FAHS heritage handbook: South Australia

South Australia

Legislation
Heritage Act 1993
Historic Shipwrecks Act 1981
Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988

Heritage Council
The State Heritage Authority is an independent group of eight members with various expertise in cultural heritage and management. The Authority, supported by Heritage South Australia staff, offers advice to the Minister on heritage matters, administers the State Heritage Register and is responsible for adding and removing places in the Register.⁽¹⁾

Register
The State Heritage Register lists places of state significance. The Register database also includes an inventory containing places of local heritage value listed in any Development Plan, places included on the Register of the National Estate and State Heritage Areas. The Inventory also includes all heritage agreements and variations to such agreements. Places registered as of local heritage value are managed by the local government authority and Planning SA. Further information on the register is available at http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/heritage/register.html.

Any individual or organisation can nominate a place to the State Heritage Register.⁽²⁾ Places are also recommended for the register through heritage surveys. At 30 June 2002 there were 2,182 places entered in the register.

What is included on the Register
South Australia’s State Heritage Register lists mainly built environment places, including buildings, industrial and mining sites, monuments and cemeteries. Geological, archaeological and palaeontological areas can also be listed. State Heritage Areas include towns such as Goolwa, Burra and Port Adelaide. Maritime heritage includes land-based items such as lighthouses, jetties, former sealing and whaling stations and underwater heritage sites like shipwrecks.⁽³⁾

To find information about listed places you need to go to http://www.heritage.gov.au/ahpi/about.html, click on Search to search by placename, street address, town and/or local government area. You do not need to fill in each field. For example you could find all the places in Adelaide or some other local government area. Key word searches are also available for the statements of significance and the descriptions.⁽⁴⁾

Criteria for inclusion on the Register
A place must meet at least one of the following criteria to be eligible for entry.

It demonstrates important aspects of the evolution or pattern of the State’s history.
It has rare, uncommon or endangered qualities that are of cultural significance.
It may yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the State’s history, including its natural history.
It is an outstanding representative of a particular class of places of cultural significance.
It demonstrates a high degree of creative, aesthetic or technical accomplishment or is an outstanding representative of particular construction techniques or design characteristics.
It has strong cultural or spiritual associations for the community or a group within it.
It has a special association with the life or work of a person or organisation or an event of historical importance.⁽⁵⁾

Responsibilities
Heritage South Australia is a branch of the Department of Environment and Heritage. It provides administrative and policy support to the State Heritage Authority, gives heritage advice to the Minister and administers the State Heritage Fund. The branch manages heritage surveys and assessment programs, maintains the Register, provides advice to local councils and government about development proposals affecting state heritage places, supplies conservation advice and information to owners and occupiers of listed places, and promotes community awareness programs through publications and public speaking.⁽⁶⁾

Government heritage grant programs
Heritage South Australia administers the State Heritage Fund. Eligible projects include heritage surveys to identify places of cultural heritage significance that might be affected by new development or where a Development Plan is being prepared; conservation work on places on the State Heritage Register; financial assistance to a local council to appoint a heritage advisor; and skills development projects. Check out http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/heritage/grants.html.

Web page(s) and state government agency address
http://www.heritage.gov.au/index-sa.html lists state government heritage agencies, database, legislation and non-statutory heritage sites with links to them.
http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/heritage is the main web page with links to other relevant pages.
http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/heritage/faqs.html provides many answers to common questions.

For more information write to Heritage SA, GPO Box 1047, Adelaide SA 5001 or ring (08) 8204 9299.

Other statutory listings
The Department of State Aboriginal Affairs maintains a Register of Aboriginal sites. Information is available from http://www.dosaa.sa.gov.au or telephone (08) 8226 8900.

Moveable cultural heritage items are the responsibility of government agencies such as the History Trust of South Australia and the South Australian Museum.⁽⁷⁾

Local councils can protect places of local heritage value by listing them in their Development Plans.

Non-Statutory registers
The National Trust South Australia home page is at http://www.nationaltrustsa.org.au/. The Trust closed its register in 1989. However, it recently created a new program of ‘listing’ movable heritage items and concepts such as the Hills hoist, the Burra jinker, Balfour’s Frog Cake and Glenelg tram. The Trust lobbies to conserve and preserve the states heritage and works in strategic partnership with local, state and federal government on heritage based tourism and community facilities. The Trust can be contacted by writing to P.O. Box 8147, Station Arcade, Adelaide SA 5000 or phoning (08) 8212 1133.

Other agencies and grants
Under the Development Act 1993 all development applications affecting places listed on the State Heritage Register must be referred to the Minister responsible for the Heritage Act.⁽⁸⁾

The City of Adelaide makes grants to heritage places through its Heritage Incentive Scheme, for more information ring (08) 8203 7260.⁽⁹⁾ Check with your local government for any schemes or publications they may have.

The History Trust of South Australia has two grant schemes:

Community History Grants – Small Projects is for small community history projects such as marking heritage trails and projects that interpret history in the community. Funding is for only a portion of the full cost.
Community History Grants – Publications were established to assist in the publication of books, pamphlets and other media that promote the preservation and promotion of South Australia’s history regionally, locally or aimed at specialist audiences. Grants of up to $3,000 can be used to help purchase photographs, employment of a professional historian and/or editor and publishing costs. More information is available at http://www.history.sa.gov.au/htsa/htsa-grants.htm or ring (08) 8226 8555 or write to the History Trust of South Australia, GPO Box 1836, Adelaide SA 5000.

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