This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

The biggest wheat farmer in Australia, Ron Greentree, is again facing charges of illegal land clearing, this time in relation to a property in western New South Wales.

Greentree, the former chair of Graincorp, along with his business partner Ken Harris and their companies trading under the name the Greentree Partnership, are facing 32 charges of unauthorised land clearing at Boolcarrol, near Moree, which is alleged to have occurred between 2016 and 2019.

NSW authorities allege the activities at Boolcarrol resulted in the loss of more than 1,000 hectares of native vegetation between December 2016 and January 2019.

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The NSW authorities allege that illegal land clearing using bulldozers and ploughs resulted in the loss of coolabah, poplar box and open woodland that was the habitat for several threatened species including the striped-faced dunnart, koalas and several bird species, such as brolgas and black cockatoos.

The charges involve offences under the old Native Vegetation Act and the Local Land Services Act, which replaced it in 2017.

Set down for August, it will be one of the first cases to test the NSW government’s new laws.

There has been a concerted campaign from some Moree farmers and sections of the media to get the NSW government to drop cases brought under the old laws, arguing that they are causing stress to farmers during the drought. However, this case indicates the government is still pushing forward with some of the more serious allegations of land clearing under the old laws.

There has already been separate legal action about whether to hear the cases against the two farmers separately or together. Harris had argued for separate trials because there has been a dispute over the partnership since early 2017 and few communications between Harris and Greentree. Justice Nicola Pain noted that between December 2016 and January 2019, when the offences were alleged to have occurred, Greentree had management of the farms while Harris had been to Boolcarrol no more than six times.

Harris declined to comment. Greentree did not respond to requests for comment, nor did his lawyer.

Greentree has been connected to farming controversies in the past, including some related to land clearing.

In 2004 he was the first person convicted for illegal clearing of a protected wetland under the federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and he and his company were fined $450,000.

This conviction was for clearing 100 hectares of his Windella property near Moree. The area was one of four privately owned sections of the internationally recognised Gwydir wetlands which were listed under the Ramsar Convention in 1999. He had also been facing charges in NSW.

In 1998, his private company Prime Grain and Limthono, the company of a business partner, Bruce Harris, were the subject of the first prosecution for illegal clearing under the NSW Native Title Vegetation Act. This involved clearing 210 hectares of the property, Willalee, also near Moree. Both companies were convicted but received only a light fine.

Last year Greentree’s Queensland business partner was fined $450,000 for illegal clearing of 2,875 hectares of native vegetation at Strathmore Station in Queensland’s Gulf country.

Scott Harris, a distant relative of Ken Harris, owns the property, while Greentree is involved in farming operations to grow the northernmost cotton crop in Australia.

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Scott Harris is now awaiting a decision from the federal government on his plan to clear 2,000 hectares at another property, Kingvale, in Cape York. The former Newman government in Queensland had given approval for the vast property to be cleared despite concerns from environmental groups that runoff would damage the Great Barrier Reef.

The federal government must also approve the clearing because it is in the Barrier Reef catchment. A decision is expected any day.

The looming Kingvale decision has been highly controversial. Documents released under freedom of information laws revealed four Coalition senators from Queensland lobbied then-environment minister Josh Frydenberg in 2018 to approve it.

The approval was then overturned by the federal court on technical grounds and the decision must be remade by the current environment minister, Sussan Ley.

Meanwhile the Queensland Department of Environment and Science is taking court action as a result of an investigation in 2016, when the Olkola people complained to the government that they believed Kingvale Station may be in breach of the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act.