Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection (Kings Plains) Declaration 2024

The instrument rests on a small set of legal and spatial concepts drawn from and anchored to the Act. The primary concepts to extract and track are: declared area, injury or desecration, prohibited conduct (including the listed activities), and the definitional scope of land, bulk earthworks and mining activities.

Declared area: Section 5(1) performs the legal act of declaration. It declares "the area specified in subsection (2), that is a significant Aboriginal area, is declared for protection and preservation in accordance with section 6". Subsection 5(2) identifies the area as "part of the Belubula River, its headwaters and its springs, at Kings Plains, near Blayney in New South Wales." The map in Schedule 1 is stated to indicate the declared area (s5(3); Schedule 1). The instrument therefore combines a textual locus description with a map representation.

Injury or desecration: The instrument imports the Act’s statutory framing of injury or desecration by reference. Note 1 to s6 quotes subsection 3(2) of the Act, stating an area is taken to be injured or desecrated if it is used or treated in a manner inconsistent with Aboriginal tradition; if anything done in, on or near the area adversely affects the use or significance of the area in accordance with Aboriginal tradition; or if passage through, over or entry upon the area occurs in a manner inconsistent with Aboriginal tradition. The instrument makes clear that preservation and protection are to be judged against this statutory standard.

Prohibited conduct, and the standard "will, or is likely to, injure or desecrate": Section 6(2) imposes the general prohibition: a person must not engage in any conduct that will, or is likely to, injure or desecrate the declared area. That will/likely threshold is significant: it captures prospective or risk-based conduct that has potential to cause the statutory harms, not only conduct that demonstrably has already caused harm. Section 6(3) then lists activities that are expressly prohibited without limiting the broader prohibition in s6(2). The list is introduced by "Without limiting subsection (2)," indicating the list is illustrative and not exhaustive.

Definitions that change scope: Section 4 defines "bulk earthworks" as excavation or movement of large quantities of soil or rock with intent or effect of changing level or elevation; "mining activities" includes activities that include, or are related to, extraction of materials or minerals from the ground; and "land includes soil and vegetation." These definitions expand the reach of the prohibitions to activities that alter soil, vegetation or the physical form of the land and to a broad class of extractive operations.

Spatial instrument: Schedule 1 provides the map that "indicates" the declared area. The instrument relies on the map image as the means of spatial demarcation. There are no coordinates or metes-and-bounds in the text. The combined use of a verbal description plus a mapped image is the map-based mechanism for delimiting the declared area.

Reference to the Act: The instrument repeatedly anchors its legal effect to specific provisions of the Act. Section 3 says the instrument is made under s10 of the Act. Section 5 invokes subsection 10(1) and paragraph 11(a) of the Act as the purposes for which the declaration is made, and section 6 invokes subsection 10(1) and paragraph 11(b). Note 2 to s6 points to subsection 22(1) of the Act as creating an offence for contravention. The instrument thus acts as a statutory declaration that sits within the Act’s framework and invokes its standards and penalties.

Temporal effect: Section 2(1) fixes commencement to the day after registration. The instrument includes the usual table form for commencement but contains no retroactivity clause; the commencement mechanism is a standard immediate-following-registration start.

Non-exhaustive protection: The "without limiting subsection (2)" language at s6(3) is a deliberate drafting choice to ensure the enumerated prohibitions do not exclude other conduct that will, or is likely to, injure or desecrate the declared area.

The instrument affects any person whose conduct may take place in, on, or near the declared area and who may engage in the listed activities or any conduct that will, or is likely to, injure or desecrate the area. The statutory prohibition (s6(2)) is framed against "a person", which on a plain reading captures natural persons and legal entities, contractors, agents and employees acting on their behalf. Specific categories are visible from the list in s6(3):

• Mining operators, prospective miners, exploration companies and their contractors are directly affected because s6(3)(a) expressly prohibits "mining activities" within the declared area; s4 defines "mining activities" broadly to include activities that are related to extraction from the ground.
• Civil contractors, earthmoving companies and developers are affected by the prohibition on "bulk earthworks" (s6(3)(b)) and the definition of "bulk earthworks" at s4 (excavation or other movement of large quantities of soil or rock with the intent or effect of changing level or elevation).
• Construction contractors and infrastructure providers are affected by the express prohibition on sealing any part of the declared area, including with concrete (s6(3)(c)).
• Organisations and individuals proposing works that would change landform or watercourses are captured by s6(3)(d), which prohibits activities that will, or are likely to, significantly alter the landform or course of water flowing within the declared area.
• Parties carrying out drilling, clearing, vegetation disturbance, soil disturbance, and preliminary activities associated with drilling or clearing are explicitly captured by s6(3)(e)-(g).
• Landowners, leaseholders and occupiers of land intersecting the declared area are affected because the instrument’s prohibitions bind "a person" and because the definition of "land" includes soil and vegetation (s4), extending protection into traditional land components.
• Service providers and consultants (surveyors, environmental consultants, engineers) whose work requires access to the site or involvement in works in or adjacent to the declared area may become enablers of prohibited conduct if they assist or facilitate activities that "will, or are likely to, injure or desecrate" the area.

Who pays: The primary financial burden will fall on persons proposing, financing or carrying out activities that the declaration prohibits. Those actors will face direct costs of compliance (stopping, redesigning or relocating proposed works), potential sunk costs if works are already in train, and legal costs if there is any enforcement action. The instrument itself does not allocate compensation or provide a permit pathway; it simply imposes the prohibitions and leaves operational response to affected parties.

Who decides: The instrument is made by the Minister for the Environment and Water (instrument header and signature). The declaration is made under s10 of the Act (s3), and the instrument expressly ties the declared area to the purposes of subsection 10(1) and the paragraphs referenced in s5(1) and s6(1). Enforcement decisions,investigation and prosecution,are likely to be pursued under the Act’s enforcement provisions (Note 2 to s6 refers to s22(1) of the Act), so decision-making about bringing proceedings will engage Commonwealth authorities responsible for enforcing the Act. The instrument itself does not set out an administrative permit, exemption or consultation process; it simply creates the declared area and prohibitions.

Behavioural consequences and changes: Individuals and organisations who might otherwise have entered the declared area to undertake extraction, earthworks, sealing, drilling, clearing or other disruptive activities will have to stop or avoid those works within the mapped area. Because the prohibitions capture conduct that "will, or is likely to" injure or desecrate, proposed activities that carry risk of harm will be discouraged or require relocation. Service providers will need to vet site boundaries against Schedule 1 and advise clients accordingly. Landowners who previously expected to use the land for the listed purposes will have to alter plans or seek alternative sites. The declared status may also alter informal practices such as recreational use and passage through the area, to avoid conduct that could be found inconsistent with Aboriginal tradition under the Act’s definition of injury or desecration (Note 1 to s6 quoting s3(2) of the Act).

The instrument, by naming the Belubula River, its headwaters and springs at Kings Plains as the declared area (s5(2)), creates a focused zone of legal restriction; it does not, on its face, alter conduct beyond that zone, but conduct "in, on or near" the area that adversely affects the area in accordance with s3(2) of the Act could trigger liability.

Duties imposed by the instrument are statutory and primarily prohibitory. Rights are implicit and derive from the protective status of the area and the Act’s framework.

Primary duties

• Duty to avoid injuring or desecrating the declared area: Section 6(2) imposes a duty on "a person" not to engage in conduct that will, or is likely to, injure or desecrate the declared area. That is a prospective duty with a "will, or is likely to" threshold, which brings risk-based decision-making into scope.
• Duty to refrain from specified activities: Section 6(3) specifies activities that, without limiting the general duty, are prohibited. These duties include:
  • No mining activities within the declared area (s6(3)(a)).
  • No construction of bulk earthworks on the declared area (s6(3)(b)).
  • No sealing of any part of the declared area, including with concrete (s6(3)(c)).
  • No activity that will, or is likely to, significantly alter landform or the course of water within the declared area (s6(3)(d)).
  • No drilling activities or preliminary activities associated with drilling (s6(3)(e)).
  • No clearing activities or preliminary activities associated with clearing (s6(3)(f)).
  • No disturbance of native vegetation or soil in a way that will, or is likely to, damage the declared area (s6(3)(g)).

These are expressed as mandatory negatives ("must not"), creating clear prohibitions.

Rights and protective effects

• Right to preservation and protection: Section 6(1) declares the declared area to be a significant Aboriginal area that is to be preserved and protected from injury and desecration. That is a substantive statement of protective intent and places the area within the Act's protective framework.
• Legal remedy via criminal prohibition: Note 2 to s6 indicates that contravention of s6(2) is an offence under subsection 22(1) of the Act. That creates an enforceable legal consequence and therefore a protected legal status that rights-holders can rely upon in seeking enforcement.
• Implicit community interest: The instrument’s designation recognises Aboriginal significance; while it does not itself create or enumerate rights of particular persons or Aboriginal groups, the statutory status under the Act is an instrument for protection in the public law sense.

Scope and interaction of duties and rights

• Non-exhaustive protection: s6(3) is framed "without limiting subsection (2)"; the list of prohibited activities does not exhaust the universe of conduct that might amount to injuring or desecrating the declared area. Therefore the duty in s6(2) can capture other conduct not specifically listed.
• Definition-driven scope: The definitions in s4 (land includes soil and vegetation; bulk earthworks; mining activities) will shape the reach of duties. For example, because "land includes soil and vegetation", actions that alter soil or vegetation fall within the protective ambit even if they do not alter fixed infrastructure.
• Temporal application: The duty applies from the instrument’s commencement, which is the day after registration (s2(1)). Activities occurring after commencement are subject to the prohibitions; the instrument does not itself state treatment of pre-existing lawful uses, nor does it provide permits or transitional arrangements.

Enforcement pathways referenced

• The instrument does not itself create the enforcement machinery beyond pointing to the Act for offences; Note 2 to s6 explicitly connects contraventions to subsection 22(1) of the Act. Any powers to investigate or prosecute, and the specific penalties that may apply, are located in the Act and are not reproduced in this instrument.

The instrument establishes prohibitions and places contraventions within the offence framework of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 by explicit reference. It does not itself set out penalty quantum, enforcement procedures, investigative powers or the identity of the prosecuting authority; those matters are governed by the Act referenced in section 3.

Criminalisation by reference: Note 2 to section 6 states that "A person commits an offence if the person engages in conduct that contravenes this provision: see subsection 22(1) of the Act." That connects the instrument’s prohibitions directly to the Act’s enforcement and penalty provisions. The instrument’s drafting thus makes non-compliance a criminal matter under the Act rather than merely an administrative breach.

Enforcement practicalities implicit in the instrument

• Evidence of breach: To obtain a conviction under the Act for conduct that "will, or is likely to, injure or desecrate" the declared area, a prosecuting authority would require evidence that the accused engaged in the proscribed conduct and that the conduct met the "will, or is likely to" standard or that a listed prohibited activity occurred within the declared area. The instrument does not specify evidentiary rules, standards of proof or burdens; those are matters for the Act and general criminal procedure.
• Spatial determination and proof: Enforcement will require establishing that the conduct occurred "within" the declared area as indicated by Schedule 1. The instrument relies on a map image to indicate the area; any enforcement action will therefore turn on locating the site against that map. The map is the declared instrument’s spatial anchor, but the instrument contains no coordinate schedule or metes-and-bounds text.
• Scope of prohibited activities: Section 6(3) lists activities that are expressly prohibited. The "without limiting" language means prosecutions may proceed either on the basis of engaging in a listed activity or on the broader statutory standard of injury/desecration.
• Prospectivity and risk: The "will, or is likely to" phrasing in s6(2), repeated in s6(3)(d) and s6(3)(g) for certain prohibitions, allows enforcement action to be based on prospective risk of injury or desecration, not solely actual, completed harm. That potentially expands enforcement exposure for proposed or early-stage activities (for example, preliminary works, entry or survey activities) that create a risk of harm.
• No administrative permit or exception in instrument: The instrument does not provide a mechanism within itself for obtaining authorisation, exemption or licence to undertake prohibited activities. Any such mechanisms would need to be found in the Act or other laws; the instrument is silent on permitting pathways.

Practical enforcement actors and procedure: The instrument does not identify who investigates or prosecutes. It was made by the Minister for the Environment and Water (instrument header), and Note 2 points to the Act for offence provision; therefore enforcement will follow the Act’s enforcement architecture, which is not replicated in the instrument. Entities and individuals assessing enforcement risk should consult the Act for details of powers, offences and penalties.

Limitations in the instrument’s enforcement detail

• Absence of civil remedies or administrative direction: The instrument does not create civil enforcement remedies (injunctions, for example) or outline administrative compliance processes; it relies on the Act’s criminal enforcement provision as the primary legal consequence for contravention.
• No stated enforcement priority or resource commitment: The instrument does not say how enforcement will be resourced, which agencies will act, or how monitoring will occur; those are policy and operational matters outside the instrument’s text.

The instrument is explicitly nested within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984. It relies on that Act for its legal authority, definitions, standards and enforcement. The instrument also engages, by its subject matter and terminology, land, environmental, mining and planning regulatory regimes, although it does not itself amend or displace those regimes.

Direct statutory interaction

• Authority and purpose references: Section 3 states the instrument is made under s10 of the Act. Section 5 invokes subsection 10(1) and paragraph 11(a) of the Act; section 6 invokes subsection 10(1) and paragraph 11(b). Those references indicate the declaration operates for the specific statutory purposes set out in the Act and is meant to be read with those provisions.
• Offence linkage: Note 2 to s6 connects contraventions to subsection 22(1) of the Act, placing enforcement and penalty matters under the Act.

Implications for other regulatory regimes

• Mining and resource laws: Because s6(3)(a) expressly prohibits "mining activities" within the declared area and s4 defines "mining activities" as activities that include, or are related to, extraction of materials or minerals from the ground, any approvals, licences or tenements under state mining legislation that would allow extraction within the declared area will be directly constrained by this instrument. The instrument does not itself supersede state law but creates an independent Commonwealth prohibition under the Act with criminal consequences.
• Planning and development approvals: The instrument’s prohibitions on bulk earthworks, sealing, and other works (s6(3)(b)-(d)) will interact with state and local planning approvals because proposed works requiring development consent that fall within the declared area would be subject to the instrument’s prohibitions in addition to any state approvals. The instrument does not specify whether actions taken under state planning approvals that would injure or desecrate the declared area would be exempt from the Act; it imposes a standalone Commonwealth prohibition.
• Environmental regulation: Prohibitions on altering landform, watercourse, clearing vegetation or disturbing soil (s6(3)(d), (f), (g)) intersect with environmental protection laws regulating habitat, water, and native vegetation. Approval under those laws would not, on the instrument alone, authorise conduct that contravenes s6(2) and s6(3).
• Private contractual rights and licences: Existing contracts, leases or licences that contemplate works inside the declared area will be affected by the new criminal prohibitions. The instrument does not itself void private contracts, but contracts will be rendered unenforceable as against the declared area to the extent performance would contravene the instrument; affected contracting parties will nonetheless retain private law remedies to the extent available, but the instrument provides a public law prohibition.
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander interests: The instrument explicitly frames the area as a "significant Aboriginal area" to be preserved and protected. It invokes the Act’s protective standard (s3(2) quoted in Note 1 to s6) regarding consistency with Aboriginal tradition and adverse effects on use and significance. The instrument functions in tandem with the Act to provide a statutory mechanism for protection of Indigenous heritage.

Limits and gaps in interaction

• No express interaction clauses: The instrument contains no express savings or modification of other Commonwealth or state law. It does not provide for other statutory regimes to authorise or validate conduct that would otherwise breach the declaration.
• Reliance on the Act for detailed interaction rules: Because the instrument is short and framed as a declaration, detailed rules about how it coexists with other federal or state regimes, including any conflict resolution, are left to the Act and general constitutional and statutory principles.

The instrument’s text contains limited material about its own amendment history. The instrument as provided is an instrument made and dated 13 August 2024, signed by Tanya Plibersek as Minister for the Environment and Water. Section 2 includes a commencement table and a note that "This table relates only to the provisions of this instrument as originally made. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this instrument." That standard drafting note means the instrument records its original commencement details but does not itself catalogue later amendments.

What the instrument records about its lifecycle:

• Date and maker: The instrument is dated 13 August 2024 and signed by the Minister (instrument header). That is the only temporal or authorial history recorded in the instrument.
• Commencement: Section 2(1) establishes that "The whole of this instrument" commences the day after the instrument is registered. The instrument does not state the date of registration within its text; commencement depends on registration as referenced in s2(1).
• Annexed mapping: Schedule 1 is part of the instrument and contains a map image indicating the declared area. The map as published with the instrument constitutes the spatial record as originally made.

Absence of amendments in the text

• There is no subsequent amendment schedule, no modification clause and no transitional provisions set out in the instrument itself. Any future amendments, revocations or variations would have to be effected through a further instrument made under the Act or by amendment to the Act, none of which appears in the instrument.

Administrative record-keeping note

• Section 2(2) states that any information inserted in column 3 of the commencement table is not part of the instrument and can be edited in published versions. That is a standard publication note indicating that certain editorial details in the instrument’s tabular metadata are for publication convenience and are not law.

Implications for stakeholders

• The instrument establishes a single declaratory act as of the date signed and to commence on registration; any change to the declared area, its prohibitions, or commencement mechanics would require a further instrument in accordance with the Act. There is no internal or embedded amendment history beyond the original text and the publication notes.

The instrument itself contains no record of litigation. It is a statutory declaration and does not reference any judicial decisions, litigation or dispute resolution outcomes. The instrument’s notes refer to provisions of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 (for example, subsection 3(2) and subsection 22(1)), but do not cite any cases or legal proceedings.

Explicit statements in the instrument relevant to litigation

• Note 1 to s6 quotes subsection 3(2) of the Act, which provides the statutory test for injury or desecration. Any litigation about alleged contraventions of this declaration would therefore require reference to the Act’s definitions quoted in the instrument, but the instrument records no historical litigation.
• Note 2 to s6 points to subsection 22(1) of the Act as the offence provision. The existence of an offence can give rise to enforcement prosecutions, injunctions or related proceedings, but no such proceedings are recorded in the instrument.

Practical observation for legal teams

• The absence of precedent or recorded litigation in the instrument means that, as a matter of this instrument alone, stakeholders cannot rely on instrument-specific case law. Any litigation that arises will necessitate recourse to the Act and to general criminal and administrative law principles. Parties should expect fact-specific litigation in the event of suspected contraventions given the "will, or is likely to" threshold and the need to interpret injury or desecration against Aboriginal tradition as per subsection 3(2) of the Act.
• Because the instrument does not specify enforcement agencies or procedures, litigation could address jurisdictional or procedural questions under the Act in future cases, but those are matters to be decided by courts with reference to the Act itself and wider Commonwealth law.

This instrument is short but contains drafting choices that create implementation risks, uncertainty, and compliance traps for parties who do not read it closely. The following items are specific, source-grounded points to watch.

1. "Will, or is likely to, injure or desecrate" threshold (s6(2)). This is a forward-looking standard. It captures conduct that creates a foreseeable risk, not only acts that have already caused proven harm. That raises the risk that preliminary activities, surveys, passage or low-impact entries could be characterised as contraventions if they are judged to be likely to impair the area’s traditional use or significance as defined in subsection 3(2) of the Act (quoted in Note 1 to s6).

2. The list in s6(3) is non-exhaustive. It begins "Without limiting subsection (2), a person must not..." Therefore, activities not listed can still be prohibited if they fall within the general prohibition. The common-law and statutory interpretation issue for practitioners will be to determine whether a proposed activity is "likely" to injure or desecrate even if unlisted.

3. Broad definitions expand reach. The definition of "land" to include soil and vegetation (s4) plus prohibitions on disturbing soil or native vegetation (s6(3)(g)) mean that actions that alter superficial groundcover or vegetation may fall foul of the instrument. Likewise, "mining activities" is defined to include activities related to extraction (s4), which can capture more than primary extraction operations, including exploration and associated works.

4. "Bulk earthworks" is narrowly defined but carries a high threshold. The definition in s4 refers to the excavation or movement of large quantities of soil or rock to change elevation. "Large" is not quantified; the absence of quantitative thresholds means disputes may arise about whether a particular excavation is "bulk" for the purpose of the prohibition in s6(3)(b).

5. The instrument uses a map in Schedule 1 as the spatial demarcation (s5(3)). The map is an image without coordinates in the instrument text. That can create ambiguity in field application: determining whether a particular point, access track, pipeline, bore, or footprint intersects the declared area may require geospatial analysis against the published image, potentially leading to disputes over the declared boundary.

6. Sealing is explicitly prohibited "including with concrete" (s6(3)(c)). The specific mention of concrete may catch ordinary infrastructure works that involve concrete pads, culverts or crossing structures that might otherwise be considered minor works. The express inclusion of concrete suggests an intent to block hard-surfacing and structural seals within the area.

7. The instrument is silent on authorisation or exemptions. It provides no process within the instrument for seeking permission to undertake otherwise-prohibited activities, nor any transitional arrangements for pre-existing works. A party carrying out works that would contravene the declaration risks criminal liability per Note 2 to s6 referring to s22(1) of the Act.

8. Interaction with state approvals and licences. The Commonwealth declaration does not itself override state-issued licences or tenements but introduces criminal prohibitions under the Act. Parties holding state permits that envision works within the declared area must not assume those permits validate the proposed works for purposes of the Commonwealth prohibition.

9. Evidence required to prove inconsistency with Aboriginal tradition. Note 1 to s6 quotes the Act’s statutory standard for injury or desecration which includes conduct "inconsistent with Aboriginal tradition" and adverse effects on the area’s use or significance in accordance with Aboriginal tradition (subsection 3(2) of the Act). Determining what is "inconsistent with Aboriginal tradition" will likely require cultural evidence and may raise complex questions of tradition, customary practice and whose evidence is determinative. The instrument itself does not provide guidance on those evidentiary issues.

10. The commencement mechanism (s2(1)) depends on registration. The instrument states commencement is the day after registration but does not state the date of registration. If works are being planned around the time the instrument was signed, parties should not assume a particular operative date without checking the actual registration date because the criminal prohibitions apply from the instrument’s commencement.

11. Criminal enforcement reference but no enforcement detail. Note 2 to s6 links contraventions to subsection 22(1) of the Act but the instrument contains neither the substance of that penalty provision nor any administrative enforcement pathway. Parties cannot assess penalty quantum or enforcement procedure from the instrument alone; they must consult the Act.

12. The schedule map may create logistical access issues for routine activities. Even casual passage or low-impact use of the declared area could, depending on the factual matrix and traditional usage, be characterised as "passage ... in a manner inconsistent with Aboriginal tradition" under the Act’s definition (Note 1 to s6 quoting s3(2) of the Act), exposing recreational users or contractors to enforcement risk.

Compliance with this instrument requires preventing any conduct that will, or is likely to, injure or desecrate the declared area and avoiding the listed prohibited activities. Because the instrument’s prohibitions are criminalised by reference to the Act (Note 2 to s6), compliance must be approached conservatively and documented.

Practical compliance steps grounded in the instrument

1. Ascertain commencement and boundary. Check the instrument’s registration to determine the exact commencement date (s2(1)). Obtain the Schedule 1 map as published with the instrument and translate the image into precise GIS coordinates on a plan so that proposed works can be overlaid with certainty against the declared area (s5(2)-(3)). Because the instrument provides only a map image without coordinates, parties should commission a qualified survey to confirm whether a proposed activity footprint falls within the mapped limits.

2. Stop or postpone any potentially affected activity. If an activity of the sort listed in s6(3) is planned within or adjacent to the declared area, suspend that planning and do not commence works until jurisdictional and compliance questions are resolved. The prohibitions are mandatory ("must not") and are connected to an offence under the Act (Note 2 to s6).

3. Screen activities against the prohibited list and the general standard. Review proposed operations to determine whether they constitute any of the listed activities in s6(3)(a)-(g): mining activities (s6(3)(a); s4), bulk earthworks (s6(3)(b); s4), sealing with concrete (s6(3)(c)), activities that significantly alter landform or watercourse (s6(3)(d)), drilling and preliminary activities (s6(3)(e)), clearing and associated preliminaries (s6(3)(f)), and disturbance of native vegetation or soil likely to damage the area (s6(3)(g)). Also test unlisted activities against the broader "will, or is likely to, injure or desecrate" standard in s6(2).

4. Assess risk of "likely" harm. The instrument’s forward-looking phrase "will, or is likely to," repeated in s6(2) and s6(3)(d) and (g), requires a risk assessment approach. Document any analysis, mitigation measures, alternative sites, and reasons why proposed works would not be likely to injure or desecrate the area. Where risk cannot be ruled out, avoid the activity within the declared area.

5. Preserve soil and vegetation. Given the definition of "land" to include soil and vegetation (s4) and the prohibition on disturbing native vegetation or soil likely to damage the declared area (s6(3)(g)), adopt strict no-disturbance protocols for areas within the declared boundary. Ensure contractors and crews are briefed, supervise access points, and employ exclusion fencing or signage where appropriate.

6. Avoid sealing or hard-surfacing. The instrument explicitly prohibits sealing any part of the declared area "including with concrete" (s6(3)(c)). Do not propose or permit sealing, paving, or hard-surfacing within the declared area.

7. Re-route or redesign projects. For projects requiring earthworks, extraction, drilling, clearing, or significant alteration of watercourse or landform, re-route or redesign so that no footprint, access route or ancillary works fall within the declared area. Where relocation is not practicable, suspend the project and undertake an alternative project feasibility assessment.

8. Seek legal advice and review the Act. The instrument references and relies on the Act for definitions and for enforcement (s3; Note 1 and Note 2 to s6). Obtain specialist legal advice to interpret how the Act’s definitions, offence provisions (including subsection 22(1)) and procedural rules apply in the factual context. The instrument alone is insufficient to determine penalty quantum, enforcement authority, or the availability of relief.

9. Document consultation and cultural evidence. Although the instrument does not specify a consultation requirement, the statutory standard for injury or desecration is framed in terms of Aboriginal tradition (Note 1 to s6 quoting subsection 3(2) of the Act). If there is any dispute about whether proposed conduct is inconsistent with Aboriginal tradition, preserve all documentary and witness evidence concerning consultation, cultural heritage assessments, and Indigenous perspectives. That evidence will be material in the event of enforcement or litigation.

10. Confirm legacy works and contractual obligations. If existing contracts, licences or tenements envisage works within the declared area, review them immediately to determine enforceability and termination provisions. The instrument does not itself compensate or provide for continuing lawful occupation; contractual parties should consider risk allocation, suspension rights and insurance implications.

11. Establish compliance protocols for service providers. Surveyors, environmental consultants, drill contractors and others who might be invited on to the declared area should require client confirmations that no prohibited work is required, and should include compliance obligations in their engagement terms to avoid being complicit in contraventions.

12. Monitor public communications and signage. If the declared area has recreational use, erect or request signage that communicates the protective status to site users. The instrument itself does not create administrative obligations to erect signs, but proactive site management reduces the risk of inadvertent contravention.

13. Maintain records of site inspections and control measures. Keep contemporaneous records documenting site boundaries, the absence of disturbed zones, instructions to contractors, exclusion zones, and any cultural heritage advice obtained. Such records will be material for demonstrating compliance or lack of foreseeability in enforcement contexts.

14. Be cautious about activities "near" the declared area. Note 1 to s6 (quoting s3(2) of the Act) reaches acts "in, on or near the area" that adversely affect use or significance. Ensure buffer zones and protective protocols are established for activities near the declared area that could have downstream impacts on watercourses, headwaters or springs.

15. Confirm registration and start date before recommencing works. Do not assume the operative commencement date. Check the official registered instrument to determine the day after registration as the operative start date (s2(1)) and ensure compliance obligations are observed from that date.

In all cases, because the declaration operates by reference to the Act for definitions and for the offence regime, legal teams should couple these compliance steps with an immediate review of the Act’s relevant provisions (including the s10 powers, s3 definitions, s22 offence provision and any procedural provisions) to develop a complete compliance and risk strategy.