Jane Hall
Jane Hall

Jane Hall

Partner

Melbourne

+61 3 9679 3867 | +61 402 480 911
jane.hall@ashurstperkins.com

Introduction

Jane is a trusted advisor on complex environmental, planning, heritage, land acquisition and water law issues across major infrastructure, energy, resources and city-shaping projects.

Jane Hall is an advisor to private and public sector organizations on infrastructure, energy and resources, utility and city-shaping projects involving various environmental, planning, heritage and water law issues and approval requirements. Jane has a strong contaminated land practice, a highly regarded water law practice, advises in respect of local government obligations, acts on compulsory acquisitions and has extensive experience in the closure, remediation and rehabilitation of thermal assets and industrial sites.  

Jane's energy and resources practice includes approvals for renewable energy assets including pumped hydro, waste to energy, solar, wind and hydrogen. She has worked on LNG import projects, provided advice in relation to iron ore assets in the Pilbara, upstream and midstream offshore oil and gas assets as well as the privatization of electricity transmission networks.

  • Landfill operator | Partner | Ongoing | Providing advice and representation in relation to EPA enforcement action taken in relation to landfill hotspots, including clean up notices, environmental action notices, improvement notices, investigation notices, license suspension and license revocation notices, Supreme Court judicial review proceedings and VCAT merits review proceedings.  Jane also acted in relation to defending EPA criminal prosecutions, originally for an alleged breach of the general environmental duty and subsequently for a breach of license condition and environmental action notice requirement (charges all withdrawn).
  • Landfill operator | Partner | Ongoing | Acting, including representation at the Supreme Court, in relation to disputed compensation claims arising as a result of the compulsory acquisition by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning of a number of landfills in Clayton for the Sandbelt Parkland Project.  
  • Petrol station operator | Partner | Ongoing | Representation in respect of litigation brought by a property developer alleging losses associated with a mixed-use development project, said to be caused by the offsite migration of hydrocarbon contamination from a service station.
  • Manufacturing business | Partner | Ongoing |Acting in relation to Victorian EPA regulatory actions, and various community complaints and class action for nuisance in the Supreme Court, in respect of alleged odor and noise emissions from a manufacturing site.  Assistance has included responding to EPA compliance advice and pollution abatement notices, as well as advice regarding a Council nuisance investigation and judicial review of the finding of no nuisance by claimants. 
  • Government Department | Partner | Ongoing | Representation  in defense of proceedings brought in the Federal Court and the Full Federal Court by local community groups in respect of bushfire related activities being carried out in State Forests.  The groups were seeking to injunct various activities on the grounds that they would have a significant impact on matters of national environmental significance and therefore require prior referral and approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth).   
  • Government agency | Partner | Ongoing | Acting in relation to the land acquisition required at the site of an iconic coastal tourism attraction  to enable construction of a new visitor experience center.
  • Government Department | Partner | Ongoing | Acting in relation to the acquisition of the land required for a regional rail project including advising on the acquisition of industrial and residential land for train stations, and the acquisition of a large parcel of rural land for a train stabling facility. Also advised on the approvals for the upgrade and augmentation of the regional railway lines, including the planning hearing in relation to a train maintenance and stabling facility.
  • Metropolitan water retailers | Partner | Ongoing | Providing advice for more than 25 years in relation to statutory powers, and in respect of a large number of regulatory and commercial matters, including many associated with water and sewage sustainability initiatives (for example agricultural re-use and disposal of biosolids, water reuse schemes (including stormwater projects), recycled water supply arrangements, recycled water drought relief arrangements, metering supply and installation agreements, agreements for water efficiency and assessment and retrofit programs, sewer mining agreements and funding and grant arrangements). A recent area of focus has been on the supply of potable and recycled water to data centers. We have also assisted the corporations with environmental regulatory compliance advice in the context of environmental incidents such as sewer spills.
  • Water / Drainage Authority | Partner | 2025 | Representation at an eight-week Precincts Standing Advisory Committee hearing to consider the infrastructure funding arrangements for a precinct renewal project.  
  • Electricity distribution and transmission companies | Partner | ongoing | Advice in relation to planning and environmental issues encountered in day to day operations including: noise management at substations (and protection of substations from encroaching sensitive uses); vegetation management/protection associated with line clearance/pole replacement; disaster recovery/protection eg flood impacts on substations/levee construction; contaminated spoil management; waste duties; contaminated land management and notification obligations; environmental incident notification and response; battery installations. Jane was also the lead lawyer advising the successful bidder consortia on planning, environment and heritage issues, and drafting of relevant parts of transaction documentation, associated with the privatizations of two different transmission companies.

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