Big Agriculture Pty Ltd is a large pastoral company based in North Queensland. The company has pastoral holdings across hundreds of hectares of remnant woodlands land in high rainfall catchments adjacent to the coast and the Great Barrier Reef. BAPLint ends to clear up to 500 hectares of this woodland in order to graze cattle on the land. Land clearing such as this has the potential to mobilize high levels of sediments in these high rainfall zones, which would flow into the ocean and onto the Reef, impairing the health of the Reef. The GBR is a declared property under the World HeritageConvention. BAPL is of the view that there is no prospect of its proposed operations having any long-term adverse impact on the Great Barrier Reef

The North Queensland Environment Council (NQEC) has been monitoring BAPL'sactivities for some time and their experts are of the view that the scale of land clearing proposed by BAPL poses a serious threat to a particularly important and pristine sectionof the Reef. NQEC haveretained you as their lawyers and are keen to commence legal action undertheEnvironment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999(Cth) if BAPL act ontheir land clearing proposal.Please advise NQEC on the following questions:

(a)Is it likely that BAPL's proposal is subject to the operation of the EPBC Act? If so,what obligations under the Act will apply to BAPL in relation to itsproposal? Please explain your advice and reasoning.

(b) If it is your view that the proposal is subject to the operation of the Act whatactions can NQEC take against BAPL if they commence or appear likely tocommence their land clearing operations?