While acting for leading corporations and government clients, Tim has provided assistance on the environmental impact assessment and approval of major property development, infrastructure and resource projects, the remediation and development of contaminated properties, pollution risk management and incident response, managing native title and indigenous and non-indigenous heritage issues, and advice and representation in town and environmental planning appeals and panel hearings.

Tim also advises on greenhouse gas emissions reporting and climate change issues, in particular commercial and legal carbon pass-through strategies, the sale and purchase of carbon credits, and systems to comply with emissions reporting and climate change legislation. Many clients have sought Tim’s advice in understanding and developing strategies to comply with the Federal government’s proposed  ‘carbon price mechanism’ in the Clean Energy Act.

He is also ranked as a ‘Band 1’ lawyer by Chambers Global, which in 2010 described Tim as ‘a highly impressive individual with an outstanding intellect and command of the subject matter’, and in 2011 described him as a ‘powerhouse behind the practice’ and observed that he ‘advises world-class clients on complex contamination issues and environment-related litigation’. Tim is ‘Endorsed’ by PLC Which Lawyer? (2010), and was described by Asia Pacific Legal 500 as ‘unequalled in renewable energy projects’.

Energy & petroleum

Tim has advised:

• on the environmental impact assessment and approval processes, including panel advice and representation, for the Basslink and Murraylink electricity interconnectors, several gas-fired power station projects in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales, including the Shaw River power station EES, Tarrone gas-fired power station and Bogong hydro-electricity power station
• on environmental impact assessment and related noise, cultural heritage, flora and fauna, and Commonwealth environmental law issues for many wind farm developments in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania. Clients include Roaring 40s, Pacific Hydro, RES Australia, AGL Energy, Origin Energy, Union Fenosa, Acciona, Investec Bank, Suzlon, International Power and West Wind Energy
• on environmental and land access issues associated with a geothermal exploration and development in South Australia
• on environmental and planning issues for utility-scale solar energy generation
• Santos on Commonwealth and State petroleum, water & environmental impact assessment laws for the development of its coal seam gas reserves in central Queensland and associated gas pipeline & LNG facility at Gladstone
• the financiers and developers of a number of gasfields and gas pipeline projects throughout Australia. These include the Esperance gas-fired power station and pipeline (Western Australia), Telfer pipeline (Western Australia), Patricia Baleen and Sole gas fields and offshore/onshore pipelines (Victoria), Casino gas field (Victoria), the McIntee and Flynn pipelines in eastern Victoria, and the South Gippsland Pipeline (Victoria)
• on the financing of the acquisition of Yallourn Energy
• and represented APPEA on the Commonwealth Government’s working group on the decommissioning of offshore petroleum infrastructure
• the developer of a gas plant in western Victoria in a planning and EPA works approval appeal in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal
• on the regulatory and environmental issues under Commonwealth offshore petroleum legislation for a range of exploration and production operations in the offshore adjacent areas, including advice on pollution and decommissioning liability associated with offshore petroleum processing operations in northern Australia, and
• on a wide range of state and Commonwealth environmental and cultural heritage issues associated with Santos’ gas exploration and production operations in the Cooper Basin.

Mining & resources

Tim has advised:

• on native title and environmental issues associated with the development of a proposed copper mine in South Australia
• on native title and environmental issues associated with a proposed molybdenum mine in Western Australia
• on native title and environmental issues associated with the acquisition of iron ore mining operations in the Pilbara, Western Australia
• FMG on various state and Commonwealth environmental law issues associated with its Pilbara open cut iron ore mine and associated rail and port upgrades
• on various environmental impact assessment law issues associated with the development of the Cape Preston iron ore mine and port upgrade in the Pilbara, including managing issues associated with stygofauna and triglofauna
• BHP Billiton on various EIA issues for the proposed expansion of the Olympic Dam uranium and copper mine in South Australia
• the proponent of a prospective uranium mine on Commonwealth environmental impact assessment and approval issues
• Oz Minerals on mine site rehabilitation issues, and on the proposed sale of some its equity in the Prominent Hill uranium mine in South Australia
• the developer of a proposed nickel mine in Indonesia on environmental impact assessment and approval risks and issues, and
• on environmental and land-use planning issues associated with Lihir Gold’s gold mining operations in Ballarat, Victoria.

Roads & rail

Tim has advised:

• the Department of Transport on environment, planning, cultural heritage and native title issues for the Regional Rail project in western Melbourne
• Transurban on environmental, land-use planning and cultural heritage issues associated with the widening of the Monash Freeway in metropolitan Melbourne
• John Holland Group on EPBC Act issues on the Regional Fast Rail project, Victoria
• the Victorian Department of Transport on the upgrade of the Mildura railway line, the construction of the Wodonga rail bypass, the Dynon Port rail link, and on the proposed upgrade of the Sunshine and Dandenong lines
• on the Western Sydney Orbital Project (M7) in Sydney
• the builders of the Eastlink Freeway in eastern Melbourne on cultural heritage issues, and
• the Victorian government on project facilitation legislation for transport projects.

Industrial & waste

Tim has advised:

• on environmental and native title issues associated with a proposed urea project in Western Australia
• advising clients on new licence conditions and compliance reporting obligations introduced by the Victorian EPA in 2010
• on the environmental assessment and approval of pulp mill projects at Bell Bay in Tasmania, and Penola in South Australia
• on a range of environmental compliance issues associated with oil refineries and manufacturing plants in South Australia and Victoria, the Maryvale pulp and paper mill in Victoria, and petrochemical and manufacturing industries in Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales and Tasmania. Clients include Shell, Orica, Woodside, Australian Paper, George Weston Foods, Cadbury, Goulburn Murray Water, Probuild, Lyondell-Basell, Robert Bosch, International Flavours & Fragrances, and Alcoa
• a client on the importation and disposal of disused military waste from East Timor
• on the decommissioning, remediation and sale of a number of Brownfield former industrial sites for redevelopment in Melbourne and regional Victoria, and
• on the proposed decommissioning and redevelopment of the Dons Smallgoods facility in Altona, and the expansion and upgrade of George Weston Foods’ Castlemaine operations
• on numerous legal issues associated with landfill operations around Australia, and on the successful VCAT appeal for a putrescible landfill proposal in south-east Melbourne.

General pollution & land contamination

Tim has advised:

• Spotless Group Limited in Victorian Supreme Court litigation associated with a contaminated property in Melbourne
• a number of developers of contaminated properties, including Lend Lease and Investa
• on hundreds of property and business transactions involving contaminated properties throughout Australia
• clients in responding to EPA investigations, prosecutions and enforcement proceedings in Victoria, including pollution abatement and clean up notices, and in South Australia and Queensland. Tim has also assisted with pollution incident response strategies
• representing an industrial client in VCAT regarding the emission of noise from their facility
• Goulburn Murray Water, Gippsland Water and the Glenelg-Hopkins CMA on a number of environmental and natural resource issues, especially associated with the EPA audit following the Goulburn River fish-kill incident.

Land-use planning

Tim has:

• advising and appearing on behalf of a property development client in the Craigieburn Precinct Structure Plan panel hearing
• acting for QIC in the panel inquiry for the proposed rezoning of the Ringwood Market site
• advised on capital city planning issues associated with the development or re-development of several commercial and office buildings in the Melbourne CAD, including the heritage listing of the Myer store in Bourke Street
• represented a developer in the Traralgon Bypass panel hearing. The case raised important issues about balancing the desirability of preserving exploitable coal reserves with the need to accommodate the expansion of the Traralgon township
• advised Delfin Lend Lease on its residential estate projects at Edgewater on the Maribyrnong, Laurimer and Caroline Springs, Melbourne, and on the development of the Craigieburn Town Centre
• advised Peet on the Greenvale Lakes residential estate project
• advised and represented Pacific Shopping Centres on planning issues at Werribee and Epping Plaza shopping centres, and the development of the Tooronga centre
• advised QIC on the development of Eastland, Woodgrove and Watergardens centres
• assisted Lend Lease Retail on the planning scheme amendment for the re-development of the Greensborough Plaza centre, and Centro on planning issues at Box Hill and Mildura
• advised Glen Eira on its retail centres review, including planning issues for the Carnegie and Phoenix precincts
• advised the developers of the Cambridge Homemaker centre at Hobart
• advised the Victorian Department of Planning and Community Development on a range of town planning, compulsory acquisition and heritage issues.

Cultural heritage & native title

Tim has advised:

• parties to the Gunai Kurnai, Latji Latji and Wergaia native title claims in Victoria, and negotiated the settlement terms of the Gunditjmara and Gunai Kurnai native title claims with the Victorian Department of Justice and the claimants on behalf of industrial and petroleum clients
• on native title issues for several mining and resource projects in Western Australia and Queensland
• the developers of the Basslink and Murraylink interconnectors, Patricia Baleen and Casino gas fields, Wodonga rail bypass, and Portland windfarm on native title future act procedures, including negotiations with native title claimants
• the developers of a large number of residential estate, infrastructure and energy projects on Aboriginal cultural heritage risk management, the legal requirements of the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 and drafted cultural heritage and Aboriginal monitoring agreements. Clients include a number of wind farm and energy project developers, Delfin Lend Lease, Great Southern Properties, and the Victorian Department of Transport
• Aboriginal Affairs Victoria on various State and Commonwealth Aboriginal cultural heritage issues, and on the first appeal under the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006, and
• on non-indigenous heritage issues such as the listing of the Myer store in Bourke Street, the relocation of WWII aircraft hangars in Port Melbourne so the site could be redeveloped, the redevelopment of a Melbourne CBD office building, and the proposed listing of an 18th century homestead adjacent to a client’s proposed wind farm site.

Water

Tim has advised:

• Gippsland Water, Glenelg-Hopkins Catchment Management Authority and Goulburn Murray Water on various water resource and environmental issues associated with the development and management of their water assets, and on native vegetation net gain issues
• the short-listed bidding consortium on environmental issues associated with the proposed Wonthaggi desalination plant in Victoria
• the Victorian Government on State and Commonwealth environmental impact assessment, planning and Aboriginal cultural heritage issues for the Foodbowl Project
• the developers of the Grampians waste water treatment project on environmental and native title issues
• the developer of an industrial project on groundwater extraction assessment and approval issues
• BHP Billiton on groundwater quality issues at its Olympic Dam uranium and copper mine in South Australia, and
• Hydro Tasmania on the management of Tasmanian lakes and rivers which are used to generate hydro-electricity in that State.

Climate change

Tim has advised on various aspects of climate change, in particular:

• mandatory reporting requirements under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (Cth) for a number of clients from a diverse range of businesses
• obligations under the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 (Cth) for renewable energy, electricity retail, manufacturers and installers of solar energy units, and embedded electricity generators
• the implications of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme or a carbon tax for a diverse range of industry sectors, including resource and energy companies and innovators in low-carbon technologies
• the treatment of climate change and greenhouse issues in the environmental impact assessment of new projects. This has been of particular importance on a number of matters Tim has worked on, especially in light of legal challenges which have been brought in Queensland, Victoria and NSW on climate change issues
• drafting and negotiating carbon pass-through clauses in energy supply contracts, and analysing carbon pass-through risks and strategies for client’s economic modelling purposes, and
• legal structures and arrangements for the establishment of plantations as ‘carbon sinks’.

Clients include AGL Energy, Transurban, Babcock & Brown Power, National Australia Bank, Santos, SP AusNet, Myer, the NSW Department of Treasury, IFM, Victorian Department of Transport, and Metcash.

Tim was admitted to practise law in South Australia in 1992, and joined Freehills in 1997. Tim’s specialty is environment, planning and climate change law, having worked in this area since his admission. Tim was made a partner at Freehills in 2001, and has been accredited by the Law Institute of Victoria as a specialist in environmental and planning law. He leads Freehills’ Melbourne environment and planning team, and since 2009 has been Head of Practice for the national team.

Tim holds a Master of Laws (Environmental), Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts (Jurisprudence) degrees from the University of Adelaide. He also obtained the Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice at the University of South Australia.

Tim has written chapters on environmental law and contaminated land in the CCH Australian Master OHS and Environment Guide, regularly speaks at industry conferences, and has been published widely in professional and industry journals. His work on green buildings has been published by the Local Government Yearbook 2009, The Law Institute of Victoria, the Californian Sustainability Alliance, and the New South Wales Department of Environment and Climate Change. Tim has also lectured and tutored town planning students at the University of South Australia, Master of Environmental Engineering students at the University of Melbourne, and is presently a tutor in the town planning course run by the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne. Tim is also a regular guest speaker at industry seminars run by the Australian Industry Group, and is a guest lecturer in ANU’s Graduate Victorian Environment and Planning Law course.

Tim is presently co-authoring a chapter of a forthcoming legal text book on marine and coastal law.

Tim participated in the Commonwealth Government’s review of regulatory arrangements for the decommissioning of offshore petroleum infrastructure. He also led one of the Working Groups which advised the Victorian Department of Planning and Community Development on its 2009 review of the Planning and Environment Act 1987, and was consulted by the Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission on its review of environmental regulation in Victoria. He was also a member of the Law Council of Australia’s climate change working group.

Tim is a past executive member of the National Environmental Law Association, past member of the Property Council of Australia sustainability committee, and is presently a member of the Victorian Planning and Environmental Law Association.