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Contaminated Land Register (CLR)

Queensland's Contaminated Land Register (CLR) lists land needing remediation; a CLR listing attaches to title and blocks residential use until the site is cleaned.

By Dan Waring. Last updated 1 June 2026. Verified 1 June 2026.

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The Contaminated Land Register (CLR) is the Queensland register of land that is contaminated and requires remediation. It is kept by the Department of Environment, Science and Innovation (DESI) under the Environmental Protection Act 1994, and it sits alongside the broader Environmental Management Register (EMR).

The two registers do different jobs:

  • The EMR lists land that has been used for a notifiable activity, or is contaminated but can be managed in its current state. Most listed sites sit here.
  • The CLR is the smaller, more serious list: land where contamination is causing, or is likely to cause, serious environmental harm and which needs active remediation. Land on the CLR cannot proceed to a sensitive use such as housing until it has been remediated to a DESI-approved standard and the remediation has been validated and signed off.

A site can move from the EMR onto the CLR if an investigation shows it is worse than first thought, and back off the CLR once remediation is validated. Both listings are recorded against the land and turn up on a title and registers search (via DESI or CITEC Confirm), which is why a Queensland seller disclosure and an ordinary due-diligence check should both surface them before you buy.

For a builder a CLR listing is a hard stop on a residential project, not a condition you can build around. Budget for the investigation, the remediation and the validation, and confirm the land is off the CLR (or carries the right approvals for your intended use) before you rely on a residential end use in a feasibility. It is the Queensland equivalent of the NSW contaminated land triggers and Victoria’s Environmental Audit Overlay.

Also known as: CLR, Queensland contaminated land register.

Category: Planning / Contaminated land.

See also

References

Last updated: 2026-06-01. Verified: 2026-06-01. Quarterly review for currency.

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