> Crown land > South Australia's Crown land

Managing Crown land

The department is responsible for ensuring Crown land is managed effectively and equitably for the benefit of the public. This means that some activities require special permission or access rights, or tenure over the land.

Crown Lands Program

Crown land is administered by the department’s Crown Lands Program. The Crown Lands Program team is responsible for;

administering the legislation
authorising the use, access and occupation of Crown land
ensuring activities and developments on Crown land are complying
assisting government agencies, local councils and property professionals
issuing tenure over Crown land such as licences, leases, easements and dedications
selling Crown land
identifying and locating Crown land

Making decisions

One of the safeguards to make sure that Crown land is managed and used for the benefit of all South Australians is the objects and principles of the Crown Land Management Act 2009.

The objects of the Act are to:

provide administrative procedures for the efficient handling of Crown land transactions
encourage fair and transparent decision making in the allocation of Crown land
provide a system for the management of Crown land that achieves a balance between the social, economic and environmental needs of the community.

The principles of Crown land management ensure:

the principles of ecologically sustainable land management are observed in the management and administration of Crown land
the objects and objectives of other relevant legislation are given due weight; and
Crown land is occupied, used, sold, leased, licensed or otherwise dealt with in the best interests of the State, consistent with the above principles.

Crown land assessments

When assessing the allocation of Crown land, consideration must be given to the objects and principles of the Crown Land Management Act 2009 being;

efficient administration of Crown land in the best interests of the State
fair and transparent allocation of unalienated Crown land
managing Crown land to achieve a balance between the social, economic and environmental needs of the community.

The department will also consider other factors such as;

how the proposal may align or interact with state economic priorities an other policies and guidelines
the impacts of current or previous uses (biodiversity and contamination)
the status of native title over the land.

Legislation

Crown land is administered and managed pursuant to the Crown Land Management Act 2009 and the Crown Land Management Regulations 2010 to support services and for the benefit of the community.

Other relevant legislation when dealing with Crown land includes: