Address: Main Office: John Gorton Building
World Heritage Committee membership
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- National and Commonwealth heritage management
- The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984
- Indigenous Heritage Program
- Australia’s maritime heritage Historic shipwrecks
- The Historic Shipwrecks Program
- Evaluation Heritage Grants Programs
- Case study 1: Commemorating Eminent Australians: Prime Minister Ben Chifley’s Home
- Case study 2: Jobs Fund: Ilkurlka Heritage Project Support Technology and Storage Shed
World Heritage Committee membership In October 2007 Australia was elected to the World Heritage Committee for a four-year term. Australia’s primary objectives were to improve heritage management capacity in our region and strengthen the integrity of the World Heritage Convention. The department participated in international expert meetings on the future of the World Heritage Convention; sustainable tourism; the finances of the World Heritage Centre; serial national and trans-national natural World Heritage sites, and the processes and practices before the committee considers nominations for World Heritage Listing. National and Commonwealth heritage management The EPBC Act provides for the preparation of a management plan for each place on the National and Commonwealth Heritage Lists. In 2010–11 the department commented on 14 management plans for National Heritage List places. The EPBC Act requires Australian Government agencies that own or lease places with listed or potential Commonwealth Heritage values to prepare written heritage strategies for managing them, to protect and conserve those values. In 2010–11 three agencies completed heritage strategies. Sixteen strategies are now finalised and 14 are being prepared. A further 15 agencies are liaising with the department on strategy preparation. The EPBC Act also requires each Commonwealth agency to undertake an assessment process to identify the places it owns or controls that might have Commonwealth Heritage values. The Heritage Division held a heritage workshop for Commonwealth agencies on 12 May 2011 at the Australian Academy of Science which is listed on the National Heritage List. The workshop covered all EPBC Act requirements for Commonwealth agencies. In September 2010 the Australian Heritage Council published a document on the department’s website titled ‘Identifying Commonwealth Heritage Values and Establishing a Heritage Register’, to assist agencies. Australia Post and AirServices Australia used the tool to assess and submit nominations for their Australia-wide heritage assets. Other Commonwealth agencies have been encouraged to assess and submit nominations for their heritage assets. This streamlined approach proved very successful (see case study 6). Kokoda Track Entering small village, Kokoda Track. (Jo Beath) In 2010–11 the Australian and Papua New Guinea governments signed the Second Joint Understanding (2010–2015) on the Owen Stanley Ranges, Brown River Catchment and Kokoda Track Region. Under this understanding the Australian Government provided advisors to the Papua New Guinea Department of Environment and Conservation to help its National Taskforce implement the Second Joint Understanding and build capacity in land use planning and protected area management. The department also provided funding to the Kokoda Development Program to construct school classrooms; buy curriculum and stationery supplies; refurbish health facilities; improve aid posts; replenish medical supplies; conduct an integrated health and HIV patrol, and train health workers and teachers. Assistance was also given to the Kokoda Track Authority to strengthen operational capacity, deliver micro-business support for track communities, and implement maintenance and safety projects along the track. Support was also provided to key personnel—a Chief Executive Officer, Operations Manager, Finance Officer, Safety Project Manager and a Livelihoods Officer. The government has committed $4.9 million over two years (2009–11) for the Kokoda Track Safety Package. The funding is to:
Indigenous heritage Indigenous rock art site, Windjana Gorge National Park, Kimberley region, Western Australia. (Cathy Zwick) The department works with other government agencies and the community to protect the cultural heritage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The work includes providing advice on proposals referred under the EPBC Act; supporting projects to identify conserve and promote Indigenous heritage; and providing emergency protection to areas and assisting the minister to respond to applications under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984.
Under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 the minister can protect areas and objects of traditional significance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from threats of injury or desecration. This ‘last resort’ protection is available only when there is no effective protection under state or territory laws. In 2010–11 the department supported the minister’s response to 43 separate requests to protect 33 areas and two collections of objects. Of these, 20 were new requests made during the year, an increase on last year’s 14 new requests and the long-term average of about 12 new requests a year. Half of the requests (21) were either not legally valid applications under the EPBC Act or were not pursued by the applicants. Two applications were resolved when the minister declined to make declarations due to insufficient evidence. Another 20 applications were under active consideration at the end of 2010–11. Responses take time because the minister must allow the parties procedural fairness and, in some cases, the minister commissions reports. The minister sometimes receives more than one request to protect the same area. For example of the 43 requests managed in 2010–11, six sought to protect Bulahdelah (or Alum) Mountain in New South Wales from the construction of a bypass in the Pacific Highway.
The department administers the government’s Indigenous Heritage Program, which is an ongoing annual competitive grants program that provides $3.645 million annually to identify, conserve and promote the Indigenous heritage values of places important to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The program is delivered in cooperation with the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs’ Indigenous Coordination Centres, as part of the whole-of-government delivery of services to Indigenous Australians. In 2010–11 the Indigenous Heritage Program provided funding for 55 projects including two projects to conserve and/or promote the National Heritage-listed sites of the Brewarrina Fish-traps and the Myall Creek Massacre. The remaining projects range across the country—seven each from New South Wales and South Australia, four from the Northern Territory, 17 from Queensland, two from Tasmania, and 16 from Western Australia. Recipients include shire councils, land councils, elders groups, National Trusts and educational institutions.
The department administers a range of grant programs to provide funding and advice to support heritage protection, conservation and interpretation. The Jobs Fund The Jobs Fund was a $650 million Australian Government initiative to support and create jobs and skill development in local communities. The Jobs Fund provided $60 million to 191 projects over two years (2009–2011) to strengthen the role of heritage in the community. Funding was approved through economic stimulus and employment programs to protect, conserve and promote sites on the National and World Heritage lists and National Trust, cultural heritage and natural heritage places. The program is now closed. National Historic Sites The National Historic Sites program helps protect and conserve Australia’s most significant historic heritage. In 2010−11 $4.3 million was provided to 47 projects to maintain and conserve the special heritage values of nationally significant historic heritage sites. These are places that have had an important role in the nation’s history. To be eligible for funding a place must be listed, or be actively considered for listing, in the National Heritage List, or be a historic heritage place of national significance (generally already included on a state heritage list or the Commonwealth Heritage List). The program is ongoing. The National Heritage List Sites Promotional Program was funded under the National Historic Sites program. During and around the inaugural Australian Heritage Week, 32 managers of nationally significant historic sites were funded to organise, promote and implement community events to raise awareness of heritage. Commemorating Eminent Australians The Commemorating Eminent Australians program provides funding for the recognition of Australians who made a significant impact on Australia and the world. Eligible projects may include the conservation of existing graves, monuments, objects, plaques and statues commemorating eminent Australians. The program has total annual funding of up to $100 000. Funding of $42 781 was provided to five projects in 2010–11. The program is ongoing.
Anchor from the Marie Gabrielle (1869) on Wreck Beach. (John Baker) The department administers the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 and the Historic Shipwrecks Program, working with state, territory and Norfolk Island government agencies to protect historic shipwrecks. In November 2010 the Environment Protection and Heritage Council signed the Australian Underwater Cultural Heritage Intergovernmental Agreement. This clarifies the roles and responsibilities of the Commonwealth, states and Northern Territory jurisdictions in the management of Australia’s underwater cultural heritage. It also sets out how to meet international best practice as outlined in the rules in the Annex to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) 2001 (Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage). On 6 and 7 November 2010 the department helped deliver a joint Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology and National Archaeological Society course on Norfolk Island. On 9 November 2010 collections from the Batavia (sunk in 1629), Vergulde Draeck (1656), Zuytdorp (1712) and the Zeewijk (1727) were presented to the Australian Government and People by his Excellency Mr Willem Andreae, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. These collections were previously located in the Netherlands under the Agreement between Australia and the Netherlands Concerning Old Dutch Shipwrecks (ANCODS). The ANCODS Agreement was signed on 6 November 1972 and the repatriation of these artefacts brings to a close more than 37 years of work by the ANCODS committee. The collections include silver coins, bricks, lead ingots, cannon balls, amber and pitch, as well as rare objects owned by crew and passengers such as navigational instruments and ornaments. The artefacts are now in the Distributed National Historic Shipwreck Collection and housed in the Western Australian Museum. In January 2011 the department helped ABC Landline produce a special on the centenary commemoration of the loss of SS Yongala. The Yongala, an interstate coastal steamer, on her 99th journey with 122 passengers and crew, sank with no survivors near Townsville, Queensland during cyclonic weather in March 1911. The site, a protected historic shipwreck, gives a snapshot of Edwardian life and is one of Australia’s most highly regarded and popular wreck dives. A version of the television special was later broadcast in the ABC’s Stateline, 7:30 Report and ABC News programs. In February 2011 the department sponsored the Head of the Historical Archaeology Department, Fiji Museum, to attend the UNESCO Third Foundation Course for the Underwater Cultural Heritage, held in Chanthaburi, Thailand, and supported a staff member as an expert trainer at the foundation course. On 14 March 2011 the shipwrecks sites of HMAS Sydney II and the HSK Kormoran were added to the National Heritage List. The sites and associated debris fields are located 22 kilometres apart, 290 kilometres west-south-west of Carnarvon, off the coast of Western Australia. HMAS Sydney II—Australia’s most famous warship from WWII sank with a loss of all crew after a battle with the German raider HSK Kormoran on 19 November 1941. In May 2011 the Historic Shipwreck Delegate’s National Historic Shipwreck Preservation Project received $500 000 through an Australian Research Council linkage grant for the in situ preservation and reburial of a colonial trader, the Clarence (1850). The project begins in 2011–12 and includes partner organisations from all states (except South Australia), the Northern Territory, Norfolk Island and the Australian National Maritime Museum. In May 2011 the department gave the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology $12 000 to sponsor several attendees from the Pacific Islands at the inaugural Asian Academy for Heritage Management: Asia–Pacific Regional Conference on Underwater Cultural Heritage. In 2010–11 the following shipwrecks were discovered in Commonwealth controlled waters:
The department conducted training sessions for Historic Shipwreck Inspector authorised officers in South Australia, the Torres Strait islands, Norfolk Island, Queensland and Western Australia. In conjunction with the Environmental Investigation Unit, two reported breaches of the Historic Shipwrecks Act were investigated. One led to a successful prosecution for theft. The second was with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions for consideration at 30 June 2011. A protected zone was subsequently declared around the looted site of SS Glenelg in Victoria. Work continued on the Australian National Shipwreck Database. The web Geographical Information System mapping capacity was developed in line with the department’s IT platform and the database was modified to meet statutory requirements and future needs of the Historic Shipwrecks Act. The Historic Shipwrecks Program The Historic Shipwrecks Program funds the day-to-day administration by states and the territories of the Historic Shipwrecks Act. This covers the protection, conservation and preservation of historic shipwrecks and their relics, and the ongoing discovery, survey and documentation of historic shipwreck resources. In 2010–11 the department moved from a grant-based funding program to multi-year service level agreements with the states, the Northern Territory and Norfolk Island. Results
Evaluation Heritage Grants Programs Two evaluations of Jobs Fund Heritage began in 2010–11 and were in progress at 30 June 2011:
Jobs Fund Heritage was also audited by the Australian National Audit Office—the results were not available by 30 June 2011. Kokoda Initiative In late 2009 the Papua New Guinea and Australian governments conducted a joint evaluation of the effectiveness of the First Joint Understanding on the Kokoda Track and Owen Stanley Ranges. The evaluation found significant progress in returning essential services to Kokoda Track communities and reforming and restoring confidence in the Kokoda Track Authority. The review identified that progress had been made in the more complex and long-term management issues, such as protection and World Heritage. The review informed the Second Joint Understanding, promoting stronger engagement and leadership by the Papua New Guinea Government, and increasing the emphasis on sustainability and capacity building through the use of partner agencies such as the Kokoda Track Authority and the Papua New Guinea Department of Environment and Conservation. The review recommended strengthening the joint program planning processes, which was addressed in 2010–11 through a joint design process to implement the Second Joint Understanding.
Ben Chifley, Australia’s 16th Prime Minister, served from July 1945 to December 1949. Chifley Home, the house shared with his wife Elizabeth in Bathurst, is on the Bathurst Heritage Register as well as the New South Wales Heritage Register. Elizabeth’s parents gave the young couple the five-roomed house in 1914 as a wedding gift to their daughter and her bridegroom, Ben Chifley. Chifley, an engine driver, won the Bathurst-based parliamentary seat of Macquarie in 1928, rising to be Prime Minister after the death of John Curtin in 1945. He delivered the Light on the Hill speech in June 1949: ‘We have a great objective—the light on the hill—which we aim to reach by working for the betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand. If it were not for that, the Labour movement would not be worth fighting for.’ Today the house contains the original furnishings and many personal effects of Ben and Elizabeth Chifley as well as memorabilia from the era. The heritage project provided Bathurst Regional Council with almost $9 000 to help conserve and protect Chifley Home as a significant historic site. The grant was used to repair and replace concrete paving and all existing concrete edging and associated earthworks, and for garden maintenance. The works prevented further deterioration to the courtyard and improved public safety in the area. The house and grounds are open to the public three days a week for guided tours. The site is also visited by schools, community groups and bus tours at arranged times throughout the week.
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