$50,000 in fines for clearing native forest worth $300,000

A father and son found guilty of illegally clearing native forestry said they ‘Googled it’ and thought it would be OK.

Mikael and Steven Freckleton run sheep and goats on their property in northwest Victoria. Picture: Zoe Phillips

A father-and-son duo have been fined $25,000 each plus costs for illegally clearing 8.4ha of native forest bordering their property in northwest Victoria.

Mikael Dennis Freckleton and Steven John Freckleton were found guilty in Mildura Magistrates Court on Thursday of clearing 130 trees bordering their 1200ha dryland farming property in 2020.

The Freckletons bought the property for $1.2 million in 2020, and had been running sheep and goats on the land for two months when the offences occurred, according to evidence given in court.

Victoria’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning gave evidence to the court that the pair cleared trees on four crown land allotments, two of which were also state forest.

Of the 130 trees cleared, 68 were wildlife habitat trees home to threatened species including the hooded robin and crested bellbird, DELWP submitted.

The father and son copped fines worth one sixth of the cleared Mallee area.

On one allotment the pair built a fence after clearing the land, annexing the crown land to their property.

The value of offsetting the damage the Freckletons had caused was in the order of $300,000, according to DELWP.

Defence lawyer Greg Westbrook said when the pair bought the property the fences were “in disarray”, and they “took it upon themselves to fix the fence lines”.

Between November 21 and November 29 2020, Mikael and Steven Freckleton used an excavator and a backhoe to uproot and clear large Mallee trees and understorey vegetation on the external borders of their property.

“In doing so, they failed to undertake appropriate investigations,” Mr Westbrook said.

The pair accepted they were “ignorant to a point of reckless(ness)” and they were in court to “accept responsibility” and “apologise to the community for what they have done”, he said.

Mr Westbrook said the pair searched online before clearing the land and found a document related to the removal of native vegetation. They misunderstood the document to mean it was OK for them to clear the land surrounding their property, he said.

“They did Google as to what are the requirements, and they came upon a document … they looked at that and accepted it as gospel, which clearly was a mistake,” he said.

Mr Westbrook told the court that despite owning a valuable property, the pair had “very little” cash flow through their business, and would struggle to cover a large fine.

In his summary, Magistrate Michael Coghlan compared the offences to the illegal demolition of the historic Corkman Irish hotel in Melbourne in 2016.

“You don’t strike me as naive. You’ve owned property before. You paid $1.2 million for this property.

“If you’re going and shelling over $1.2 million for a property, you’d have a fair understanding of what is a road and what is not a road, and what is yours and what is not yours,” he said.

“I am concerned that this was something that, if not deliberate, was simply going ‘well, what are they going to do about it?’”

“This is not the clearing of a few bits of scrubby old plants … these are significant trees. You cleared 8.4ha of land,” he said.

In addition to a fine of $25,000 each, the pair were ordered to pay aggregate fines of $2500 each to Mildura council, and $2000 each in costs.

The pair were spared the maximum penalties for their offences, which were $112,113 for the illegal clearing and $218,088 for developing land in contravention of the Planning and Environment Act.