coastal zone management plans. It also includes order powers relating to unlawful dumping of material on beaches.

In 2010 the Act was amended by the Coastal Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2010. This included new provisions allowing landowners to temporarily place sand or sandbags as emergency coastal protection works under certain conditions. The amendments also improved the arrangements for preparing coastal zone management plans and the ability of public authorities to require the removal of unlawful material dumped on beaches. They also increased penalties for a breach of the principal Act.

The primary objective of the Coastal Protection Regulation 2011 which commenced on 3 March 2011 is to support the amendments to the Coastal Protection Act. The main provisions of the Regulation are:

• requirements relating to emergency coastal protection works by landowners, specified in a Code of Practice (110223CodeofPracCoastProtAct1979.pdf; 230 KB) under the Regulation and also explained in a guide to these requirements (101017guidestatreqs.pdf; 300 KB)
• requirements relating to Ministerial concurrences which must be obtained before carrying out certain off-shore development activities, similar to the requirements in the Coastal Protection Regulation 2004
• defining the arrangements for categorising land according to its vulnerability to coastal hazards, based on information in council coastal zone management plans.

The Regulation requires that Ministerial concurrences under Part 3 of the Coastal Protection Act are required for certain offshore developments. These requirements do not apply to developments:

• under Part 3A and Part 4 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 or exempt development under that Act
• carried out in accordance with a coastal zone management plan.

Ministerial concurrences apply to that part of the coastal zone below the mean high water mark, excluding any estuary, lake or artificial harbour. For the purposes of the Regulation, 'estuary' includes any part of a river where the water level is affected (including intermittently) by coastal tides as well as any partially enclosed body of water that is intermittently open to the sea.

To ensure that concurrence is only required where there is a potential for the development to present a high risk to the coastal zone, the concurrence of the Minister is not required if the development consists of, or the use and occupation of land is for the purpose of, any of the following:

• the dredging of sediments from the seabed, when the dredging occurs in water depths greater than 30 metres below mean sea level and the volume of sediments removed is less than 100 cubic metres per year
• the placement of sediment on the seabed where the water depth following the placement would be greater than 30 metres below mean sea level and the volume of sediments placed is less than 10,000 cubic metres per year
• the placement of any solid object on the seabed where the top of the object, when placed, would be at a depth of more than 30 metres below mean sea level
• the temporary disturbance of the seabed associated with the carrying out the temporary disturbance of the seabed associated with the carrying out of development under the seabed is less than 30 days at any location.

Applications for Ministerial concurrence should be addressed to:

Director Waters, Wetlands and Coast Division
Office of Environment and Heritage
PO Box A290
Sydney South NSW 1232

Development of the Regulation

The proposed Regulation (ProposedCoastalProtectionRegulation2011.pdf; 260 KB) was placed on exhibition in February 2011, together with a Regulatory Impact Statement (110043CoastalProtRIS.pdf; 177 KB).

The Regulation was finalised taking into consideration comments received during the exhibition period.