With thanks to a couple of donors, we have placed an ad in today’s Farm Weekly newspaper to raise public awareness of the campaign to overturn the legal precedent that the charges have created.

As it says in the ad, we have to raise funds to pay for the best possible legal team to ensure this dangerous precedent can’t be used against the thousands of other property owners and land users that have red lines drawn around them.

Full text of the ad:

ABORIGINAL HERITAGE ACT & THE FIGHT FOR COMMON SENSE

Toodyay farmer Tony Maddox was charged for repairing an existing creek crossing, not knowing that part of his property had been declared an Aboriginal Heritage “Site”.

In Court, the department said it did not write to land-owners – including Tony – when it drew a red line around parts of their properties, making it illegal without government permission to do many things including –

• disturb the surface of the ground;
• sell any food, beverage or other article; or
• remove any part of a tree or cut grass, living or dead.

The department confessed its map is not accurate or complete but already has hundreds of illegal zones drawn on private farms, residential blocks, industrial facilities and commercial areas – and a committee regularly adds more.

Tony needs your support to appeal the charge and remove the scary legal precedent it sets for all West Australians.

To learn more and donate, visit:

www.TonyMaddox.info