Queensland Government under fire from Wilderness Society over land clearing permits in state's north

ABC The Government says the legislation changes are part of its vision to expand Queensland's agricultural economy.

The Queensland Government is under fire from conservationists over the granting of new land clearing permits in the north of the state.

The Wilderness Society says weakening of vegetation management laws last year has led to large-scale clearing applications.

Campaigner Gavan McFadzean says the biggest example is a permit granted to Strathmore Station, a big cattle station in the gulf savannah country near Georgetown.

"We've discovered through a tip-off that [land clearing] is now broadscale and at an alarming rate," he said.

"One of the biggest examples of that we've discovered is in the Gilbert catchment at Strathmore, where an application for 30,000 hectares of clearing - that's about 134 Brisbane CBDs of clearing - has been granted."

Mr McFadzean says the legislative amendments are undermining the land clearing legislation introduced in Queensland nearly 20 years ago.

"During the 1980s and 1990s Queensland was clearing at an alarming rate, it was actually an emerging environmental crisis," he said.

"If Queensland was a country, in the early 90s it would have been one of the worst land clearers in the world, on par with Brazil, the Congo Basin, Borneo and Indonesia.

"It was through the 1996 native Vegetation Act introduced by the Beattie government that land clearing was brought under control."

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Queensland Government under fire from Wilderness Society over land clearing permits in state's north