This Act established the framework for the management, utilization, and some conservation of forests. Some of the means by which the Act achieves this include;

• provides that the Secretary has exclusive control and management of all matters of forest policy and can grant, issue and enforce all leases, licences, permits or authorities and collect or recover all rents, fees, royalty charges and revenue under the Act (subject to licences regulated under Part 4 of the Sustainable Forests (Timber) Act 2004);

• creates ‘reserved forests’ in respect of which no lease, licence, permit or authority may be granted (except an authority under the Mineral Resources Development Act 1990 (Vic));

• the Minister has the power to declare land within a reserved forest to be a;
  • forest park;
  • state park regional park;
  • multi-purpose park;
  • wilderness education area;
  • historic area;
  • flora and fauna reserve;
  • flora reserve;
  • scenic reserve;
  • alpine reserve;
  • roadside reserve; or
  • reserve for any other purpose

• Minister may acquire land for classification as a reserved forest or proclaim any Crown land to be a protected forest;

• leases of no longer than 21 years may be granted over Crown land within any reserved forest for the purposes of cattle grazing or such other purposes as are recommended by the Secretary;

• licences or permits may be granted to graze cattle or conduct a variety of timber milling operations (eg. cut timber and dig or take away forest produce) in reserved or protected forests;

• Minister may issue a licence over land in a reserved forest for use by an electricity generation company;

• provides for fire prevention works to be undertaken in respect of state forests, national parks and protected public land, and restricts the lighting of fires in these areas without authority;

• View the whole Act online via Austlii