Australia ICOMOS is a peak cultural heritage conservation body in Australia. It is a branch of the United Nations-sponsored

International Council on Monuments and Sites The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS; french: links=no, Conseil international des monuments et des sites) is a professional association that works for the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places around the worl ...

(ICOMOS), a non-government professional organisation promoting expertise in the conservation of place-based cultural heritage.Susan Thompson
''Planning Australia: An Overview of Urban and Regional Planning''
(Cambridge University Press, 2007) Its secretariat is based at the Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia and the Pacific at

Deakin University Deakin University is a public university in Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1974, the university was named after Alfred Deakin, the second Prime Minister of Australia. Its main campuses are in Melbourne's Burwood suburb, Geelong Waurn Ponds, ...

Formation and role

Australia ICOMOS was formed in 1976 and is one of over 100 current ICOMOS national committees. ICOMOS was formed in Paris in 1965, following acceptance of

Venice Charter ''The Venice Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites'' is a set of guidelines, drawn up in 1964 by a group of conservation professionals in Venice, that provides an international framework for the conservation and resto ...

1964, which itself grew out of

Athens Charter The Athens Charter (french: Charte d'Athènes, Greek: Χάρτα των Αθηνών) was a 1933 document about urban planning published by the Swiss architect Le Corbusier. The work was based upon Le Corbusier’s '' Ville Radieuse'' (Radiant C ...

1933, led by modernist architect Le Corbusier in regard to urban planning. ICOMOS soon became one of three

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

advisors on the assessment of sites proposed for the

World Heritage List A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNES ...

, along with the

International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

(IUCN) (1948- ) in Switzerland, and the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Material (ICCROM) (1956- ) in Rome, Italy. Membership of Australia ICOMOS comprises over 650 members, managed by an Executive Committee of 15 people who are elected from the membership. Several Australia ICOMOS members are also represented on various ICOMOS International Scientific Committees, and expert committees and boards in Australia.Australia ICOMOS Website
/ref> It plays an important role in coordinating advocacy activities to raise the profile of Australia's cultural heritage. The first meeting which led to the formation of Australia ICOMOS was in Melbourne on 20 October 1976, and the first ICOMOS conference was held in Beechworth, Victoria, in 1978, where they devised a committee to work up a local version of the

. The actual ICOMOS meeting where the committee's draft was provisionally endorsed was in the town of Burra in 1979. Australia ICOMOS played the pivotal role in developing the ''

Burra Charter The Burra Charter is a document published by the Australian ICOMOS which defines the basic principles and procedures to be followed in the conservation of Australian heritage places. The Charter was first endorsed in 1979 as an Australian adaptat ...

:'' ''Australia ICOMOS Charter for the Conservation of Places of Cultural Significance'' (1979) regarded as the best-practice standard for place-based cultural heritage management in Australia, which has influenced subsequent heritage legislation and conservation guidelines and practices in Australia. Australia ICOMOS has also been responsible for producing the 'Heritage' chapter in national

State of the Environment The term State of the Environment normally relates to an analysis of trends in the environment of a particular place. This analysis can encompass aspects such as water quality, air quality, land use, ecosystem health and function, along with social ...

Reports (SoE), to advise the Minister for Environment on ''...the current condition of the Australian environment, the pressures on it and the drivers of those pressures.'' Australia ICOMOS organises an annual national conference on themes relevant to conservation and heritage in Australia and South East Asia, often on a specific heritage and conservation theme for example on the Australian Capital City, Canberra's, 100th anniversary in 2012. A collaboration between the Chinese government, the Getty Conservation Institute, and Australia ICOMOS has seen the export of Australian conservation expertise in developing China Principles, ''...the Middle Kingdom's statement of conservation philosophy and method that is based on Australia's highly regarded Burra Charter''. Australia ICOMOS and the Burra Charter have also been held up as a world standard in Malta.

''Historic Environment''

Australia ICOMOS publishes ''

Historic Environment Australia ICOMOS is a peak cultural heritage conservation body in Australia. It is a branch of the United Nations-sponsored International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), a non-government professional organisation promoting expertise in ...

'' (ISSN 0726-6715), a triannual

peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...

academic journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and d ...

covering

cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soci ...

and heritage conservation,Australia ICOMOS publications
/ref>
/ref> first published by the Council for the Historic Environment, from 1980 to 1991, then by Australia ICOMOS and the Council for the Historic Environment in 1992 and by Australia ICOMOS alone from 1993. Editions are often on a specific heritage and conservation theme, for example 'Canberra's 100th anniversary' in 2012, and 'Extreme Heritage' which deals with ''... managing heritage in the face of climatic extremes, natural disasters and military conflicts in tropical, desert, polar and off-world landscapes.'' The journal is the pre-eminent publication on place-based heritage conservation in Australia, is allied to the international organisation ICOMOS, it is cited extensively in conservation literature, records the major heritage conferences in Australia, and has been in publication for over 30 years. The journal aims to bring together ''… dynamic, critical interdisciplinary research in the field of cultural heritage and heritage conservation.'' The journal has an editorial committee of five with lead editor Dr. Tim Winter in 2013. The journal is accessed online via

State Library of New South Wales The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establish ...

, and indexed through various index services including

RMIT RMIT University, officially the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,, section 4(b) is a public research university in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1887 by Francis Ormond, RMIT began as a night school offering classes in art, scienc ...

's Australian Heritage Bibliography and the

Australian Public Affairs Information Service Informit is most well known as an online database that provides access to over 100 databases, some of which provide full-text sources. The online versions of the Australian Public Affairs Information Service (APAIS) subject index, and the Austra ...

(APAIS). It is held in over 80 libraries worldwide including all of the Australian State Libraries and major Australian and New Zealand university libraries, and was ranked ‘A’ by the Australian Research Council

Excellence in Research for Australia Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) is Australia’s national research evaluation framework, developed and administered by the Australian Research Council (ARC). The first full round of ERA occurred in 2010, and subsequent rounds followed ...

classification scheme. Australia ICOMOS also publishes the ''Australia ICOMOS Newsletter'' (ISSN 0155-3534) on a regular basis.

Mentoring

Australia ICOMOS provides a mentoring program for cultural heritage students as well as architectural students who have completed subjects in architectural conservation and the Australia ICOMOS Victorian Scholarships. Australia ICOMOS projects extend to providing expertise and fundraising for restoration projects in the wider Asia and Pacific region, including the ''Streetwise Asia'' School Restoration Project in the Philippines. Australia ICOMOS, and in particular, Richard Mackay AM, have been involved in conservation management advice for the

ing of

Ankor Wat Angkor Wat (; km, អង្គរវត្ត, "City/Capital of Temples") is a temple complex in Cambodia and is the largest religious monument in the world, on a site measuring . Originally constructed as a Hindu temple dedicated to the go ...

in Cambodia for many years.LIVING WITH HERITAGE AT ANGKOR, Prof Richard Mackay, AM & Sharon Sullivan
/ref>

References

External links

*
A volume revisited: a retrospective review of Historic Environment Volume 11 Nos. 2 & 3: managing a shared heritage (1995)
''Australia ICOMOS E-Newsletter'', 243 . pp. 3–5. {{DEFAULTSORT:Australia ICOMOS Organizations established in 1976 Heritage organizations Conservation and restoration organizations 1976 establishments in Australia History journals Triannual journals English-language journals Publications established in 1982 Historiography of Australia Academic journals published by learned and professional societies History organisations based in Australia