Company fined $250,000 for building illegal dam, clearing land

The family behind a company fined $250,000 for an illegal dam has previously been fined three times for environmental damage.

After the unauthorised dams and clearing. Picture: Nearmap.

A Lane Cove-based company has been fined more than $250,000 for a series of offences including building an illegal dam on a NSW property.

The company, Bao Lin Pty Ltd, is linked to Chinese billionaire developer Phillip Dong Fang Lee, whose companies have been fined in Australia for environmental damage on three separate occasions since 2009.

Bao Lin Pty Ltd was registered in 2013, with Mr Lee and his wife Xiao Bei Shi listed as directors. In 2018 Mr Lee’s name was removed from the company, and Ms Shi was listed as its as sole director.

On April 13, the NSW Land and Environment Court found Bao Lin Pty Ltd had damaged environmentally sensitive land next to a sanctuary zone of the Great Lakes Marine Park in a series of offences which took place between 2016 and 2020.

The offences included building two unauthorised dams and clearing vegetation which also contained an endangered ecological community on a property at Tea Gardens.

The Tea Gardens property was used to raise cattle and was run by Tea Garden Farms Pty Ltd. Tea Garden Farms’ company director, Mr Lee’s nephew Jack Lin, gave evidence to the court that he was “unwell” from January 2016 to June 2016 and was not aware until later that two dams had been constructed on the property.

Mr Lee’s companies were fined $200,000 in the NSW Land and Environment Court in 2009

when a dam walled collapsed and polluted water contaminated North Arm Cove.

In 2014 his companies were fined $8000 for clearing bushland and in 2019 his companies were fined $88,000 plus $20,000 costs for illegally clearing bushland.

In 2021 Mr Lee and Ms Shi’s assets were frozen by the Australian Tax Office, which is pursuing the couple for $272 million.

When the Land and Environment Court handed down its latest sentence this month, Justice John Robson said that by not applying for approvals the company had “sought to avoid the regulatory scheme and its beneficial protection of water sources and waterfront land.”

Justice Robson also said the activities had “significantly undermined the objectives of the Water Management Act.”

For the removal of vegetation and endangered ecological community the company was fined $64,600.

Before the unauthorised dams and clearing. Picture: Nearmap

After the unauthorised dams and clearing. Picture: Nearmap.

For clearing vegetation and depositing material within 40m of a water course it was fined another $57,000.

Justice Robson fined the company a further $64,600 for constructing an unauthorised dam on a watercourse. This dam has now been completely removed.

The company was fined an additional $64,600 for building an illegal dam on another stream at the same location. The landholder was ordered to reform a spillway to replicate a natural channel and slow water flow and implement a vegetation management plan within three months of it being approved by the Natural Resources Access Regulator.

The court further ordered that the stream bank vegetation corridor around this dam be widened by the landholder.

NRAR chief regulatory officer Grant Barnes said that protecting the health of watercourses and waterfront land was a key focus of NRAR and important to the community and environment.

“What landholders do in and around waterways can have serious negative environmental consequences and that’s why landholders must apply for approval for any works before they start, and follow any conditions of approval,” Mr Barnes said.