General News
14 January, 2025
New local laws in force
MAREEBA Shire residents will not have to get a permit from council to hold a celebratory event in a local park for less than 50 people after the new proposed local law was dropped following public feedback.
The council endorsed amendments to its local laws at its last meeting of 2024, also dropping another proposal which would have forced all dogs and cats to be desexed, except for those used as breeding animals or working dogs.
The council was met with a surge of inquiries about changes to its local laws after it released the amendments for comment in October. Most of the angst was expressed on social media, prompting the council to extend its public consultation period by two weeks to ensure all those who wished to have a say would be granted that opportunity.
During the consultation period between 18 October and 4 December, council received 105 formal responses and four petitions.
But while some members of the community were upset by the proposed changes, at its last meeting of the year, chief executive officer Peter Franks went through each change, explaining that many of the amendments were simply to provide more clarity and give definitions to existing laws.
“One of the changes is so a council officer, as an authorised person, has the ability to instruct people to leave a council-owned piece of land or road reserve,” he said.
“The officer could tell them how long they had to leave it for and would actually make it an offence if they failed to heed that instruction.
“An example of this would be if someone sets up a caravan and decides they want to live at Rifle Creek at Mt Molloy, which is a short-term camping ground where people can stay for 24 hours. Under the existing conditions, we didn’t have any provision to move them on, and what they do is pack up, move down the road and come back the next day.
“This gives council the provision to tell them they can’t camp here and they’re not allowed back for 30 days or 60 days etc, and if they fail to adhere to that, it is a penalty.”
Mr Franks said that in this case, council could issue a fine of five penalty points, with each penalty point worth $161 – an amount which is set by the State Government.
Another key change was the ability of someone to apply for a caravan to be set up in their backyard for up to six months – something was proposed in response to the current housing crisis. Under the current law, people could only stay for 2-4 weeks in a caravan whilst a permanent residence was being built on a property.
The new law enables people to apply to live in a caravan at someone’s property for up to six months and allows for an extension of another six months, with a number of conditions applied to the application including that no rent can be paid to the property owner.
Another change to the local laws was to give clearer details about what would be required to bury someone on a private property, and the conditions under which remains could be removed.
“We don’t get these very often, but this (the amendments) defines what the conditions are and who has to do it,” Mr Franks explained.
“The second one is about an internment on a private property – in this case, we say that the person would have had to be there (have a connection with a property) for 30 years and there’s a whole range of conditions applied to it. It’s a traumatic time for people and you don’t want to have get into debates and (this change) also makes it clearer for funeral directors.”
Other changes give the council the right to ask property owners to remove graffiti, something it couldn’t do under the existing local law.
“We would only do this is if it was a major issue – most property owners actually go in willingly and get rid of it,” Mr Franks said.
There is also a change as to where barbed wire and electric fences are allowed. The existing laws did not allow for a barbed or electric fence in the shire and given the rural nature of the area, this was changed to allow such fences except where they adjoin a public park or reserve or within an urban area.
Council also now has the ability to act when people start fires that cause smoke which irritates other people.
“This is to deal with people who intentionally go out and annoy their next door neighbours and unfortunately, we need this,” Mr Franks said.
Changes to animal management laws include allowing two dogs on properties under 450 sq m, and setting minimum standards for the keeping of all animals which allows officers to deal with situations where people are doing the wrong thing and would only be a “complaints driven” action by council.
Council unanimously endorsed the local laws amendments which can be viewed on the council’s website.
