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Land management rate

Farm aerial view

The Land Management Rate will be phased out in 2023/2024.

The objective of the Land Management Rate Program was introduced to support and encourage responsible land management that improves the condition of the natural environment on privately owned land across Mount Alexander Shire.
Up until 30 June 2022, Land Management Rate (LMR) recipients received a 20% reduction off the general property rate.

Land Management Rate

In December 2021, Council adopted the Mount Alexander Shire Rating Strategy 2022-2027.

The strategy outlines that the Land Management Rate (LMR) program will be phased out in 2023/2024 as a reduced farm rate is phased in.

Phasing out of the LMR will be undertaken as follows

  • All landowners who were signed up to the LMR program in 2021/2022 will automatically receive the LMR until 30 June 2023.
  • No new applications will be considered for the LMR from 1 July 2022 onwards.
  • From 1 July 2023 all LMR participants will automatically be transferred to the reduced farm rate which will be 80% of the general property rate in 2023/2024.
  • From July 2023 onwards, Council officers will develop a process to audit properties to ensure they are meeting the eligibility criteria for the reduced farm rate. All properties that meet the eligibility criteria will continue to receive the reduced farm rate. Any properties that do not meet the eligibility criteria of the farm rate will not receive the reduced farm rate and will be required to pay the full general property rate.

Eligibility criteria for the reduced farm rate is for property holders whose land classifies as farm land.

Farm land means any rateable land:

a) that is not less than 2 hectares in area; and

b) that is used primarily for grazing (including agistment), dairying, pigfarming, poultry-farming, fish-farming, tree-farming, bee-keeping, viticulture, horticulture, fruit-growing or the growing of crops of any kind or for any combination of those activities; and 

c) that is used by a business:

 i. that has a significant and substantial  commercial purpose or character; and 
ii. that seeks to make a profit on a continuous or repetitive basis from its  activities on the land; and 
iii. that is making a profit from its activities on the land, or that has a reasonable prospect of making a profit from its activities on the land if  it continues to operate in the way that  it is operating.

Council would like to thank all property owners who have participated in the LMR program. 

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