VicGrid and the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) have released updated Community Engagement and Social Value Guidelines for Renewable Energy and Transmission Projects, setting out the Victorian Government's minimum expectations for how renewable energy, storage and transmission developers engage with communities, Traditional Owners, landholders and neighbours, and how they should create social value and economic benefits through their projects in V

On 22 January 2026, the Land and Environment Court handed down its decision in Nagra v Coffs Harbour City Council [2026] 1028 (Nagra), finding polytunnels to be an integral part of raspberry growing as a form of ‘intensive plant agriculture’ on the subject site, and not ‘farm buildings’. The proceedings involved a Class 1 appeal against a development control order (DCO) given by Coffs Harbour City Council (Council) which required the applicants to cease construction of severa

The NSW Court of Appeal’s (NSWCA’s) recent decision in The Trust Company Ltd v Commonwealth of Australia [2026] NSWCA 90 serves as a timely reminder: if you want a remediation clause to deliver a specific environmental outcome, you need to say so expressly. The Court dismissed an appeal seeking approximately $20 million in damages for asbestos remediation costs based on the words the parties chose (and did not choose) to include in the relevant lease and deed, underscoring th

Australia’s federal environmental law requires active measures to prevent the decline and extinction of listed threatened species. Central to that framework is the obligation to prepare and implement recovery plans under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth). Recovery plans are intended to identify threats to species survival and set out legally operative actions for their protection and recovery. Background Between 2013 and the early 2020s,

Across Sydney’s Lower North Shore, a long‑standing local community with a well‑established neighbourhood character has found itself at odds with a large corporate landholder seeking to transform a familiar supermarket site into a major mixed‑use node. The unfolding dispute at 1–7 Rangers Road and 50 Yeo Street in Neutral Bay highlights how local opposition to large‑scale redevelopment intersects with the legal architecture of New South Wales planning law, particularly the way

In a significant environmental law proceeding, the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia dismissed appeals brought by the Environment Council of Central Queensland (ECoCeQ) challenging decisions of the Commonwealth Environment Minister to approve two coal-related projects: approvals relating to Whitehaven Coal’s Narrabri development and MACH Energy’s Mount Pleasant Optimisation Project. Background The appeals, publicly referred to as the Living Wonders cases, sought to