Forestry Corporation of NSW has been convicted and ordered to pay $450,000 after contractors connected to the state-owned forest manager illegally felled nine trees — six giant trees and three hollow-bearing trees — in Wild Cattle Creek State Forest west of Coffs Harbour in June and July 2020.
That is according to the NSW Environment Protection Authority, which prosecuted the matter before the NSW Land and Environment Court. It is the second time FCNSW has faced prosecution over the same state forest and comes after the forest manager in 2022 was fined $285,600 after the EPA prosecuted it for felling trees in exclusion zones at Wild Cattle Creek that caused harm to koala habitat.
The sentence handed down last Friday is the first in NSW to follow a restorative justice conference involving a forestry offence — and only the third time the Land and Environment Court has approved such a process in its history. The Gumbaynggirr Traditional Custodians, the EPA and FCNSW were parties to the conference, which the Bellingen Environment Centre confirmed was agreed by all parties as the most appropriate course of action.
The full $450,000 will be directed to the Yurruungga Aboriginal Corporation to fund remediation and cultural mapping works within Wild Cattle Creek, as well as the creation of the Gumbaynggirr Guardians rangers’ program — marking the first time penalty funds from a NSW forestry prosecution have been channelled directly into First Nations-led land stewardship.
“This judgment makes it unmistakably clear — the loss of these giant and hollow-bearing trees caused real harm, not only to koala habitat but also to the cultural fabric of the Gumbaynggirr people,” NSW EPA Chief Executive Tony Chappel said.
Beyond the financial penalty, the court ordered FCNSW to engage in genuine and meaningful consultation with the Gumbaynggirr people on relevant future harvesting, to hire an independent consultant to audit its resourcing, training and internal procedures on identifying and retaining giant and hollow-bearing trees, and to publish admissions of its wrongdoing across multiple national, state and local publications.
Under the Coastal Integrated Forestry Operations Approval, any tree — except Blackbutt and Alpine Ash — with a diameter exceeding 140 centimetres is classified as a giant tree and must be retained. The court found the offences also damaged habitat critical to endangered hollow-dependent species, including the greater glider, whose survival depends on the availability of trees carrying hollows of varying shapes and sizes across the landscape.
The felled trees sat within the forest, now incorporated into the 315,000-hectare Great Koala National Park, whose boundaries were updated on 3 March this year. The court found the offences caused substantial cultural harm to the Gumbaynggirr people’s connection to Country — a finding Chappel described as a significant legal precedent for NSW. FCNSW was not found criminally negligent, and no further orders were made to protect additional trees.
The EPA has also brought separate proceedings against FCNSW over alleged breaches in Tallaganda State Forest in southeast NSW, filed in August last year.
