Northern NSW cotton farmer slapped with $25,000 fine

A NSW farmer has faced court after being found guilty of drawing water from multiple bores with faulty meters.

A northern NSW cotton farmer has been fined after taking water from multiple meters which were not working properly during severe drought conditions in 2019.

Lidokew Pty Ltd was sentenced in the NSW Land and Environment Court on Monday, June 17, on three charges under the Water Management Act 2000, for failing to ensure old water meters were working properly on three bores.

Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR) investigators first attended a 1225ha primarily cotton farm, Havana North, located 41km north­west of Narrabri, in December 2018, where they inspected three meters associated with diesel, electric and house pumps which took bore water from the Lower Namoi Groundwater Source.

Seven months later each of the three meters were seized by NRAR investigators in order to test their accuracy between January and April 2019.

Results showed that each of the three meters was under-recording by ranges of 8-8.11 per cent for the Diesel Pump; 6.08-8.97 per cent for the electric pump and 4.98-23.04 per cent for the House Pump.

A cotton grower in the Wee Waa district has been fined almost $25,000 for taking water from multiple meters which were not working properly.

Initially, Lidokew Pty Ltd was charged with six offences under the Water Management Act 2000 (NSW), before Justice Sandra Duggan found the farm company guilty of three offences following a hearing in 2023.

Garry Phelps is the sole director and secretary of Lidokew Pty Ltd, which is the registered owner of the Havana North property, where the offences occurred.

Lidokew Pty Ltd was fined $8,333 for each offence on each pump and must lodge a public notice of the case’s result in two local newspapers; The Land and the North Western Courier.

In her judgment, Justice Sandra Duggan said Lidokew Pty Ltd’s offences were at the “low end of the range of criminality” and were the result of “inaction” rather than deliberate activities.

“While the defendant should have ascertained the accuracy of the metering equipment as they are obliged to do in order to meet their obligations under the Water Management Act, the failure to do so was not a positive action, but inaction over a period of many years resulting in fair wear and tear rendering the meters inaccurate in the recording of water taken,” she said.

“I accept that the criminal conduct demonstrated in the proceedings undermines the efficient and equitable sharing or water and further undermines the capacity for sound future decision making with respect to future allocation of water.”