Finance Minister revokes National Land status for three Belconnen blocks

Katy Gallagher, Minister for Finance, has revoked the National Land declaration covering Blocks 1426, 1427 and 1545 in the District of Belconnen in the Australian Capital Territory. The instrument was signed on 29 October 2026 and registered on 3 November 2026 in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette under Government Notice C2026G00718, ending a national land designation that had stood over the three sites for more than three decades.

The revocation is made under subsection 27(1) of the Australian Capital Territory (Planning and Land Management) Act 1988 and subsection 33(3) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901. Section 27 of the ACT planning Act is the provision by which the Commonwealth declares land in the Territory to be National Land, and the Acts Interpretation Act supplies the power to revoke an instrument in the same manner it was made.

The notice is titled “Revocation of Declaration of National Land – Blocks 1426, 1427 and 1545 District of Belconnen” and is published as a Government Notice in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette of 3 November 2026, the same issue that carries the day’s other federal notices.

Two declarations undone, 1989 and 1996

The instrument expressly revokes the earlier declarations in so far as they relate to the blocks now listed in its schedule, dismantling two separate notices rather than a single one:

• Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No S 76 of 2 March 1989, in so far as it relates to Blocks 1426 and 1427 District of Belconnen.
• Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No GN 3 of 24 January 1996, in so far as it relates to Block 1545 District of Belconnen.

The split history matters because the two blocks covered by the 1989 special gazette and the single block covered by the 1996 government notices gazette were declared seven years apart, and are now cleared in one operation.

The land covered and its deposited plan

All three parcels sit in the District of Belconnen and are identified in the schedule against a single plan reference. The schedule sets out:

• District: Belconnen.
• Blocks: 1426, 1427 and 1545.
• Map/Plan reference: DP No. 8814.

The notice explains that a Deposited Plan (DP) is registered with the ACT Registrar-General’s Office, giving the three blocks a common cadastral identifier even though their declarations came from different decades. The schedule’s Division and Section columns are left blank for each of the three entries.

Signature and registration

The Minister signed the instrument on 29 October 2026, and the notice records registration on 3 November 2026 — the date it took its place in the federal gazette. Publication is attributed to the Commonwealth of Australia, with the document carrying its own registration line: “Government Notices Gazette C2026G00718 registered 03/11/2026”.

Because the revocation is expressed “in so far as it relates to” the listed blocks, it does not disturb any other land covered by the 1989 and 1996 notices; only Blocks 1426, 1427 and 1545 in Belconnen are lifted out of National Land status.

The practical effect is that the three Belconnen parcels no longer carry a Commonwealth National Land designation under section 27 of the ACT planning Act, leaving them outside the category of land held to national land planning arrangements and returning the sites to the ordinary Territory planning framework. For residents, developers and landowners in Belconnen, the change alters which planning regime applies to any future proposal on Blocks 1426, 1427 and 1545 — and it arrives without parliamentary amendment, through a ministerial instrument published in the gazette.

Source: Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, Government Notices, C2026G00718, 3 November 2026 (official reference: C2026G00718).