Duncan Coker appeals Gympie council subdivision refusal

A Gympie region rural landowner is challenging the council in court after it rejected an application to subdivide his land. Read why:

A Carters Ridge landowner is fighting Gympie Regional Council over its refusal to allow him to cut his land in two.

Duncan Hamilton Coker has asked the Planning and Environment Court to overturn the council’s rejection of his request to subdivide his rural block.

Mr Coker had wanted to slice his Kenilworth Skyring Creek Rd property in two, using an existing road reserve running through the 34ha block as the dividing point.

The council refused this request.

It said in its June 2022 rejection letter this was because Mr Coker’s proposal would “result in good quality agricultural land being fragmented and is not conserved and protected for primary production purposes”.

The owner of a Carters Ridge property at Kenilworth Skyring Creek Rd has appealed Gympie council’s rejection of his subdivision plan on the grounds it would fragment good quality agricultural land.

The new block sizes of 14ha and 19ha would not be large enough for rural use and would “compromise the viability and productivity” of the land’s agricultural use, the council’s letter said.

Fragmenting this land was inconsistent with the State Planning Policy 2017, and there were no other relevant matters to base an approval on.

In their application to the Planning court, Mr Coker’s solicitors P&E said cutting the land in two would not fundamentally change it in any way.

They said the road running through the block was gazetted before 2006, and its existence meant that farming on the land was impossible as cattle were not permitted to graze within a road reserve.

They said Mr Coker’s proposal would not change the land in any way, but simply make the existing arrangements for the block formal.

Solicitors P&E Law said in their appeal documents the land was already divided by a gazetted road reserve within which cattle were not permitted to graze.

“The development will not result in a further fragmentation of the land particularly because it is, for all intents and purposes, already fragmented,” they said.

Gympie council said it could not comment on the matter.

It was yet to lodge a defence against Mr Coker’s appeal.

It is not the first time a road reserve running through agricultural Gympie land has become the centre of a court battle.

In 2017, Mothar Mountain couple Lee and Colleen Wason successfully appealed a decision to reject the subdivision of their block, which was already split in two by Cullinane Rd.

Judge William Everson found the Wason’s land would not further fragment the land as it was already physically fragmented.

However, the Wason’s application for costs was rejected, with Mr Everson finding the council’s concerns in its assessment of the original application were genuine and reflected the policy underlying its planning scheme.