Man fined thousands for illegal tyre dumping in heritage site

A young man captured by a covert camera illegally dumping tyres into a mine shaft at a national heritage-listed area has been fined thousands of dollars — but could have paid $115 to lawfully dispose of the litter.

The 21-year-old dumped a trailer load of about 30 to 35 car tyres at an area known as Delaney's shaft, on Ryan Road, Moonta Mines, after 8pm on March 4, 2025, about a month after the local council installed a motion activation trail camera at the Yorke Peninsula site.

The man previously pleaded guilty in the South Australian Environment, Resources and Development Court to a charge of one count of disposing of more than 50 litres of general litter onto land.

In sentencing earlier this month, Senior Judge Michael Durrant said Copper Coast Council received a report about illegal dumping at the site in January 2025, which included items with the man's address, prompting the installation of the camera.

He said that a Ford utility towing a trailer captured two men, including the 21-year-old, dumping tyres into the mineshaft, before driving away.

"You wrote to the court and accepted from the earlier stage that you knew what you had done was a silly thing," Senior Judge Durrant said.

"You told me that you could not afford to take the tyres to the dump and that you did what you had seen other people doing."

He said that while the man was "regretful and sorry", he knew what he was doing was wrong and deliberate.

"You disposed of tyres in a mineshaft rather than disposing of them lawfully."

'Especially serious example' of littering

He said the council had told the court it was "an especially serious example of the littering offence because it occurred in a national heritage place under consideration for world heritage listing".

Senior Judge Durrant said the council had told the court that the tyres could have been lawfully disposed of at the Copper Coast Resource Recovery Centre "for an estimated cost of $115".

He said offending of this type was "difficult to detect", with the disposal of tyres also creating an "ongoing nuisance and potential environmental harm".

Senior Judge Durrant said he had imposed an order in April which requires the man to "take all necessary steps to make good the damage caused by the disposal of general litter into the mineshaft".

"That order requires you to engage, at your own expense, a suitably qualified professional with expertise in remediating environmental damage," he said.

"That order also requires you to follow reasonable directions from the owner of the site and the council relating to safety, and preservation of the state heritage area."

The judge said a further penalty was also required to denounce the offending and deter others.

He imposed a conviction and $4,200 fine and ordered the man pay the council's investigation and legal costs of $2,309, the mandatory victims of crime levy and the $115 it would have cost to lawfully dispose of the tyres.