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Objective

Recommendation

Key issues

What has been achieved 1998-2003

Tasmania Together

Related Issue Reports

Objective

To provide for greater recognition of significant cultural landscapes and streetscapes in Tasmania.

Recommendation

It is recommended that the Tasmanian Heritage Council reviews mechanisms to best protect cultural landscapes and streetscapes, including:

• legislative amendments to provide for cultural landscape and heritage precinct protection within planning schemes;
   
• legislative amendments to give the Tasmanian Heritage Council the statutory power to control the design of new structures within those cultural landscapes/heritage precincts; and
   
• legislative amendments to give the Tasmanian Heritage Council (and/or Local Government Authorities) statutory power to assess the effect of development adjacent to a heritage listed place on that place.
   

Key issues

Cultural landscapes are an aggregation of places, features, objects, archival material, memories and perceptions of contemporary significance (see Cultural Landscapes Issue Report). The condition of cultural landscapes ranges from those that are lost, and existing in myth only (like the landscape of Atlantis), to those with numerous surviving features, objects or related documentation. Some are living landscapes, but their usage has altered them considerably, while others are largely unchanged. Sometimes, like the landscape of Pompeii, a fossil landscape has been unusually well preserved. Some of the key points arising from the Cultural Heritage Chapter (with links to relevant Issue Reports) include the following.

• Cultural Landscapes: Cultural landscapes currently have little or no recognition through legislation. However, the recently announced review of the Historic Cultural Heritage Act 1995 may improve this situation.
  
  There is currently no legislative requirement for provisions for landscape and heritage precinct protection within planning schemes. Although there has been an increase in broader heritage area protection through controls on use and development in surrounding areas within planning schemes, there are still many (32% of 41 currently active schemes) that lack such controls.
  
  There is also a lack of adequate legislation for Aboriginal heritage (see the Aboriginal Heritage Recommendation).
   
• Planning Scheme Provisions: Although there has been an increase in broader heritage area protection through controls on use and development in surrounding areas within planning schemes, there are still several (32% of 41 active schemes) that lack such controls. Controls on surrounding use and development are perhaps as important as those controls on the use and development of the heritage item itself. Inappropriate development adjacent to, or surrounding, a protected heritage item has the ability to detract from the character of the item and its setting.
   

What has been achieved 1998-2003

Key initiatives since the previous SoE Report have included:

• The Tasmanian Heritage Council, established under the Historic Cultural Heritage Act 1995, is championing a broad cultural landscape investigation, for the purpose of identifying significant areas and establishing appropriate regulatory controls. Support for the Tasmanian Heritage Council was provided by the Tasmanian Heritage Council Secretariat, and is now provided by the Department of Tourism, Parks, Heritage and Arts (DTPHA).
   
• A review of the Tasmanian Historic Cultural Heritage Act 1995 has been announced and a review committee has been established and its terms of reference defined. These terms of reference include specific reference to consideration to cultural landscapes (item 6).
   
• A number of planning schemes have adopted comprehensive development standards for specific heritage areas, zones and precincts (e.g. Tasman Planning Scheme 1979, Circular Head Interim Order No. 1 1995, Richmond Interim Order No. 3 1993 and Brighton Interim Order No. 1 1992).
   
• Heritage protection in 68% of 41 active planning schemes include controls or objectives for areas surrounding a heritage item, compared to 48% of 58 schemes in 1997.
   

Tasmania Together

Relevant Tasmania Together goals and standards for 'Cultural Heritage' are listed in the linked file. The Tasmania Together Progress Board reported on progress toward targets for benchmarks set (Tasmania Together Progress Board 2003). Indicators, targets and baseline data are available in the latest Progress Report June 2003. Further information, including progress report updates, is available from Tasmania Together.

Related Issue Reports