The Commonwealth Heritage List is a

heritage register This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many i ...

established in 2003, which lists places under the control of the

Australian government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Governmen ...

, on land or in waters directly owned by the Crown (in Australia, the Crown in right of the Commonwealth of Australia). Such places must have importance in relation to the natural or historic heritage of Australia, including those of cultural significance to

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

National heritage site A national heritage site is a heritage site having a value that has been registered by a governmental agency as being of national importance to the cultural heritage or history of that country. Usually such sites are listed in a heritage registe ...

s on the list are protected by the ''

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and cult ...

'' (''EPBC Act''). The Commonwealth Heritage List, together with the

Australian National Heritage List The Australian National Heritage List or National Heritage List (NHL) is a heritage register, a list of national heritage places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia, established in 2003. The list includes natural and ...

, replaced the former

Register of the National Estate The Register of the National Estate was a heritage register that listed natural and cultural heritage places in Australia that was closed in 2007. Phasing out began in 2003, when the Australian National Heritage List and the Commonwealth Herita ...

in 2003. Under the ''EPBC Act'', the National Heritage List includes places of outstanding heritage value to the nation, and the Commonwealth Heritage List includes heritage places owned or controlled by the Commonwealth. Places protected under the Act include federally owned telegraph stations, defence sites, migration centres, customs houses, lighthouses, national institutions such as Parliament and High Court buildings, memorials, islands and marine areas. All places on this list can be found on the online

Australian Heritage Database The Australian Heritage Database is a searchable online database of heritage sites in Australia. It is maintained by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment , in consultation with Australian Heritage Council. There are more than ...

, along with other places on other Australian and world heritage listings.

History

In 2004, a new heritage management system was introduced by the Australian Government to protect

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

’s heritage places. Key elements are amendments to the '' Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cwth)'', which include explicit requirements for cultural heritage protection, the creation of an

and a Commonwealth Heritage List and the establishment of the

Australian Heritage Council The Australian Heritage Council is the principal adviser to the Australian Government on heritage matters. It was established on 19 February 2004 by the ''Australian Heritage Council Act 2003''. The Council replaced the Australian Heritage Commis ...

under the ''Australian Heritage Council Act 2003''. The

was retained but lost its statutory power. The National Heritage List is to include a small number of places of ''outstanding'' heritage significance to Australia.

Criteria

The Commonwealth Heritage criteria for a place are any or all of the following: (a) the place has significant heritage value because of the place's importance in the course, or pattern, of Australia's natural or cultural history (b) the place has significant heritage value because of the place's possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia's natural or cultural history (c) the place has significant heritage value because of the place's potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Australia's natural or cultural history (d) the place has significant heritage value because of the place's importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of: (i) a class of Australia's natural or cultural places; or (ii) a class of Australia's natural or cultural environments; (e) the place has significant heritage value because of the place's importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by a community or cultural group; (f) the place has significant heritage value because of the place's importance in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period; (g) the place has significant heritage value because of the place's strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons; (h) the place has significant heritage value because of the place's special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Australia's natural or cultural history; (i) the place has significant heritage value because of the place's importance as part of Indigenous tradition.

Composition

, the Commonwealth Heritage List comprised 388 heritage places as follows:

List

References

Attribution

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Commonwealth Heritage List Historic preservation in Australia Australia history-related lists Australian historic places