The Land and Other Legislation Amendment No. 2 Bill amended the Land Act 1994 on 16 April 2024. The amendments modernise the state land administration framework and reduce administrative complexity and duplicative decision making.

Key amendments

Freehold over operational trust land

It is now simpler for trustees to convert to freehold, for operational purposes, all or part of an operational reserve or non-Indigenous deed of grant in trust. Operational reserves were allocated for facilities and buildings like council works depots, sewerage treatment plants, courthouses, police and ambulance stations and even state schools. Enabling these sites to be held, where appropriate, in freehold title will allow greater opportunity in the management, development and use of these lands.

Decision making powers of trustees of trust land

Trustees that are a state government department, local government, or other statutory body (as defined under the Act) can now:

• approve leases on trust land
• take actions that may be inconsistent with the purpose of trust land—where there is a management plan in place that addresses the inconsistency, and the lease or action does not diminish the purpose of the trust land and does not adversely affect the public interest.

State or local government trustees no longer have to use the Written authority no. 1, Trustee lease over trust land (PDF, 152.0KB) when lodging a trustee lease in the Land Registry .

These changes will support trustees to make decisions in the interests of their communities. The trustee needs to ensure that any decisions about trust land are consistent with the Commonwealth Native Title Act 1993 and the Native Title (Queensland) Act 1993.

Allocation of state land consideration

To speed up the process of allocating land, the amendments cut red tape by reducing duplication in existing decision-making around land use. The amendments remove the requirement to consider the most appropriate use and instead rely on the state’s planning framework and other relevant laws that already govern land use.

Dedicating a reserve for a purpose

To accommodate unforeseen community needs, a new provision is included in the Act to enable the dedication of a reserve for any purpose so long as there is a demonstrated community need and it is in the public interest. You won’t need to submit an application to the department for this provision.

Community trust land purposes

The existing list of specific community purposes under the Land Act has been replaced with 6 categories of community purposes. This amendment simplifies the purposes to provide greater flexibility in the use of existing and future trust land.

Additional purposes on leasehold land

The amendments clarify that an application to add a purpose to a lease can only be approved where the approval would not result in a change to the rental category of the lease. The ability of leaseholders of term leases for grazing purposes to apply under Section 154 of the Land Act for ministerial approval that purposes be added or removed from their leases over land in the following areas, has been removed:

• a conservation park
• a forest reserve
• a national park
• a resources reserve
• a state forest
• a timber reserve.

Unallocated state land from freehold subdivision plans

The amendments remove a provision of the Land Title Act 1994 that allows the creation of unallocated state land without consent. This amendment will reduce the administrative burden and risk imposed on the state by the creation of unapproved unallocated state land.

Last updated

02 May 2024

Last reviewed

21 February 2023