Thread: Gazetted?

When it is legally designated as a road. It then appears on cadastral maps, whether or not there is any roadway present. I've seen one that a bulldozer struggled to drive and nothing less would have been able to push the trees aside Many were surveyed but never used. Without a doubt a road on a regular map, or named, will be gazetted. But there are surveyed, gazetted roads which appear on no mapping other than government cadastral.

So can I drive on a gazetted road that has had its entry modified by a National Parks authority?

What's more, if the road has been in use for more than 20 years, isn't there a right of way that entitles me to drive on it?

Do we have a constitutional lawyer in our midst?

And while governments have a right to temporarily close roads for safety reasons, do they have a constitutional right to charge people to drive on them during some parts of the year only? ie: snowfields

Somebody on this forum the other week was saying how their dad challenged the NSW governments tax on passing interstate trucks some years back. I think there are similar issues to be clarified here.

Originally Posted by Michael2

So can I drive on a gazetted road that has had its entry modified by a National Parks authority?

What's more, if the road has been in use for more than 20 years, isn't there a right of way that entitles me to drive on it?

Do we have a constitutional lawyer in our midst?

And while governments have a right to temporarily close roads for safety reasons, do they have a constitutional right to charge people to drive on them during some parts of the year only? ie: snowfields

Somebody on this forum the other week was saying how their dad challenged the NSW governments tax on passing interstate trucks some years back. I think there are similar issues to be clarified here.

Will a Bush Lawyer do, Michael2

AFAIK there is a "right of way" over gazetted roads, provided that hasn't been modified in some way. That might include limits of what sort of vehicles, or even whether any at all my traverse.

You would need to look at your State constitution as to what the rights the Government have regarding roads. But since they can make and unmake them, I have no doubt they have the right to restrict use of them, including imposing or removing tolls, and including varying the amount of toll based on when in the day or year you travel the road.

I imagine your question would be insurance, Pedro? As the Police have jurisdiction over any publicly accessible roadway (including carparks and roads on private property) I would imagine you are OK if PUBLICLY accessible. But if fees are imposed or access limited by the landowner, then it would not be gazetted and insurance may be affected.

As an example of gazetting, the beaches of Fraser Island are gazetted as roadways.

yea,, its a murphys law thing
trouble will strike when you least expect it,,
and where you can least afford it,,

"everywhere" rather than "gazetted"
might be a better option,,

I don't know if this still applies under law.

In days gone by the RAAF would close the road between Salisbury and Elizabeth once a year. They would try and pick a very quite Sunday,, to not offend too many of the locals.
They done this to maintain rights over the road. even though the road was a public use road on all the maps it could be closed when the RAAF liked (if needed).
I understand that they would loose the legal ability to close at will if the public had free access to the route on a continuous basis over a given period,,, how long I don't know,,, but the RAAF's answer was an annual closure.

Perhaps this had been done by the national parks in this case.

Originally Posted by duff

I don't know if this still applies under law.

In days gone by the RAAF would close the road between Salisbury and Elizabeth once a year. They would try and pick a very quite Sunday,, to not offend too many of the locals.
They done this to maintain rights over the road. even though the road was a public use road on all the maps it could be closed when the RAAF liked (if needed).
I understand that they would loose the legal ability to close at will if the public had free access to the route on a continuous basis over a given period,,, how long I don't know,,, but the RAAF's answer was an annual closure.

Perhaps this had been done by the national parks in this case.

The army used to do this at moorebank when i first came to sydney - they dont do it any more.....

Originally Posted by duff

I don't know if this still applies under law.

In days gone by the RAAF would close the road between Salisbury and Elizabeth once a year. They would try and pick a very quite Sunday,, to not offend too many of the locals.
They done this to maintain rights over the road. even though the road was a public use road on all the maps it could be closed when the RAAF liked (if needed).
I understand that they would loose the legal ability to close at will if the public had free access to the route on a continuous basis over a given period,,, how long I don't know,,, but the RAAF's answer was an annual closure.

Perhaps this had been done by the national parks in this case.

I believe some shopping centres do a similar thing with their car parks to prevent a legal right of way being established.

My question though pertains to tracks that had for more than 20 years been open, but are now closed. Once the right of way has been established, who has what authority.

There was a case locally a few years ago, when a residential home, located next to a council owned park claimed a section of the park under their title. They had used a strip of land to access their back yard for the seven years they lived there, and argued that the previous owner had done the same. Once they demonstrated continual access for more than 20 years the land became theirs. The council quickly set about surveying all it's public land after that.

Originally Posted by Michael2

What's more, if the road has been in use for more than 20 years, isn't there a right of way that entitles me to drive on it?

Not automatically - no. We had a situation like this recently where the access road to our rural retreat was gated-off by a f*#%wit neighbour since it meandered onto his land and outside the surveyed road alignment. We had been using it for just on 20 years (since 1987). The legal expenses and surveying costs to have the road re-aligned were less than the cost of bulldozing a new road.