About Bill McCredie
Bill has over 20 years’ experience as an environment and approvals lawyer, specialising in environmental, town planning, natural resources and valuation/resumption law.
Bill is sought after for his strategic advice navigating complex approvals regimes and defeating legal challenges by opponents for major projects. Capitalising on his scientific background, he integrates seamlessly with technical experts on project teams and interprets legal requirements to guide practical approvals implications and advise on concrete actions at project level.
His breadth of expertise spans:
- environmental impact assessment and planning approvals
- environmental licensing, incident response, compliance issues and audits
- contamination of land and remediation programs
- coal and metals mining, oil and gas resources, and extractive industry approvals
- bulk water projects, water licensing, entitlements and resource planning
- environmental and biodiversity offsets requirements, agreements and delivery programs
- greenhouse gas emission reporting, safeguard mechanism requirements and climate change issues
- valuation, compensation and compulsory acquisition of land by governmental authorities.
Bill's advisory roles include assisting major project developers with regulatory advice for project approval and construction, undertaking due diligence on key approvals and compliance issues for acquisition, disposal and financing roles, and advising on licensing and compliance issues for operational projects, including engagement with regulators and affected landholders. Bill is also at the forefront of energy transition projects and climate regulatory changes, having advised major energy and mining sector businesses on the changing landscape for carbon capture and storage and enhanced oil recovery projects for carbon sequestration.
Recognised annually as a leading Environment & Planning lawyer by Chambers Global and Asia Pacific since 2010: Bill is described as 'loving what he does, and it shows in his high-quality work and client service'; he is 'client oriented, supportive and responsive'; and 'a very commercial lawyer with exceptional technical knowledge who understands both the political and the legal context, listens to feedback and gives tailored advice'.
Bill's practice involves a broad range of advisory and litigious work for clients, including:
Mining and resources
-
Glencore coal mine closure and rehab: approvals requirements and environmental issues for the closure planning for the Glenden township, and on the progressive rehabilitation and closure planning process and documentation for mines, including Hail Creek, Clermont, Newlands and Oaky Creek.
-
Pembroke Resources: EPBC Act approvals, Mining Lease and the Environmental Authority applications for the greenfield Olive Downs coking coal mine project, in the Bowen basin. This role included running the mining objection hearing in the Land Court responding to landowner objectors, and related judicial review proceedings in the Supreme Court.
-
Origin energy transition project: environmental issues relating to the closure planning for the Eraring Power station and ash dam. Also, advising on the approvals pathway for the grid-scale 700MW Eraring Battery Project.
-
Global resources client: approvals, tenures and impact assessment for a ‘blue’ hydrogen project combining coal mining, gasification and carbon capture and storage.
-
Yancoal: environmental approvals for expansion and extension projects for Cameby Downs and Yarrabee mines, including under the environmental authority and EPBC Act requirements.
-
Rio Tinto: the $1.6 billion Amrum (South of Embley) project, including advising on state and federal approvals, environmental impact assessment processes and acting in a Land Court objection to the Environmental Authority amendments by The Wilderness Society.
Renewables: solar, wind and BESS projects
-
Acciona: projects approvals, EIS, biodiversity offsets and overlapping tenement issues for the 1GW Macintyre wind farm project.
-
Sojitz and ENEOS: acquisition and development of the 204MW Edenvale Solar Farm project
-
Windlab: strategic approvals pathway advice for the 10GW North Queensland Super Hub, including advising on EPBC Act approval conditioning for the Gawara Baya wind farm, nature-positive strategy advice, including strategic advice on biodiversity offsets, advanced offsets and on implications for engaging landholders and neighbour agreements.
-
AGL Energy: environmental, native title and cultural heritage approval issues for the sale of Cooper's Gap windfarm project (453 MW) to PARF—the Powering Australia Renewables Fund.
-
Offshore wind: Bill has experience advising on bids for feasibility licences under the federal Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Act 2021 regime in relation to all aspects of approvals strategy, including coordinating environmental impact assessment approaches to satisfy the Government's EPBC Act regime and various state requirements across Victoria and NSW.
Pumped hydro
- Snowy Hydro: approvals strategy for the $12 billion Snowy 2.0 Project in relation to NSW Critical State Significant Infrastructure status, EIS biodiversity offsets and EPBC Act approvals and regulator engagements, and advising on environmental requirements during construction phase.
- Origin: environment and planning approvals required for the Shoalhaven pumped hydro expansion project, including obtaining the CSSI declaration, EIS requirements, accredited assessment under the EPBC Act, tenure issues associated with the underground facilities and titling beneath a National Park, and early works approvals for geotechnical and environmental investigations.
- Genex / Kidston Gold Mining: Progressive Rehabilitation and Closure Plan (PRCP) regime and transition to development approvals obtained after Coordinator-General assessment for the pumped hydro project and adjacent solar farm.
- Mt Rawdon pumped hydro: approvals and mining closure planning interactions for the Mt Rawdon pumped hydro project.
Major government infrastructure and developments
-
Transport & Main Roads: environmental and approvals aspects of numerous projects’ business case processes for state government entities, including TMR’s numerous upgrades to the M1 (eg Mudgeeraba to Varsity Lakes; Varsity Lakes to Tugun); Centenary Bridge upgrade; Coomera Connector Preliminary Evaluation; various Bruce Highway upgrades, including business case for Rockhampton to Yeppoon; and more broadly, projects such as New Generation Rollingstock and Gold Coast Light Rail.
-
Minister for Economic Development Queensland: assistance with negotiating and drafting infrastructure agreements for Priority Development Areas under the Economic Development Act 2012, including an infrastructure agreement involving the Gold Coast City Council in connection with the former Gold Coast hospital site, and for the current Queens Wharf Brisbane entertainment/resort precinct.
-
Sunwater: environment and planning approvals required for the construction of the $569 million Rookwood Dam on the Fitzroy River, and the environmental, planning and water approvals required for the $1.2 billion replacement dam works proposed at the Paradise Dam on the Burnett River.
-
Gladstone Area Water Board: planning and state and federal environmental matters in connection with the construction of the $983 million Fitzroy to Gladstone Pipeline project.
-
WaterNSW: the A$476 million Wentworth to Broken Hill Pipeline project, including approvals, tenure and cultural heritage requirements.
Property development
-
QIC: planning matters arising in connection with shopping centre assets across Queensland, and in connection with commercial assets in Brisbane, including the development of land in the Roma Street, Boggo Road and Albert Street Cross River Rail PDAs.
-
Logos Property Pty Ltd: acquisition of warehousing and property development rights for a significant logistics park at Moorebank for a consortium of investors led by LOGOS.
-
GPT: planning matters in connection with the redevelopment of the Riverside Centre and heritage matters in connection with the proposal to heritage list the Riverside Centre.
-
Jacfin: development of the greenfield industrial estates in Western Sydney, NSW, including voluntary planning agreements with state and local government, works authorisation deeds with TfNSW, and agreements with various infrastructure counterparties, including Sydney Water, Endeavour Energy and Transgrid.
-
Dexus: legacy contamination and remediation issues associated with redevelopment and disposal options for former industrial land at West End.
-
Investec: redevelopment of a former heavy industry site, including the site contamination assessment process and approvals strategy for development for a more sensitive residential medium-density use.
Environmental management and incident response
- Incident response: Bill's assistance is frequently sought to support environmental incident response capabilities, and in responding to investigations and audits by environmental regulators. This support includes engaging closely with in-house counsel and asset-level executives to scope, commission and conduct investigations in response to environmental incidents or alleged non-compliance events, whether raised by external complainants or by internal whistleblowers. He frequently advises on incident notifications and general law liabilities.
- Managing contaminated land: Bill has extensive experience in advising on environmental liabilities and remediation obligations in relation to legacy contaminated sites in the context of major transactions, privatisations and end-of-life mine closure planning.
- Heavy industry facilities: Bill has worked with owners/operators of numerous major industrial facilities in relation to non-compliance events and environmental regulatory investigations spanning major impacts from air quality emissions, noise generation, waste disposal, wastewater discharges and contamination of groundwater. This experience extends across a wide range of heavy industry facilities, including aluminium refineries, aluminium, lead/zinc and copper smelters, ports and airports, coal-fired and gas-fired power stations, ash dams, fuel refineries and terminals, and underground coal gasification operations.
- Environmental prosecutions: Bill advises on defending environmental charges, and has experience negotiating environmental charge plea agreements and penalty ranges in environmental prosecutions. Bill is experienced in defending prosecutions in the Magistrates’ Court for summary environmental criminal offences, and acting on committal proceedings for indictable offences, including addressing bail for individuals charged under executive officer offence provisions. Bill’s background in environmental science enables him to work quickly and seamlessly with technical experts on complex evidential issues concerning the extent of alleged environmental harm.