Issues

• Values: what do we need to sustain?
• Constraints
• SoE and Limits to Knowledge

• Atmosphere
• Land
• Inland Waters and Wetlands
• Biodiversity
• Settlements
• Cultural Heritage
• Coastal, Estuarine and Marine

• Response Instruments
• Summary of Report Recommendations
• Strategic Recommendations
• Conclusion

This sustainability review of the Cultural Heritage Chapter summarises the chapter content and provides an overview from a 'sustainability' perspective. A similar framework is used for all chapters within the 'Sustainability Review'. This provides a consistent way of comparing the major findings across the SoE Report within this final chapter. The 'Sustainability Review' provides the highest-level summary of each of the chapters. More detailed information is provided within each of the major theme chapters. Links are provided to the issue reports referred to in the 'conditions and trends' section below.

The content is organised under five major headings from a higher-level summary in the section entitled 'vision' to comparatively more detail in the section on 'conditions and trends' and 'what has been achieved'.

1. Objective: Presents an objective for cultural heritage in Tasmania.
    
2. Integrating concepts or indicators: Reports on any integrating concepts or indicators provided in the chapter.
    
3. Capacity to assess and measure: Reports on capacity to assess conditions and trends for this chapter theme.
    
4. Conditions and trends: Presents a summary of the key findings of the chapter, with links back to the related Issue Reports for further detail.
    
5. What has been achieved, 1998-2003: Presents a summary of key initiatives over the five year review period for the Second SoE Report.
    

Cultural heritage objective

The objective reflects the vision established by Tasmania Together and the key findings of the Cultural Heritage Chapter. Applicable Tasmania Together standards under Goal 21 include: 'To identify, conserve and present significant representations of the built and moveable heritage and cultural landscapes'. For further information see Tasmania Together Goals applicable to the Cultural Heritage Chapter and Tasmania Together.

The Cultural heritage of Tasmania-the community's inheritance from the past-is valued and protected through a culture of care supported by: detailed and reliable baseline information; adequate legislation for Aboriginal heritage; strategic and systematic process for the integrated identification and assessment of cultural heritage protection priorities; historical and Aboriginal research into Tasmania's heritage recognition and commitment to the State's maritime heritage; and coordination of various heritage registers and lists.

Integrating concepts or indicators

Cultural landscapes provide an overview perspective on heritage. Cultural landscapes are an aggregation of places, features, objects, archival material, memories and perceptions of contemporary significance. The World Heritage Convention defines cultural landscapes as the 'combined works of nature and of man', demonstrating the evolution of human society in conjunction with environmental constraints and opportunities and illustrating successive social, economic, and cultural forces. The condition of cultural landscapes ranges from those that are lost, 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. 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.

Capacity to assess and measure

Since the last SoE Report (1997), the identification and recording of historic heritage places has increased dramatically with the formation of the Tasmanian Heritage Council under the Historic Cultural Heritage Act 1995. The Tasmanian Heritage Register provides a State inventory of significant heritage buildings. The Department of Tourism, Parks, Heritage and Arts maintains an electronic database for managing historic heritage values on reserve and as a management tool for other Government and non-government agencies dealing with historic heritage values. The maritime register has been upgraded and enhanced. This list currently holds information on over 1,000 registered historic sites. Despite this progress, knowledge of heritage remains limited and fragmented. As a result, a new strategic and systematic process for the integrated identification and assessment of cultural heritage condition and protection priorities is currently being developed by the Tasmanian Government and the University of Tasmania. An Australian Research Council linkage grant has been awarded to the project to trial the methodology of the new system in an assessment of the Willow Court historic precinct (an 18 ha site of Australia's longest continually operating mental institution).

Conditions and trends

The Cultural Heritage Chapter reviews conditions and trends under the broad topics of condition and responses.

Cultural Landscapes: Detailed and reliable baseline information that would allow the assessment of the condition of Tasmania's cultural heritage and progress in our efforts to protect this heritage is still not available. 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.

Heritage Places and Features: Knowledge of the location of heritage sites remains limited and fragmented despite progress in the area of historic heritage through the development of the Tasmanian Heritage Register.

Heritage Objects:There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that significant heritage objects are moving out of Tasmania because of a lack of funding to support their management within the State. Initiatives for the management of heritage objects have continued to be opportunistic rather than strategic and significant. There is considerable uncertainty in the conditions, trends and pressures of Tasmania's heritage objects.

Archival Material:Archival data is of great importance in understanding the function, use and day-to-day forces that shaped a cultural heritage landscape, place, feature, and object. Archival material assists in establishing basic information such as dates of construction and occupation. There is considerable uncertainty in the conditions, pressures and management of Tasmania's archival material because, until recently there has been no integrated and systematic process for the assessment of cultural heritage.

Planning Scheme Provisions:There has been an improvement in the heritage provisions for historic heritage supplied by planning schemes through the inclusion of heritage sections in most planning schemes. The heritage sections deliver development requirements relating to heritage buildings or places. Currently 97% of the 41 current planning schemes planning schemes contain a heritage section compared to 71% of 58 schemes reviewed in 1997.

What has been achieved, 1998-2003

• The Tasmanian Heritage Council has been formed under the Historic Cultural Heritage Act 1995.
   
• The Aboriginal Heritage Office now provides a more formal advisory service to State government agencies, local government and private individuals.
   
• The Heritage Fund, established under the Historic Cultural Heritage Act 1995, provides a significant resource for the proper care, conservation and maintenance of the community's heritage.
   
• The Tasmanian Heritage Register, under the Historic Cultural Heritage Act 1995, provides a State inventory of significant heritage buildings. The State Government has indicated that continued expansion of the Tasmanian Heritage Register under the Act is a priority action.
   
• The Heritage Review 2000 has been conducted, providing several recommendations on cultural heritage in Tasmania to the State Government.
   
• A review of the Tasmanian Historic Cultural Heritage Act 1995 has been announced by the State Government in 2003 to determine how the Act operates and to identify any problems in administering the legislation.
   
• A number of planning schemes have adopted comprehensive development standards for specific heritage areas, zones and precincts.
   
• More planning schemes now include a list of heritage items. Eighty percent of the 41 current planning schemes include a heritage list, compared to 71% of 58 schemes reviewed in 1997. The lists identify specific heritage items requiring protection and the associated clauses provide development requirements relating to these items. The heritage lists usually include a site address and description for easy location.
   
• The Department of Tourism, Parks, Heritage and the Arts maintains an electronic database for managing historic heritage values on reserve and as a management tool for other Government and non-government agencies dealing with historic heritage values.
   
• The maritime register has been upgraded and enhanced. This list currently holds information on over 1,000 registered historic sites.
   
• A new strategic and systematic process for the integrated identification and assessment of cultural heritage condition, pressure, and protection priorities-including cultural landscapes-is currently being considered by the Tasmanian Government and the University of Tasmania. An Australian Research Council linkage grant has been awarded to the project to trial the methodology of the new system in an assessment of the Willow Court historic precinct (an 18 ha site of Australia's longest continually operating mental institution).
   
• Some advances have been made in heritage research and audits. Heritage audits of local government areas have been undertaken to identify and include historic heritage sites of significance in planning schemes; studies of heritage themes and coordinated local community involvement in such studies; studies of potential areas of sensitive Aboriginal heritage value; and audits of properties administered by the State with a view to identifying sites of historic heritage significance. The Tasmanian Heritage Council has been undertaking a study of 20th century architecture for the purpose of upgrading the Tasmanian Heritage Register.
   
• Various museum initiatives have been developed that enhance the promotion and interpretation of heritage objects and archives in the State.