» 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 2006 – 07 are summarised below.

Period 1 July 2006 to
30 June 2007
Progressive Total to:
30 June 2007 *
Applications advertised 101 1,868
Applications approved by Forest Practices Authority 95 1,797
Private Timber Reserves revoked 14 134
Total Area Gazetted (hectares) 9,261 430,019

Progressive total contains adjustments to figures in previous periods.

The area gazetted during 2006 – 2007 (9,261hectares) is a considerable decrease on the 22,590 hectares gazetted in 2005 – 2006.

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)

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 or two outstanding and complex applications that would otherwise distort the figures.