Part V of the Land Act 1996 is short but consequential. It lets the State take land off the market.
Section 49 — reservation from lease or further lease
The Minister may, by notice in the National Gazette, reserve from lease or further lease —
(a) Government land; or
(b) land that is the subject of a State lease.
Two distinct things are being done here, and the second is easy to miss.
- Reserving Government land stops it being leased at all. It is how land is held back for a public purpose — a school, a hospital, a road corridor, a market, a cemetery, a government station — without granting a lease over it.
- Reserving land that is already under a State lease stops it being leased again. The existing lease runs its course; what the reservation prevents is a further lease when the current one ends.
What it means if your leased land is reserved
A reservation under section 49(b) does not take your existing lease away. But it signals that the State does not intend to renew it. A lessee who was counting on a further lease at expiry — and who is deciding whether to invest in improvements — needs to know whether the land has been reserved.
Check the National Gazette, and check before committing capital late in a lease term. Payment for improvements on expiry is governed separately by Part XIII, and is not a substitute for renewal.
Everything happens in the Gazette
Reservation is effected by notice in the National Gazette. That is the same mechanism the Act uses for the decisions that matter most:
- declaring land to be State land (s 5);
- declaring a compulsory acquisition (s 12);
- advertising land available for leasing (s 68) and publishing successful applicants (s 74);
- extinguishing a granted application (s 77);
- declaring land to be customary land (s 133);
- reserving land from lease (s 49).
If you hold or want land in Papua New Guinea, the National Gazette is the document to watch. Several of the Act’s time limits — the three months under section 5, the 28 days under section 75, the appeal periods after a Land Board decision — run from the date of a Gazette publication, not from when you find out.
Part VI — aerodromes
Part VI makes separate provision for aerodromes, reflecting the reality that in much of Papua New Guinea an airstrip is the only access. Land needed for aerodrome purposes is dealt with under that Part rather than by ordinary leasing.
Reserved land is not the same as a protected area
“Reserved land” under Part V is a land administration concept — land withheld from leasing. It is not the same as a conservation area, a wildlife management area or a national park, which are created under separate environmental and conservation legislation, and which can exist over customary land.
Can a reservation be challenged?
A reservation is an exercise of a statutory power by the Minister and is amenable to judicial review in the National Court on the usual grounds — that the power was exercised for an improper purpose, on irrelevant grounds, or without regard to a mandatory consideration. Section 41 of the Constitution may also apply where a reservation, though authorised, is harsh or oppressive or disproportionate in the particular case.
The practical difficulty is standing and timing: challenge early, and be able to show how the reservation affects an interest you actually hold.
Sources
- Land Act 1996 — ss 5, 12, 49, 68, 74, 77, 133; Parts V and VI
- Constitution — ss 41, 53, 155
- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Inc v Kimas [2022] PGSC 96; SC2280
Before relying on anything here, read the current text of the Land Act 1996 and check for later amendments. If a decision matters to you, get advice — start with the Office of the Public Solicitor, or find a firm in the law firms directory.