The National Parks and Wildlife Service has recently changed the way small scale events (less than 150 people) are managed in National Parks, introducing a Small Scale Event application form for those who wish to hold an activity for between 40 and 150 people in a National Park.
A copy of the form is available here.
This small scale event approval process replaces the existing system of ‘activity consent’ or similar where the process used was different in each NPWS Area. This new system provides one form that can be used for all NPWS reserves. Read about what this means for your Scouting activities here.
What this means for Scouts:
- Each time you wish to hold an activity for between 40 and 150 people in a National Park, submit an application form.
- For groups under 40 people, please check with the Area office to find out if you are to submit an application. Different national parks have different rules in their Plan of Management regarding the group size required for approval e.g. some state 10 people.
- If the group size does not require NPWS consent, please contact NPWS Local Area Office notifying of the intent to hold the activity. The preference of how this is done will differ between Areas – some may require an email only, or some may require the small scale event form as way of collecting all the information in one place. Some Areas may not require notification at all for these very small groups that are under 40 people or the number in the Plan of Management
- If you have a number of activities planned in advance within the same NPWS Area, you can combine them on to one application form using the ‘Series table’.
- If your application is approved, you will be issued a letter of acceptance by the Area Office and this is your approval to hold the activity.
- Scouts activities are exempt from consent fees if the primary activity is directly and specifically related to activities that you run.
- If you have some existing approvals in place, there is no need to reapply using the small scale event form. However please use this when planning new activities.
- A Public Liability Insurance Certificate listing the Secretary DPIE, the Minister for Energy and Environment and the Crown in the right of the State of NSW as interested parties can be obtained by contacting the Scouts NSW insurer at [email protected]
