Thread: Queens chain

Originally Posted by Maxx

Thanks for your contribution @Kickinwings....always useful to hear from someone who knows what they're on about.

Couple of questions, though.....

Where do the 'loggers' get their authority to restrict access across a paper road while they're logging? While that may be a convenient and practical solution, my understanding is that a paper road is no different to a formed and maintained TLA road?

And with respect to someone wandering along a paper road, I'd have expected the onus was on the adjoining landowner to establish a trespass had occurred, rather than the pedestrian being required to establish that he/she had remained on the alignment?

Logging companies can apply to the council to have roads temporarily closed. Anyone can apply to have a road temporarily closed for that matter and if the reason is good enough the council will grant it. They do it all the time for cycle races and other events in town.

As for wandering along a paper road you are probably correct. I've never actually heard of anyone getting prosecuted or trespassed in this way and it comes down to intent I suppose. If you were doing your best to stay on the paper road with GPS or your phone I'd say you would be hard pressed to get into trouble. But if the farmer then says hey you're on my property I guess its up to you to prove that you are not?

It usually comes to head when lots of people try to access somewhere via paper road (a doc block or beach) and the land owner gets niggly, usually due to people disrespecting the property or being a pain in the arse in some way. Although sometimes landowners just plain don't want people "on" or near their property which is fair enough but if there is a paper road through it then they have no choice but to allow access along it as it's not their land. In these cases the council or DOC usually pay for the paper road to be surveyed and ground marked.

Another issue regarding vehicle access is that often the physical road you drive on and the legal paper road isn't in the same place on the ground. The original surveyors who did the surveys in the late 1800's early 1900's and were just trying their best to pick a good route to a spot through the bush. When the road actually gets built it might have been easier to take a different route. Which sometimes leads to the case where the landowner can put a locked gate over the road as the physical road is actually on his land and not the paper road.