AGY-7355 | Hunter Local Land Services

Full description

Local Land Services Boards were established from 1 January 2014 under the Local Land Services Act 2013 (Act No.51, 2013) providing regional-focused agencies delivering customer services to farmers, landholders and the wider community. (1)

Each local board for a region was constituted by 7 members, being 3 members elected, in accordance with the regulations, by ratepayers of the region, and 4 members appointed by the Minister. (2)

The functions of a local board for a region were as follows:
(a) to prepare a local strategic plan in respect of the delivery of local land services in the region,
(b) to monitor the performance of Local Land Services in the region, including by reference to the local strategic plan,
(c) to make recommendations to the Board in relation to the making of rates, levies and contributions on rateable and other land in the region,
(d) to collect, collate, maintain, interpret and report information with respect to its functions,
(e)to communicate, consult and engage with the community in developing plans and in respect of the delivery of programs and services by Local Land Services in the region,
(f) to develop a strategy for engagement of the Aboriginal community in the region in respect of the provision of local land services,
(g) to provide advice to the Minister,
(h) to exercise such other functions as are conferred or imposed on it by or under this or any other Act.

A local board must exercise its functions in accordance with the policies, procedures and directions (however described) of Local Land Services. A local board for a region may, with the agreement of a local board for another region, exercise functions in the other region. (3)

Hunter Local Land Services

The Hunter Local Land Services extended across the local government areas of Cessnock, Dungog, MidCoast, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Muswellbrook, Newcastle, Port Stephens, Singleton and the Upper Hunter. (4)

The Hunter Local Land Services region covered an area of 33,000 square kilometres east of the Great Dividing Range, from the sandstone escarpments and gorges of the Goulburn River, to the floodplains of the Hunter and Williams Rivers. Along the coast the region extended north from Lake Macquarie to Taree and three nautical miles out to sea. The region was home to the Barrington Tops World Heritage Area, and Wollemi, Yengo, Goulburn River, Hunter Wetlands, Wallarah, Myall Lakes and Crowdy Bay National Parks. The major waterways were the Manning, Karuah, Wallamba, Myall, Hunter, Williams, Goulburn and Pages rivers and Wallis Lakes, Myall Lakes, Port Stephens, Lake Macquarie, and Lake Munmorah. The Hunter Estuary and Myall Lakes systems were Ramsar listed as nationally and internationally significant wetland sites. (5)

In 2022, offices were located at Paterson, Singleton, Merriwa, Taree, Scone, Kooragang and Maitland Saleyards. (6)

Endnotes
1. Local Land Services Act 2013 (Act No.51, 2013), s.8-9; Local Land Services website, What We Do, https://www.lls.nsw.gov.au/what-we-do, (accessed 2 November 2022).
2. Local Land Services Act 2013, s.27.
3. Local Land Services Act 2013, s.9.
4. Hunter Local Land Services website, Hunter, https://www.lls.nsw.gov.au/regions/hunter (accessed 2 November 2022).
5. Hunter Local Land Services website, Regional Profile, https://www.lls.nsw.gov.au/regions/hunter/region-profile (accessed 2 November 2022).
6. Hunter Local Land Services website, Offices, https://www.lls.nsw.gov.au/regions/hunter/contact-us/offices (accessed 2 November 2022).