Pastoral Lease Notification (QLD)

Guidelines for Land Access

Notification Obligations for EPMs and EPCs

Note that reference to private land, means in addition to fee simple tenure, reference to a lesser titles including pastoral leases.

MDLs

Within 15 days of the grant or renewal of the MDL the landholder must be informed.

Preliminary Exploration Activities

Before entering private land to carry out preliminary activities, the resource company must give a written notice to each landholder at least 10 business days prior to entry.

The entry notice must include the following details:

the land proposed to be entered the period during which the land is to be entered the activities proposed to be carried out on the land when and where the activities will be carried out the resource authority holder's contact details or those of their representative. The initial entry notice should also include a copy of:

the resource authority the relevant environmental authority the Land Access Code any code or code of practice that applies to the activities proposed in the notice. If a resource company gives a valid entry notice to a landholder, the resource company can access that land and begin to carry out activities authorised by the resource authority following a 10 business day waiting period.

The Notice of Entry Form can be found on this page.

Advanced Exploration Activities

Before entering private land and starting advanced activities, resource companies must negotiate and discuss access and compensation issues with landholders.

Advanced Exploration Activities are those that have more than a minor impact on the landholder's land use activities or business activities. They can include:

• levelling of drilling pads and digging sumps
• bulk sampling
• open trenching or costeaning with an excavator
• vegetation clear-felling
• constructing an exploration camp, concrete pad, sewage or water treatment facility or fuel dump
• geophysical surveying with physical clearing
• carrying out a seismic survey using explosives
• constructing a track or access road
• changing a fence line.

The explorer and landholder may enter into 1 of 3 types of agreements:

• A compensation and access agreement
• An Opt Out Agreement, which allows them to opt out of a compensation agreement until a later date;
• a deferral agreement, that allows them to reach agreement after the disturbance has occurred.

Whatever agreement that is reached must be recorded against the title.