The EDO is the only legal centre in NSW that provides specialist advice about public interest environmental law matters. Since 1985 the EDO has pursued its mission of providing public interest legal services to regional, state and national conservation groups, resident action groups and individuals, to protect the built and natural environment.

The EDO is now acknowledged as a crucial element in the functioning of environmental law in NSW and Australia.

Mission statement

To empower the community to protect the environment through law, recognising:

• the importance of public participation in environmental decision-making in achieving environmental protection;
• the importance of fostering close links with the community; and
• that the EDO has an obligation to provide representation in important matters in response to community needs as well as areas the EDO considers to be important for law reform.

The goals of the EDO are to:

• ensure the community receives prompt advice and professional representation in public interest environmental matters.
• identify deficiencies in environmental law and work for their reform.
• empower the community to participate in environmental decisions and to use the law to protect the environment.
• ensure efficient management and administration of the EDO's business.
• assist the work of the National EDO Network.

Environmental Planning and Law Journal article- EDO NSW 1985-1995 [PDF 2.43 M]

Read about some of our key cases from over the years.

Milestones

2007

• EDO (NSW) and EDO (NT) jointly assisted the Northern Land Council to oppose the expansion of a zinc, lead and silver mine on the McArthur River in NT. The proposed expansion involved diverting the river for 5km. Although Northern Land Council succeeded in having the decision to grant the expansion overturned, the NT Government indicated that it would pass special legislation to allow the expansion to proceed.

2006

• EDO (Northern Rivers), the EDO's first regional office in New South Wales, was officially opened at Lismore.

• EDO employed its first Aboriginal Liaison Officer as part of a pilot program to improve EDO engagement with Aboriginal communities.

2005

• EDO NSW celebrated its 20th anniversary.

  (Over the past 20 years) the EDO has had a significant role in educating the community, working for changes to environmental legislation, championing third party rights in the Land and Environment Court, and acting as the first port of call for pressing environmental law issues in the broader community. - The Hon. Bob Debus, Minister for the Environment (2005)

• EDO vigorously opposed the introduction of Part 3A into the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.

• Nature Conservation Council of NSW v Minister Administering the Water Management Act
  The EDO was granted special leave to appeal to the High Court in a case concerning water sharing plans on the Gwydir River. The NSW Government avoided the court action by passing special legislation to retrospectively validate all water sharing plans made under the Water Management Act 2000.

• The Hon. Justice Brian Preston, former EDO lawyer, was appointed Chief Judge of the NSW Land and Environment Court.

2004

• EDO won the landmark ‘Stealth' case.

  In my opinion the governing consideration in the present case is this: declared wilderness areas are sacrosanct. - The Hon. Justice Lloyd, NSW Land and Environment Court

2003

• EDO employed its first internal scientific advisor to provide technical support to EDO staff and the broader community.

2002

• EDO and the Environmental Law Centre helped local traditional owners save 38,000 hectares of rainforest in Papua New Guinea.

• The Hon. Justice Nicola Pain, former EDO lawyer, appointed judge of the NSW Land and Environment Court.

• Land and Environment Court Act amended to allow third party joinder, as recommended by EDO policy submission.

2001

• Bruce Wilson on behalf of Gurrungar Environment Group v Bourke Shire Council and Ors
  EDO represented Bruce Wilson on behalf of the Gurrungar Environment Group that appealed against an approval for a cotton farm at Beemery, on the grounds that it was not ecologically sustainable. As a result, the EDO ensured a best-practice approach to the cotton farming industry.

1999

• EDO prompted a reform of threatened species law in NSW by successfully representing the Timbarra Protection Coalition in challenging the Timbarra Gold Mine.

1997

• EDO won a landmark judgment acting for Al Oshlack to stop clearing for a subdivision on the controversial Iron Gates site at Evans Head.

1995

• The Commonwealth Government committed to funding a national network of environmental lawyers. Those States and Territories without an EDO established their offices to complete the EDO network across Australia. The network is now known as the Australian Network of Environmental Defender's Offices (ANEDO).

1994

• EDO began its ongoing push for sustainable management of the Murray-Darling basin when it published recommendations for legal and administrative reform on the environmental health of NSW inland rivers and the Murray-Darling basin in particular. The EDO also hosted a conference on this issue.

  Like the canary in the coal mine, the EDO was one of the first voices to raise the issue of the need for water reform in 1994. It made important recommendations for changes to management of the Murray Darling Basin. - The Hon. Bob Debus, Minister for the Environment (2005)

1993

• Save Blue Lagoon Beach Action Group Inc v Kelvest Pty Ltd and Wyong Shire Council
  The EDO 's strategic focus turned to coastal protection. EDO represented the SBLB Action Group in successfully challenging a decision of Wyong Shire Council to approve a development application for the expansion of a caravan and camping site on land zoned for coastal protection.

1991

• EDO Victoria was established with a grant from the Victorian Law Foundation.

• EDO initiated its international program by helping the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands redraft its environmental protection ordinance which sought to regulate the export of endangered species.

1990

• Minister for Minerals and Energy v Vaughn-Taylor
  EDO successfully acted for Keir Vaughn-Taylor who opposed the mining of limestone from the Yessabah Caves, near Kempsey.

• The EDO participated in one of the first mediations sponsored by the Land and Environment Court

• The EDO expanded its role to include ‘defending the defenders' when it represented several hundred protestors arrested in demonstrations against logging in the south-east forests of New South Wales.

1989

• The first interstate EDO office opened in Brisbane, Queensland.

• Australian Conservation Foundation v Minister for Resources
  EDO launched a n unsuccessful Federal Court challenge to the Minister's decision to grant a licence for the export of 850,000 tonnes of woodchips per year for a period of 17 years from 1 January 1990. 

• Jarasius v Forestry Commission of New South Wales
  The EDO challenged the logging of old-growth eucalypt forests in the south-eastern forests near Eden, described as “the main environmental dispute in NSW in the late 1980s”.

1987

• Godfrey v Minister for Planning & Environment
  The EDO successfully challenged the decision of the Minister to revoke a permanent conservation order for failure to take into account heritage and other considerations regarding Sydney 's last lyric theatre, the Wintergarden Theatre in Rose Bay.

1986

• The EDO appeared before the High Court of Australia for the first time in Commercial Radio Coffs Harbour Ltd v Fuller

1985

• The Environmental Defender's Office begins operations, with a single lawyer working from a spare table in the offices of solicitor Bruce Woolf. The company's objects were “to provide legal assistance and undertake research regarding the conservation of the built or natural environment and to promote community education programmes in matters relating to environmental law.”

• By the night of the official opening of the office on 30 May 1985, the EDO had responded to 16 inquiries, and had opened 12 files, of which 5 were litigious.
  David Robinson

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