From NRM levy to landscape levy
Older notices called it the NRM levy. The name changed with the law: from 1 July 2020 the Landscape South Australia Act 2019 took over from the Natural Resources Management Act 2004 as the framework for looking after the state’s land, water, pest plants and animals, and biodiversity, administered by regional landscape boards.
Under the Act, the councils in a board’s region contribute to the board’s costs for the year, shared between them as the board’s annual business plan sets out (section 66). To recover that money, the councils must impose a regional landscape levy on rateable land in the region (section 69(1)), and the levy is handled as if it were a separate rate under Chapter 10 of the Local Government Act 1999 (section 69(2)).
Four ways the levy can be set
Section 69(3) gives the levy one of four bases, chosen through a scheme in the board’s annual business plan:
| Basis | How it works |
|---|---|
| The value of the land | The council must use capital value, site value or annual value. |
| One fixed charge | The same amount on every piece of rateable land. |
| A fixed charge by use | An amount that depends on what the land is used for, from uses the regulations may prescribe. |
| Area | The levy follows the area of the rateable land. |
Whatever the basis, a council is to set the levy, as far as reasonably practicable, so that it raises the same amount as its share of the contribution to the board (section 69(6)). A parcel split by a council or region boundary is treated as wholly inside one of them, under a scheme in the regulations (section 73).
Example: the Yorke Peninsula Council’s 2026–27 rate, as at October 2026
For the year ending 30 June 2027 the council set a separate rate on all rateable land in its area of 0.008580 cents in the dollar, to raise $1,315,258.72 for the landscape board. A cent is a hundredth of a dollar, so the levy is the capital value multiplied by 0.008580 and divided by 100.
| Capital value | Working | Levy |
|---|---|---|
| Each $100,000 | 100,000 × 0.008580 ÷ 100 | $8.58 |
| Each $1,000,000 | 1,000,000 × 0.008580 ÷ 100 | $85.80 |
The amounts are steps for the arithmetic, not the value of any property. The capital value printed on a rates notice is determined through Land Services SA; the council has no part in the valuation. The council’s rates, the levy included, fall due in four instalments, on or before 21 September 2026, 7 December 2026, 9 March 2027 and 7 June 2027.
The cap on rises
The board says increases in both the land and water levies are capped by the Consumer Price Index. In the Act, the councils’ total contribution for a year should not go above the previous year’s, adjusted by the percentage change in the CPI between September quarters (section 66(3) and (4)).
The Minister may allow more in exceptional circumstances, and the Act names four kinds: an urgent problem with existing infrastructure in the region; a natural or environmental disaster; another major event that has hurt a large part of the region’s community; or another exceptional situation where the benefit outweighs the added cost (section 66(5) and (6)).
Two more lines a farm sees on the same notice
The Yorke Peninsula Council rates land differently by use, and primary production is one of its categories. For 2026–27 its general rate on primary production land is 0.106350 cents in the dollar, against 0.206583 for residential land. An owner who thinks the land use category on a notice does not match the property’s main use can object in writing within 60 days of receiving the year’s first rates notice.
The council also explains the single farm enterprise rule. Where two or more pieces of rateable land in the council area are farmed as one enterprise, only one fixed charge can be imposed on the whole. The blocks need not adjoin or be held in the same names, but the owner must show they are farmed as one. The rule comes from section 152 of the Local Government Act 1999; the council leaves it to owners to tell it when blocks join or leave the enterprise, and it cannot process an application back in time.
The water levy is separate
The board also receives a water levy. It is based on the water allocated to licensed users in Prescribed Water Resource Areas and is collected by the Department for Environment and Water.
What the levy pays for
The board describes the landscape levy as money to protect and improve the region’s environment and to support sustainable production, in a region where more than 80 per cent of the land is used for agriculture. Its pest plant work is one example: staff help landholders plan weed control and offer technical support, information and, in some cases, incentives. That work, and an owner’s own duties, are in paddock 3.
Where to check
The council that issues the rates notice answers questions about the levy on it, and the board’s levy page explains the levy itself. Both are linked below with the Act. How land use also shapes land tax is in paddock 1.