Heywood company found guilty of illegally felling trees in Annya State Forest

Hollyrock Hire appeared in Warrnambool Magistrates Court charged with the clearing of trees and the disturbance of habitat at Annya State Forest, near the Henty Highway at Milltown, between June 1 and July 7, 2021.

Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge found the company guilty of the offences following a contested hearing on Monday.

The contractor was slapped with $10,000 in fines and ordered to pay the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) costs of $11,447.

In July 2021 a DEECA forest and wildlife officer observed about 30 trees had been cleared from the state forest, which backed onto a private property.

The court heard the land owner Dean Zordan had outsourced Hollyrock Hire to remove the trees, and a permit was not sought or granted.

A lawyer for the company said his client believed Zordan had a permit but in an interview with DEECA, the contractor said he left that up to the farmer and he just did "what they wanted".

The lawyer told the court his client had since started asking directly about permits and he'd been out of work for the last 12 months as a result.

The magistrate said the director of the company was "remarkably cavalier" about his responsibilities.

"The illegal clearing of significant trees in a state forest or on state land is a serious environmental matter," Mr Lethbridge said.

He said if the contractor's compliance with laws and regulations reflected south-west standards, a call for "significant law reform" was needed.

"And for penalties to be substantially increased so the courts can consider prosecutions of individual directors with the view of imprisoning them for this kind of conduct," the magistrate said.

"The message needs to be heard loud and clear by contractors that they have responsibilities, that they must obey the law the same as everybody else, and if they choose to say 'sorry I just want to make money', then that is not good enough by any strength."

The property owner last year pleaded guilty to 31 charges, including 29 counts of cutting forest produce without a licence.

Zordan owned a hobby sheep farm which backed onto the state forest. He was convicted and fined $20,000.

He was also ordered to pay nearly $40,000 in restitution to DEECA for the transportation of trees and other associated charges.

Zordan told a Portland magistrate last year he cleared the trees to erect a boundary fence to stop his sheep getting out.

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