Subdivide an aquaculture lease

You can submit an application to subdivide a lease at any time while the lease is current. If a mortgage or other interest is held over the lease, the written consent of the party who has a registered interest must be obtained.

A duly made application must consist of the following:

• A completed lease subdivision application form, which can be either the paper version or the online version. For the paper version, every section of the form must be completed and all lessees must sign the declaration.
• A copy of the lease plan that shows the proposed boundaries of the subdivided leases.
• Payment of the application fee (refer to the aquaculture fee schedule).

An application that is not duly made will be rejected and returned to you.

When the department receives your subdivision application, it will send you an invoice for the application fee. Payment options will be provided on the invoice.

If a lease application is withdrawn or refused, the department is not required to refund the application fee. The department may refund the fee, or a portion of it, if the circumstances are appropriate.

Yes, if the department supports the application, you will be asked to engage the services of a registered surveyor to undertake a survey of the new leases. The surveyor will need to generate new lease plans from this survey.

The department will give you new lease numbers for the lease plans, which you will need to pass onto the surveyor.

For more information on lease surveys, refer to the lease survey specifications page on the department’s website.

The expiry date of the new leases will be the same as the expiry date of the original lease.

The department will check that the application is duly made and there are no issues that may hold up its progression (for example, overdue debt on your aquaculture account).

If the application can be progressed, you will be asked to engage the services of a registered surveyor to undertake a survey of the lease areas. You will be given new lease numbers for the new lease plans.

When new lease plans have been submitted and accepted by the department, new lease documents will be generated and sent to you for signing. The original and duplicate lease documents must be signed, witnessed and returned to the department within 60 days.

Once the signed lease documents have been returned, the department will finalise the subdivision. The original lease documents will be returned to you for safekeeping. The permit holder of the leases will be given an updated copy of their aquaculture permit.

Details of the consolidation will be published in the NSW government gazette.

See the aquaculture transactions factsheet for more information on processing times.

An application to subdivide a lease may be refused if:

• the lessee is disqualified from holding an aquaculture permit.
• the lessee fails to complete a requirement of the transaction within a specified timeframe.
• the lessee has debt on their aquaculture account that is more than 90 days overdue.
• the lessee has failed to clean up a previously terminated lease.
• the subdivision of the lease is not in the public interest.

Before an application is refused, the department will give the lessee an opportunity to resolve any issues or to lodge objections to the refusal of the application.

For more information, contact aquaculture administration via email at aquaculture.administration@dpird.nsw.gov.au.

This checklist will help you to lodge a successful application:

• Have you completed every section of the application form and have all lessees signed the declaration?
• Do you have any overdue debt on your aquaculture account? If so, please pay this debt prior to submitting your application?
• Do you have any outstanding clean up issues on a terminated lease? If so, please speak to someone in aquaculture administration about your options to resolve these issues.
• If there is a mortgage or other interest over the lease, have you got the written consent of the mortgagee or other party?