Heritage registers

The Australian Commonwealth, and each of the states and territories, keep registers of places of cultural significance. The registers are meant to inform the community, and to protect the listed places — each jurisdiction has its own way of doing this.

Here are links to information about the registers and (in some cases) their contents.

Browsing tip: The links on this page will open in a new browser window. If you arrange the two windows side by side on your screen, you can keep this one in view as you look at the links. This works best if you have a large, high resolution display (more than 800x600 pixels).

Australia

The commonwealth government plans to change the system of national heritage protection. For a glimpse of the issues, read these submissions on the four bills that are being debated.

Here's the situation now (but not for much longer): The commonwealth Register of the National Estate is kept by the Australian Heritage Commission in accordance with the Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975.

It contains a wonderfully broad-ranging collection of places of historic, natural and Aboriginal significance. The register affirms the cultural value of places, but does not enforce their conservation (except for constraints on commonwealth agencies).

The web interface provides photos and basic information. Records can be searched by name and/or region. The quality of the information is variable — recent entries are comprehensive, but some older entries look like hand-me-downs.

Until recently, a special interface to the database provided powerful searching and filtering of records, designed for heritage professionals. This system used a downloadable client program instead of a web browser. This service has been withdrawn.

The Heritage Commission also has a useful searchable database of photographic images of places on its register.

The Commonwealth has recently launched the Australian Heritage Places Inventory — a collection of data extracted from the state and commonwealth registers and searchable from one search form.

Queensland

The Queensland Heritage Register is kept by the Queensland Heritage Council supported by the Cultural Heritage Branch within the Environmental Protection Agency in accordance with the Queensland Heritage Act 1992 (pdf format, you will need Acrobat Reader). The EPA web site also has some background information about the register.

The register has about 1,000 entries, confined to historic places. The web database gives basic name and location information, along with a precis of significance, history and description. The same information is available through the Australian Heritage Places Inventory.

New South Wales

The State Heritage Inventory is kept by the NSW Heritage Office in accordance with the government's heritage policy and with advice from the Heritage Council of NSW

The heritage inventory lists 17,500+ places protected by various planning instruments or covered by Permanent Conservation Orders under the Heritage Act 1977

The database is designed to record comprehensive information, with maps and photos, but only a few places have been fully entered — the rest show just the name, address and listing information. A form allows searching and filtering by various fields.

Some of the same information is available through the Australian Heritage Places Inventory.

Australian Capital Territory

The ACT Heritage Places List is kept by Environment ACT in accordance with the Land (Planning and Environment) Act 1991 and with advice from the ACT Heritage Council.

The Heritage Places Register is an appendix to the Territory Plan. The Heritage Places List includes places that are nominations to, interim entries in, final entries in, and removals from the register.

The list is a single document available in Microsoft Word format, with only name and address information. A database with detailed information will be available shortly (as at September 2001).

Victoria

The Victorian Heritage Register is kept by the Heritage Council Victoria, supported by Heritage Victoria, in accordance with the Heritage Act 1995.

The register includes places (including shipwrecks) and portable objects. The on-line database provides photographs and text details of history and significance. A search form allows searching and filtering by fields or full text.

Some of the same information is available through the Australian Heritage Places Inventory.

Tasmania

The Tasmanian Heritage Register is kept by the Tasmanian Heritage Council in accordance with the Historic Cultural Heritage Act 1995, as amended by the Historic Cultural Heritage Amendment Act 1997.

The Australian Heritage Places Inventory provides brief information about places on this register.

South Australia

The State Heritage Register is kept by Heritage South Australia, in accordance with the Heritage Act 1993. The register is not available on-line, except for a list of registered places within National Parks on ParksWeb and very basic information in the Australian Heritage Places Inventory.

Western Australia

The Register of Heritage Places is kept by the Heritage Council of Western Australia, whose web site includes some information about the register.

The web database includes places in local authority registers, as well as in the state register. Quick search or advanced search forms give access to text information and images, with links to detailed documents in pdf format.

See also the very basic information in the Australian Heritage Places Inventory.

Some heritage registers outside Australia

The world

The World Heritage List is kept by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in accordance with the Convention concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage. The database gives basic information on the 500+ listed places, with an index by State Party. The records have links to related internet documents.

United States of America

National Register of Historic Places

Wellington, New Zealand

The Heritage Building Inventory includes about 500 places in the city of Wellington, with comprehensive information and a photo of each place. Records can be searched by key word.