Tasmania

Legislation
Historic Cultural Heritage Act 1995
Historic Cultural Heritage Amendment Act 1997

Heritage Council
The Tasmanian Heritage Council is a statutory body appointed by the Minister of the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment. It consists of 15 people with expertise in various aspects of cultural heritage, rural environment and tourism. The Council is assisted by the Heritage Council Secretariat. The Council is responsible for conserving Tasmania’s historic cultural heritage, encouraging proper management of places with cultural heritage significance, encouraging public interest in and understanding of historic places and assisting with promotion of tourism with regard to historic places.

Register
The Heritage Register list includes about 5,000 historic places and is available on CD-Rom. The Registration Committee is a subcommittee of the Council and it assesses nominations for recommendation to the full Council. Additions to the register are entirely at the discretion of the Heritage Council. Any one can nominate a place to the register.

What is included on the Register
The Heritage Register is a listing of places of historic cultural heritage. Place can include not just a building or part of a building, site, precinct or parcel of land but also any shipwreck and item or equipment associated or connected to a place.

For information about listed places visit 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 Launceston or some other local government area. Key word searches are also available for the statements of significance and the descriptions.⁽¹⁾

Criteria for inclusion on the register

• it is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Tasmania’s history
• it demonstrates rare, uncommon or endangered aspects of Tasmania’s heritage
• it has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Tasmania’s history
• it is important as a representative in demonstrating the characteristics of a broader class of cultural places
• it is important in demonstrating a high degree of technical achievement
• it has a strong or special meaning for any group or community because of social, cultural or spiritual associations
• it has special association with the life or work of a person, group or an organisation that was important in Tasmania’s history.⁽²

Responsibilities
The Secretariat administers the register, provides conservation advice to owners of listed places, government and community organisations, makes recommendations regarding nominated places to the Council and advises on development applications.

Government heritage grant programs
The Heritage Fund is administered by the Heritage Council with funding available for conservation of places on the Heritage Register or eligible for adding to the register outside of Hobart. Heritage studies that will result in nominations to the register may be eligible for funding under the scheme, especially if they are jointly funded by the local government authority.⁽³⁾ Historical societies working with their local government authority can apply for such grants. Utilising the society’s records and members local knowledge can enrich heritage studies and the resulting documentation will add to the society’s records.

Web page(s) and state government agency address
http://www.heritage.gov.au/index-tas.html lists state government heritage agencies, database, legislation and non-statutory heritage sites with links to them.
http://www.tasheritage.tas.gov.au/ is the Tasmanian Heritage Council home page. Use the links down the left hand side of the web page to find out information about the council, register and funding. Check out the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for brief explanations on a variety of topics.
http://www.tasheritage.tas.gov.au/HeritageFund.php has information on heritage grants, for further details and if you have Adobe Reader click on Funding in the left-hand margin.

For more information write to the Tasmanian Heritage Council, GPO Box 618, Hobart Tas 7001 or ring (03) 6233 2037.

Other statutory listings
The Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment is responsible for heritage conservation, managing National Parks and government owned heritage assets, protecting Aboriginal sites and relics and planning.

Check your local government authority for information about identified local places and local grants.

Non-statutory registers
National Trust of Australia (Tasmania) web address is http://www.tased.edu.au/tasonline/nattrust/ or for more information write to PO Box 711, Launceston, Tas, 7250, phone (03) 6344 6233 or send an e-mail to nat_trust@vision.net.au.

Other agencies and grants
http://www.statelibrary.tas.gov.au/Heritage/grants.htm provides information about grants for Tasmanians only and other Australian sources. For more information on what the library offers write to State Library of Tasmania, 91 Murray Street, Hobart TAS 7000 or telephone either (03) 6233 7462 or (03) 6233 6815.

http://www.statelibrary.tas.gov.au/eheritage/publications.htm supplies information on caring for and assessing the significance of objects and collections.

http://www.tas.gov.au/Nav/Topic.asp?Topic=History+and+genealogy is useful for finding out about Tasmanian historic resources and many other history related topics.

http://www.statelibrary.tas.gov.au/eheritage/abouteheritage.htm has information to assists Tasmania’s local history societies in the use of technology and innovation including cultural tourism.

http://www.arts.tas.gov.au/ has links to current Grant programs including those for Small museums and Local history publication fund.

The Tasmanian Community Fund makes grants available to a diverse range of organisations within the community. At http://www.tascomfund.org/index.html you will find Guidelines and the application form for grants. Thinking laterally the application could argue that by identifying and researching places of heritage value you would assists the localities cultural tourism, which is an obvious community benefit. This organisation can be contacted by ringing (03) 62 33 2800 or writing to GPO Box, 1350 , Hobart TAS 7001.

http://www.hobartcity.com.au/grants/index.htm has details about community and cultural grants from the Hobart City Council, for more information phone either (03) 6238 2883 or (03) 6238 2100.

http://www.artdeco.org.au/ is the Art Deco Society Inc web page. The Society is actively involved in preservation of Art Deco buildings including listing buildings with the National Trust and Tasmanian Heritage Council.

1   http://www.heritage.gov.au/ahpi/about.html
2   http://www.tasheritage.tas.gov.au/, FAQ
3   http://www.tasheritage.tas.gov.au/HeritageFund.php