» Private Timber Reserves

Private Timber Reserves

Legislation to establish Private Timber Reserves (PTRs) was approved by the Tasmanian Parliament in 1985 to enable landowners to have their land dedicated for long-term forest management.

The legislation provides that forestry activities on the land are subject to a single, consistent, state-wide system of planning and regulation through the Forest Practices Act 1985, rather than to variable systems that may be applied under different planning schemes through the Land Use Planning and Approvals Act 1993. Details on PTR applications during 2007 – 08 are summarised below.

Period 1 July 2007 to
30 June 2008
Progressive Total to:
30 June 2008 *
Applications advertised 78 1,941
Applications approved by Forest Practices Authority 70 1,864
Private Timber Reserves revoked 9 142
Total Area Gazetted (hectares) 12,709 441,734

Progressive total contains adjustments to figures in previous periods.

The area gazetted during 2007 – 2008 (12,709 hectares) is an increase of 3,448 hectares compared with 9,261 hectares gazetted in 2006-2007.

The average processing time of 63 days from receipt of an application until forwarding to the Forest Practices Authority is similar to the average processing period for the previous year.

Year Applications Received Average Processing

Time (Days)

 2007 - 2008

 78

 66

2006 - 2007

     64    63
2005 – 2006 70 61
2004 – 2005 157 65
2003 – 2004 25 72
2002 – 2003 65 92
2001 – 2002  117 81

N.B. The average processing time is net of one application where the applicant requested a cessation of the consideration of the application.