GUIDELINES

FOR

THE ASSESSMENT OF PLACES

FOR

THE NATIONAL HERITAGE LIST

AUSTRALIAN HERITAGE COUNCIL

Note: This is a working document.  Please consult the publications website of the Australian Heritage Council, Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts for the latest version (www.environment.gov.au/heritage/ahc/publications).

Under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act), the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts (the Minister) is responsible for the National Heritage List. The provisions in the EPBC Act and Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations govern the National Heritage listing process. All decisions as to whether a place has National Heritage values must be made by reference to the EPBC Act and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations. These Guidelines deal with the interpretation of the National Heritage provisions in the EPBC Act and the Regulations, and outline a number of tools and approaches that may be taken to assessing places by the Australian Heritage Council for inclusion in the National Heritage List. The Guidelines have no statutory force under the EPBC Act or the Australian Heritage Council Act 2003. Decisions in relation to assessment of places may have regard to the Guidelines. However the decision whether a place has National Heritage value must in each case be based on the application of the statutory provisions.

© Commonwealth of Australia, February 2009

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the Commonwealth, available from the Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.

Published by:

Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
GPO Box 787
Canberra ACT 2601

First published 2009		

CONTENTS

1.
	Introduction	4	
2.
	Application of the NHL Criteria	15	
3.
	Examples	51	
4.
	Glossary of assessment terms	151	
5.	Frequently asked questions
	153	

1. INTRODUCTION

Heritage in Australia

There are different levels of heritage listing in Australia - world, national, state/territory and local. At the highest level are places on the World Heritage List like Kakadu National Park and the Sydney Opera House, while on a local heritage list there might be a local nature reserve or the local Post Office.

There are many heritage lists in Australia. Some are kept by the different levels of government while other lists are maintained by community or professional organisations. The main government lists are outlined below:

Level of Administration	Heritage List	
UNESCO	World Heritage List – the list is maintained by the World Heritage Centre of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), based in Paris	
Commonwealth	National Heritage List
Commonwealth Heritage List
Register of the National Estate (due to be phased out by 2012)
Historic Shipwrecks Register	
State and Territory	ACT – ACT Heritage Register
NSW – NSW State Heritage Register
NT – NT Heritage Register
Queensland – Queensland Heritage Register
SA – SA Heritage Register
Tasmania – Tasmanian Heritage Register
Victoria – Victorian Heritage Register
WA – Register of Heritage Places
Generally – some states and territories also maintain a separate Indigenous site register	
Local	ACT – not applicable
NSW – NSW State Heritage Inventory/Local Environment Plan
Queensland – local government heritage register
SA – list in Council Development Plan
Tasmania – heritage register or list of heritage items in planning scheme
Victoria – Heritage Overlay in local government planning scheme
WA – Municipal Inventory	

In addition, the main community and professional organisation heritage lists include those kept by the National Trusts in each state and territory; the Royal Australian Institute of Architects; and Engineering Heritage Australia. These do not provide legislative protection for places.

Some of these heritage lists deal with all types of heritage places – natural, Indigenous and historic, and some also deal with heritage objects (e.g. documents or paintings). However, others only address one type of heritage, most commonly historic places. In some states, territories and local governments there are no heritage lists for natural and Indigenous heritage places. Different mechanisms tend to be used for these heritage places. For example, natural heritage might be protected as a national park.

Many Indigenous heritage places are protected by specific legislation at the state and territory level. Rather than relying on heritage lists, this legislation provides protection for types of Indigenous heritage places whether they have been formally identified or not. Individual places with potential heritage value may also be heritage listed, for example in those cases where a place may be affected by development.

While all of these heritage lists are important, the Australian, state and territory, and local government heritage systems in Australia distinguish between these levels for legal and practical reasons.

How heritage lists work – criteria and thresholds for listing
All governments use lists as the basis for publicly identifying Australia’s heritage places, protecting these places and communicating their heritage significance. The lists are usually compiled with public and expert assistance.

Key tools used to decide a place’s heritage significance are criteria and thresholds. 

Criteria are a collection of principles, characteristics and categories used to help decide if a place has heritage value. Usually there are a number of criteria relevant to a heritage list, and one or more of these must be applied to a place being considered for listing. Examples of commonly used criteria include:
•	the place’s importance in the course, or pattern, of natural or cultural history;
•	the place’s importance in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period; and
•	the place’s importance for its special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in natural or cultural history.

In addition to criteria, there is also a question of the threshold for heritage listing. The threshold is the level of heritage value that a place must demonstrate in order to be included in a heritage list. The heritage lists at each level differ in the threshold used to decide what places to include. Examples of the thresholds used at different levels are indicated below.

Level of Administration	Heritage List	Threshold 	
UNESCO	World Heritage	Outstanding universal value	
Commonwealth	National Heritage	Outstanding heritage value to the nation	
	Commonwealth Heritage	Significant heritage value	
State and Territory	State and territory heritage	Importance or significance in the state or territory	
Local	Local heritage	Importance or significance to the local community	

Introduction

Under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act), the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts (the Minister) is responsible for the National Heritage List. The provisions in the EPBC Act and Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations govern the National Heritage Listing process. These guidelines are intended as a general interpretative guide on those statutory provisions. The guidelines have no statutory force. In the event of any inconsistency between the EPBC Act and Regulations and the guidelines, the Act and Regulations must be followed.

National Heritage Listing process

For a place to be included in the National Heritage List the Minister must be satisfied that the place meets one or more of the National Heritage Criteria. The usual process for listing under the EPBC Act is that the Minister can only take this decision after receiving a formal recommendation from the Australian Heritage Council (the Council). (The Minister may include a place in the National Heritage List as an emergency listing without a prior recommendation from the Council. The Minister must review an emergency listing in the light of an assessment by the Council.) A place has one or more National Heritage values only if it meets one or more of the National Heritage Criteria prescribed in the regulations. The National Heritage Criteria for a place are any or all of the following:
(a)	the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in the course, or pattern, of Australia’s natural or cultural history;
(b)	the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia’s natural or cultural history; 
(c)		the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation 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 outstanding heritage value to the nation 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 outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by a community or cultural group; 
(f)		the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period; 
(g)		the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation 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 outstanding heritage value to the nation 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 outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance as part of Indigenous tradition. 
Note: the cultural aspect of a criterion means the Indigenous cultural aspect, the non-Indigenous cultural aspect, or both. 

The EPBC Act requires Council to undertake a rigorous statutory assessment process of whether places in the Finalised Priority Assessment List for inclusion in the National Heritage List meet any of the National Heritage criteria. The process must consider and analyse relevant information as to whether a place meets one or more of the National Heritage criteria. In making this assessment the Council may only consider material that is relevant to the question whether a place satisfies the National Heritage criteria. As part of this process there is a public consultation phase, as well as a requirement to consult in writing with owners, occupiers and Indigenous people with a right or interest in the place, if the Council has found that the place might have National Heritage values. An overview of the statutory assessment process is outlined below.

If a place is included on the National Heritage List certain actions that have, will have or are likely to have a significant impact on the National Heritage values of the place is prohibited unless the Minister has approved the taking of the action following environmental assessment or some other provision in the EPBC Act allows the action to be taken. It is, therefore, extremely important that National Heritage values identified in an assessment are described precisely. Particular attention is paid to identifying the scope of the values. Values are described in plain English. In general technical language is not used. If the values are described in ways that are ambiguous or obscure this is most likely to cause significant difficulties in both management and compliance. The values are, therefore, be described in terms that can be understood for the purpose of management of the property and compliance (including possible Court proceedings) under the EPBC Act. 

Minister makes decision

Public comment sought

Proposed Priority Assessment List Developed

Public nominations sought

Minister must determine the start of the first 12-month assessment cycle.  Each annual assessment period commences on the anniversary of that day (s324J). 

Minister may determine themes to be given priority during the assessment period (s324H(1)).  

Minister must publish invitation for people to nominate places for the List (s324J).  The notice must allow at least 40 business days for nominations to be made. 

AHC must explain exclusion to Minister if it decides to not include a nominated place in the proposed priority assessment list (s324JD(1)(b)). 

Minister gives all nominations to the AHC within 30 business days after the end of the nomination period (s324JA).  

Within 40 business days, the AHC must give Minister a proposed priority assessment list and a statement about it, having regard to any determined themes, the AHC’s views about priorities for the assessment period, the AHC’s capacity to make assessments while performing other functions, and any other matters the AHC considers appropriate (s324JB). It may exclude places unlikely to have values.

The list may include places that have been nominated in the current or preceding assessment period, or places the AHC wishes to nominate itself (s324JB). 

The list must include an assessment completion time for each nomination. This may be more than the 12-month assessment period if the AHC considers more time is needed (s324JC).

After 20 business days the priority assessment list becomes final.  The Minister may remove or add places during this time (s324JE).    

Minister may reject nominations that are vexatious, frivolous, not made in good faith, or which do not meet the regulations in relation to the information provided (s324JA(4)).  If rejected for failure to meet regulations about information or form requirement, the Minister must give written reasons to the nominator (s324JA(5)). 

AHC publishes the finalised priority assessment list on the Internet and in accordance with the regulations (s324JF).  

AHC must publish a notice inviting people to make comments on each place in the finalised priority assessment list (s324JG). 

AHC must assess places in the finalised priority assessment list within the time limits set by the list (ss324JH & 324JI).  AHC must take into account public comments received under s324JH. 

If AHC considers places might have NH values, it must give owners, occupiers and Indigenous persons at least 20 business days to comment (s324JH(5))

AHC gives the assessments to the Minister (s324JH & 324JI).  

AHC may ask the Minister to extend the assessment completion time if necessary (s324JI(2).  There is a maximum of 5 years for extensions.  The Minister must publish details of the extension (s324JI(5)). 

Minister must make a decision on the AHC assessments within 90 business days (s324JJ).  

Do not include place in National Heritage List
Minister may decide in writing not to include the place in the National Heritage List (s324JJ(1)(b)). 
Minister must:
•	Publish the decision on the Internet within 10 days
•	Advise nominator and give reasons.

Include place in National Heritage List
Minister may include the place, or part of the place, in the National Heritage List (s324JJ (1)(a)).  Minister must: 
•	Publish an instrument in the Gazette and copy on Internet
•	Take all practicable steps to identify and advise owners/occupiers of inclusion
•	Advise nominator.

AHC Assesses Nominations

Standard National Heritage Listing Process

In deciding, the Minister may seek and consider information from any source.

The Minister may extend the 90-day period and must publish details of the extension on the Internet and as required by the regulations (s324JJ(3)& (4)).  

Minister makes decision

Public comment sought

Priority Assessment List Developed

Public nominations sought

must explain exclusion to Minister if it s324JD(1)(b)). 

AHC may ask the Minister to extend the assessment completion time if necessary (s324JI(2).  There is a maximum of 5 years for extensions.  The Minister must publish details of the extension (s324JI(5)). 

AHC Assesses Nominations

Standard National Heritage Listing Process

In deciding, the Minister may seek and consider information from any source.

The Minister may extend the 90-day period and must publish details of the extension on the Internet and as required by the regulations (s324JJ(3)& (4)).  

National Heritage List guidelines

Statutory Provision
A place can only satisfy a National Heritage criterion if it has ‘outstanding heritage value to the nation’ for the reason set out in that criterion.

The fundamental question that must be asked in all assessments for the National Heritage list is whether the place satisfies the statutory threshold of ‘outstanding heritage value to the nation’ for the reasons set out in the National Heritage criteria. The conclusion whether a place satisfies the threshold or not must in each case be based on evidence and reasoned analysis of the evidence against the relevant criterion.

About this guideline
This guideline provides general assistance for determining whether a place satisfies the threshold and provides evidence in support of the conclusion. It must be read together with each of the National Heritage criteria. The guideline uses concepts such as indicators of significance, authenticity and integrity which are not referred to in the EPBC Act and Regulations. These and other concepts discussed below may assist in determining whether a place satisfies one or more of the National Heritage criteria, and in identifying the National Heritage value that causes the place to the meet the criterion.

The examples used in this guideline are all of the places assessed for the National Heritage List. These are found in Section 3 at the back of the document. They have been arranged according to each criterion for which they have been assessed to allow more convenient access to past decisions when considering assessment against a particular criterion. It is expected that the Guidelines will be reviewed periodically, drawing on new assessment advice prepared by the Council adding further examples or other relevant material to provide assessment guidance.

Determining National Heritage Significance 
Determining the level of significance is the major task of the assessment process. The first decision is to determine if a place has heritage value, while the second decision is to determine the level of significance.

To assist in determining if a place meets one or more of the National Heritage criteria key heritage concepts are considered during the assessment process: 
•	the application of the threshold to determine if a place is of ‘outstanding heritage values to the nation’. A tool for assisting in this assessment  indicators of significance to focus on the values of each criterion and developed as check lists for assessors to ascertain if a place has potential national heritage significance. The indicators of significance are not a comprehensive list of values. A place may satisfy one or more National Heritage criteria because it possesses a value of a kind not identified in the indicators of significance. To assist in determining if a place is above the National Heritage threshold a comparative analysis is also conducted of the heritage values relative to other comparable places; 
•	an analysis of the integrity to determine if its key heritage values remain intact; and
•	an analysis of the authenticity to determine if the heritage value is genuine or of undisputed origin, applies to the cultural environment.

To determine if a place meets the threshold of outstanding heritage value a comparative analysis is generally conducted.

Thresholds
Thresholds refer to the extent to which places meet specified criteria, that is, they relate to the level of significance of places. Threshold decisions are supported by the comparative analysis of similar places. This enables a decision about whether one place is ‘more’ or ‘less’ significant than other similar places.

The extent to which thresholds can be developed varies, depending on factors such as the nature of the heritage value being examined and the availability of reliable nation-wide (or at times international) data on that value. In considering biological values, decision support tools such as ANHAT (see glossary) are at one end of the spectrum where a nation-wide database can permit quantitative analysis and the definition of explicit thresholds.

At the other end of the spectrum, threshold determination may need to rely heavily on recognised and relevant experts with access to a range of unpublished literature or data. 

Cultural values include the aesthetic, historic, scientific and social values that occur across the spectrum of the environment from natural to highly urban places. Cultural places potentially of national significance may be determined by a systematic survey, using a selected thematic study, a regional survey, a particular typology or community surveys. In most cases, all processes may need to be used to determine the best or most representative examples. During the course of systematic studies, places undergo stages of assessment and a priority list of places is assembled for final assessment. The Council and the former Australian Heritage Commission have undertaken a number of these studies, see list and the Department’s website.

‘Ad hoc’ nominations often require additional research in order to assess them within a context of their type and their role in the story of Australia.

In determining thresholds, the contribution of a place to those things that make us distinctively Australian, may also provide an indicator of the significance of a place for the community and future generations.

A general guide to whether a place is of outstanding heritage value to the nation might be found in the question ‘would the loss of the place significantly impoverish our National Heritage?’

Indicators of significance
These distinguish between natural and cultural values. Considering what indicators apply to the potential values of a place is a first step in an assessment process. It should be noted that these Indicators are used to facilitate the assessment of significance related to a particular criterion and they have no statutory or regulatory basis – the Indicators provided are not necessarily a comprehensive set. However, the suggested Indicators provide useful aid to significance assessment. The Indicators of Significance are listed in this Guideline beneath each criterion.

For the most part, places of national significance will be widely known. However, there may be places which are not recognised as such by the Australian community because the values of the place are not widely known, understood or promoted. In such cases a comparative analysis assists in determining the national significance of the place. Nevertheless, a comparative analysis is essential for historic and natural places, to establish or confirm the comparative value of a place. It is not always the case for Indigenous places.

Comparative analysis
Places of national significance have the highest comparative level of significance (apart from World Heritage), and are important to the Australian community. However, ‘outstanding heritage value to the nation’ does not necessarily mean that the place has to be important to all Australians.

A conclusion that the place has outstanding heritage value involves a comparative assessment of its heritage value.  In establishing the National Heritage List the Explanatory Memorandum for the Environment and Heritage Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2002 noted the need to distinguish between places that would properly be regarded as places of State or local significance compared with those that are of national significance. The Explanatory Memorandum goes on to quote the Consultation Paper on the Reform of Commonwealth Environment Legislation issued in 1998, which stated the need for “the preparation of a national list of heritage places of exceptional value and importance to the nation as a whole”. A place can be an important heritage place and yet fail to meet the very high  threshold for National Heritage listing.

The conclusion that a place has outstanding heritage value is based on a comparison of the place with other comparable places, or a finding that the place is unique and meets criterion (b). It should be noted that under criterion (i) comparative analysis may not always be appropriate for beliefs that are fundamental to Indigenous tradition. A wide range of material might support an assessment including the extent to which there is evidence that the place is regarded as being significant by the community generally. However, an assessment of the place’s relative heritage value is required that is as objective as possible. Places that are not well known may meet the criterion if there is evidence of their particular significance.

Comparing places, even those of the same general type is not easy. It is necessary to be aware of some limitations in this method such as: how similar do the places need to be for a comparison to be valid, and to what extent do differing regional settings add to the significance of otherwise similar places? A comparison may also be based on national significance of the associated history rather than physical features.

Integrity 
The notion of integrity assists in determining the relative significance of a place compared with places of a similar type. Generally a high degree of integrity would be expected for most National Heritage places. However, exceptions will occur.

For the natural environment, integrity is an indicator of the likely long term viability or sustainability, reflecting the degree to which the place has been affected by other activities, the ability of the place to restore itself (or be restored) and the time frame likely for any restorative processes. For the cultural environment, integrity is the ability of the place to retain and convey key heritage values.

The integrity of a place may be affected by internal and external factors. How much can the integrity of a place become compromised before it loses its significance? This difficult question can only properly be answered if the condition and integrity of the place were well documented initially.

Authenticity
The notion of authenticity assists in determining if the heritage value for cultural places is genuine or of undisputed origin. As with assessing the integrity of a place the authenticity may be affected by internal and external factors. How much does the authenticity of a place truthfully and credibly express its heritage values?  

In determining the authenticity the heritage values may be expressed in the:
•	form and design;
•	materials and substance;
•	use and function;
•	traditions, techniques and management systems;
•	location and setting;
•	language, and other forms of intangible heritage;
•	spirit and feeling; and
•	other internal and external factors.

Heritage values such as spirit and feeling do not lend themselves easily to practical applications of the conditions of authenticity, but nevertheless are important indicators of character and sense of place, for example, in communities maintaining tradition and cultural continuity.

The test of authenticity is not a relevant consideration for places being assessed for their natural heritage values. 

Integrated assessment
Whenever a place may be considered to share heritage values across two or more heritage environments (natural, Indigenous, historic), it is important that consideration is given to an assessment process that allows for cooperative, joint assessment, within work priorities and available resources, by the respective personnel relating to these environmental areas. This ensures that all relevant values and any synergies and connections between values are acknowledged in the assessment process. One type of place that this relates to is large and complex landscape areas.

Changing values
Heritage values assessments are undertaken on information available at a certain time. The availability of information changes over time, perhaps as a result of research, or further investigation of the place or of comparative places. It is possible that available information may improve for a place leading to a perception of a decrease or an increase in a place’s heritage value. This is particularly relevant to the national heritage value related to a place’s potential to provide information that makes a contribution to the understanding of Australia’s history, cultures, or the natural world, criterion (c). It is accepted that a place’s national heritage value may change over time with the threshold no longer being met for a particular criterion/criteria, and/or a threshold now being met for an additional criterion/criteria.

Other circumstances may also give rise to a change in heritage values across the National Heritage Criteria. For example, the following may all cause a change in national heritage value: a change in community attitude related to a place’s social or aesthetic value, a deterioration in a place’s fabric, or a new and important research question arising that had not previously been imagined, recognised or been given prominence as a nationally important topic.

A change in relation to one criterion may give rise to a change in relation to another. For example, a reduction in research potential (c). If this drops below the listing threshold because this potential has been fully exploited, it may cause the place to be recognised as having outstanding national significance for criterion (a). This could occur if it is assessed as a place associated with an important, related, above-the-threshold research contribution made to the course or pattern of Australia’s natural or cultural history.

Reflecting the reality of changing heritage values, the EPBC Act allows for the Minister’s considered addition and removal of National Heritage values for places already included in the National Heritage List. Before the Minister removes all or part of a place from the National Heritage List because of loss of one or more National Heritage values, the Minister must consider advice from the Council on the proposed removal. Section 324N of the EPBC Act provides that the regulations may make provision for the addition of additional National Heritage values. There are currently no relevant regulations.

The following section provides guidance on the application of each of the National Heritage criteria. As noted above, all decisions concerning assessment must focus on the precise wording of the relevant criterion or criteria. These notes are intended as a guide only to interpretation and the application of the criteria. The language of the criteria is extremely broad and the discussion below aims to assist in their application and identifying some of matters that could be relevant to the application of the criteria. It does not however limit the matters that could be considered in determining whether a place satisfies the criteria.

2. APPLICATION OF THE NHL CRITERIA

Criterion (a): The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in the course, or pattern, of Australia’s natural or cultural history

Shorthand title: Events and processes

Explanatory notes

This criterion applies generally to natural environment places which contain exemplary evidence and products of past or continuing climatic, geological, geomorphological, ecological or biological processes.

This criterion applies generally to Indigenous environment places, which have figured in defining events resulting in important changes to the political, economic, or social fabric of Indigenous Australia, relate to economic, political or social processes characteristic of Indigenous Australia during different periods of its history, or places that best demonstrate a characteristic way of life in the history of Indigenous Australia.

This criterion applies generally to historic environment places, which are connected with landmark or defining events of importance that have had enduring consequences to the nation resulting in important changes to the political, economic, scientific or social fabric of Australia, that may be of national importance for their ability to define an activity important to the nation demonstrating a key political, economic, scientific or social process that has significantly shaped Australia’s development, or have a high diversity of features that best demonstrate a characteristic way of life in the history of Australia.

Key definitions (a)

importance		n. 1. the quality or fact of being important. 2. important position or standing; personal or social consequence. (important adj. 1. of much significance or consequence: an important event. 2. of more than ordinary title to consideration or notice: an important example. 3. prominent: an important part.) Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
course		n. 4. the continuous passage or progress through time or a succession of stages. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
pattern		n. 8. c. fig. An arrangement or order of things or activity in abstract senses; order or form discernible in things, actions, ideas, situations, etc. The [Complete] Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Ed 1989	

Considerations in applying the criterion
The following explanatory notes are based on the Council’s approach to assessment are not exhaustive and are intended as a general guide only to the application of the statutory criteria:
-	the connection between the place and the course or pattern of Australia’s natural or cultural history is an ‘associative value’. The value is an intangible value which may exist whether or not there is fabric present that relates to the association. A place may have associative value if its possesses a richness of layered, clearly discernible features. A place may have historic or indigenous heritage value against this criterion despite an evolving or changing physical structure.
-	if there is fabric present which relates to the association  the relationship between the fabric and the association is identified in the place record.
-	for a place to satisfy this criterion there must be evidence that it has been nationally recognised as exceptional because of its importance in the course or pattern of Australia’s natural or cultural history.
-	a place may be considered for its associative value if it has features that have a common linking theme across several otherwise discrete eras of site usage such as in certain complex cultural landscapes.

Indicators of significance
The following are some of the grounds on which a place may satisfy a criterion (a). The indicators of significance are not an exhaustive statement of the grounds on which a place might satisfy criterion (a).

The grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (a) include that:

the place demonstrates natural or cultural processes which are of national significance to Australia for the following:
a.1 Geomorphology, Landscape and Landform
a.2 Structural Geology, Palaeontology and Stratigraphy
a.3 Evolutionary Processes
a.4 Ecological Processes
a.5 Centres for richness and diversity (natural values)
a.6 Refugia
a.7 Defining events 
a.8 Economic, political or social processes
a.9 Richness of Assemblages or cultural landscapes

Natural
n.a.1 Places need to contain exemplary evidence and products of past or continuing geomorphological processes and will be regarded as the best or only example in Australia or presents the richest concentrations of such values. The contribution the place makes to an understanding of the evolution of the Australian continent must be clearly demonstrated. For geological sites, type localities can be important in illustrating and explaining evolutionary processes.

It is important that comparisons are made with like places, for example, a relict sand dune in the Blue Mountains and a dune of similar age and size in a desert region is not a valid comparison. The setting of the relict dune would make its comparison with the dune in the desert invalid. A valid comparison would be with other relict dunes derived from similar dune formation processes, located away from modern deserts. The comparative assessment, therefore, requires a contextual framework based on adequate information and the geographic context.

Claimed attributes can be tested against a number of references, results from expert workshops, such as those that have already been conducted over time, (eg on karst and pseudokarst), and individual consultancies by particular experts, such as those undertaken by volcanologists and geomorphologists to-date for certain assessments, or relevant unpublished reports.

This indicator covers the structure, process and stage of the landform, summarised as:
-	Forming the Earth - igneous processes, volcanism, sedimentation, metamorphism);
-	Shaping the Earth - folds, faults, mountains, plate tectonics and extra-terrestrial events); or
-	Sculpting the Earth - weathering, erosional and depositional features)

n.a.2 Places containing mineralogical, stratigraphic or fossil records of past climates or environments providing exemplary evidence of geological and palaeontologic processes illustrating the development of the Australian landscape and biota or presenting the richest concentrations of such values.

This relates to:
-	mineralogy - the study of minerals: formation, occurrence, properties, composition, and classification.
-	palaeontology - the study of ancient life – fossils - and the essential tool of the stratigrapher for purposes of correlation, strata identification, establishment of sequences and determination of environments. From a biological point of view palaeontology yields important evidence for evolution and adaptation of organisms to different environments. (Here a national fossil study commissioned by the Department can be used as a reference.)
-	stratigraphy - the study of stratified rocks (sediments and volcanics) especially their sequence in time, the character of the rocks and the correlation of beds in different localities. (The pseudokarst workshop is a relevant reference here.)

n.a.3 Places containing biological or ecological evidence of evolutionary processes that have significantly contributed to an understanding of the evolution of the Australian continent and its flora and fauna. Indicators of relative significance can be determined from a base scale of a 1:100 000 map sheet using Australian National Heritage Assessment Tool (ANHAT - see Glossary of Assessment Terms). Nationally significant attributes can be determined for large groups (so as to be statistically reliable) where the average number of species is above two standard deviations above the mean number of species expected to occur on the map sheet. ANHAT can also be queried for the relative significance of biogeographic patterns across the landscape. Use of ANHAT is verified  and supplemented for each specific nomination through the use of the existing literature and experience of staff and expert opinion.

This relates to:
-	endemism and speciation;
-	relict, phylogenetically distinct or primitive Species.
Places demonstrating either the richest concentration of species reflecting a particular evolutionary process in Australia, or the species present demonstrate an outstanding or unique aspect of evolutionary process.

n.a.4 Refers to places significant in maintaining or demonstrating to an exemplary degree ongoing climatic, ecological or biological processes at a national scale. Places will include intact ecosystems and places of high integrity. While ANHAT cannot directly query the scope of many of the processes listed below, it can however undertake queries on similar attributes to enable a comparative analysis of like places. ANHAT cannot be queried on species movements and migratory patterns, but does contain listed migratory species.

This relates to:
-	processes include: climatic, hydrological and nutrient cycle;
-	species life cycle processes of breeding, feeding, nursery and habitat;
-	species movements/ migration routes and corridors, drought refuges;
-	succession.

n.a.5 Places that are centres for richness and diversity of their biological attributes at a national level. High diversity and richness are comparative assessments so the number of species recorded should always be stated. Claimed attributes can be queried through ANHAT, and subsequently verified with more in-depth study.

Nationally significant attributes can be determined for large groups (so as to be statistically reliable) where the average number of species is above two standard deviations above the mean number of species expected to occur on the map sheet. The distribution of records within a map sheet can also be displayed.

This relates to:
-	species richness – the number of different species in a given site, habitat or defined geographic region.
-	species diversity – the number and relative abundance of different kinds of species within a site or habitat and the genetic distinctness within and among species. 
-	ecosystem/ecological community diversity – the variety of different assemblages and communities of organisms that exist in different places within a landscape. Given the variety of methods by which vegetation communities are described by each of the states and territories, and the fact that communities can therefore not be systematically compared across jurisdictions, the Council is not currently able to assess for this value. This may change once standard vegetation descriptions are used by all states and territories.

n.a.6 Places that are refuges for certain types or suites of organisms on an evolutionary, ecological or historical time scale and are widely recognised as an outstanding example at a national scale, serving as a refugia for a number of taxa, either in unique ecosystems or where many of the organisms are relicts of ancient floras and faunas. Refugia will contain endemic and/or threatened species that are of great scientific interest. It is important here to remember what is meant by values and attributes. Values are generally, not easily quantifiable. By contrast attributes are more tangible and can be measured and monitored. Consider, for example, the statement ‘Australia has outstanding examples of relict biota reflecting ancient Gondwanan biota’. Rainforest species such as the eastern bristlebird and Antarctic beech are examples of such relict biota and are attributes; their presence, populations and other features can be monitored and measured.

Attributes of refugia can be initially indicated through ANHAT by querying the relative numbers of endemic species as a defacto measure, which has been verified through the literature and by use of expert opinion where necessary.

This relates to:
-	evolutionary refugia that have allowed the continued survival of plants and animals that were far more widespread in the evolutionary past and now persist in a fraction of their original ranges. These refuges have served as centres of speciation in fluctuating environments and contain a number of regionally endemic and/or relict species.
-	human-induced refugia developed over the last 200 years as a result of changing land use and other human activities.  These are refuges from land clearing and from introduced predators and pests and are often rich in endemic and/or threatened species. 
-	ecological refugia which develop over several years when much of a preferred habitat becomes unavailable eg after drought or flooding. These refuges periodically sustain relatively large populations of individual animal species that subsequently recolonise parts of their natural range.

Indigenous
I.a.7 The criterion includes events that have resulted in important changes to the political, economic or social fabric of Indigenous Australia. The event may have lasted a short time or may have extended over a number of years. In some cases the event may have been intermittent. In most cases the event will mark a change in the course of Indigenous history in Australia and be represented by the development of new laws, institutions or ways of life. Defining events will normally be documented through written documents, oral traditions or a combination of the two.

The criterion can be applied to a site, buildings, cultural landscapes or a series of sites. It encompasses places where events occurred that mark turning points in the history of Indigenous Australia including places associated with:
-	a policy or approach developed by, or applied to, Indigenous Australians.
-	a protest or other action associated with a change in the treatment of Indigenous Australians.
-	a protest or action commemorated throughout Australia.

I.a.8 The criterion includes economic, political or social processes characteristic of Indigenous Australia during different periods of its history. It covers the story of the development of Indigenous Australia from earliest times to the present including the development of regional economic differences, trade routes, complex social and political networks and relationships with people from neighbouring islands. The information used to identify such economic, political and social process includes material remains, rock art images, oral tradition and historical documents.

The criterion can be applied to a site, cultural landscapes or a series of sites in Australia.  It encompasses the full range of social and cultural processes that are characteristic of Indigenous Australia, that:
-	best demonstrates one or more aspects of Indigenous ways of life characteristic of one or more periods in Indigenous history.
-	best demonstrates economic processes, including trade relationships, during one or more periods of Indigenous history.
-	best demonstrates relationships with neighbouring islands and new people.

I.a.9 The criterion includes places with features that best demonstrate a characteristic way of life in one or more periods of the history of Indigenous Australia.

The criterion applies to areas with features that relate to a particular way of life important in one or more periods of the history of Indigenous Australia. This aspect of the criterion needs to be handled with considerable sensitivity. It is not meant to cover all areas with a diversity of features that are significant to Indigenous Australians, only those where the features best demonstrate a particular aspect of Indigenous culture or history characteristic of Australia. It encompasses areas important in the history of Indigenous Australia because:
-	the features in the area demonstrate one or more important economic, political or social process in the history of Indigenous Australia.
-	the features in the area best demonstrate aspects of ceremonies practiced, or beliefs held, by Aboriginal people.

Historic:
h.a.7 This criterion covers landmark events and moments of importance that have had enduring consequences to the Nation or a significant impact on the Nation and events that have resulted in important changes to the political, economic, scientific or social fabric of Australia. The event may have lasted a short time or it may have extended over a number of years. In some cases the event may have been intermittent.

The event, such as a disaster, may have invoked a general sense of national unity in adversity and respect for those who have played particular roles in the disaster. Defining events will normally be documented through written documents, oral traditions or a combination of the two.

The criterion can be applied to a site, a building or buildings, cultural landscapes or a series of sites. The events have to demonstrate a significant amount of support from in Australian history for being events that have had a national and long-term impact on Australia’s historical development. 

The event may or it may not be evident in the fabric of the place and may cover matters such as:
-	the place of origin of a national social or political movement, including Indigenous movements 
-	a place that symbolically represents a major change in the social, political or economic life of the nation 
-	a protest or action commemorated throughout Australia.
-	a place where a feat of great human endeavour occurred.
-	a place where a national disaster occurred.

h.a.8 The place may be of national importance for its ability to define an activity important to the nation that demonstrates a key economic, political or social process that has significantly shaped Australia’s development.

This includes economic, political or social processes characteristic of Indigenous Australia during different periods of its history. It covers the story of the development of Australia from earliest times to the present including the development of regional economic differences, trade routes, complex social and political networks and relationships with people from other countries.

The information used to identify such economic, political and social process includes extant remains, and historical documents.

The place may be of national importance for its ability to represent a political or cultural system such as the convict penal system, communication networks, the establishment of the federal capital, or the defence of Australia.

This criterion has extensive scope. It may cover places enclosed in one boundary, or sets of places that collectively make a nationally significant place. Places demonstrating a way of life, a cultural, political, or economic system or process must clearly demonstrate a national historic theme, such as:
-	Exploration
-	Pastoralism
-	Mining and resource use
-	Industrialisation and manufacturing
-	Finance
-	Marketing and retailing
-	Leisure and tourism
-	Education
-	Transport and communications
-	Governing
-	Urban development
-	Migrating
-	Defence
(This is not an exhaustive list)

The criterion can be applied to a site, a building or buildings, cultural landscapes or a series of sites in Australia. The processes need to have recognition and support in Australian history for being processes that have had a national and long-term impact on Australia’s historical development.

h.a.9 The criterion includes places with a high diversity of features that best demonstrate a characteristic way of life in one or more periods of the history of Australia. It covers places consisting of many features that collectively tell at least one story of importance to the nation. They may also be remarkable for richness of different heritage features, in which case the richness must be evaluated with regard to the size of the place.

Examples of places that illustrate the application of this guideline are provided in Section 3. A complete set of AHC place assessments will be available on the AHC website soon.

Criterion (b): The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia’s natural or cultural history

Shorthand title: Rarity

Explanatory notes

This criterion applies generally to places possessing uncommon, rare, or endangered aspects of Australia’s natural or cultural history where these aspects are of national significance to Australia.

Simple possession of uncommonness, rarity, or endangered aspects is insufficient. A good knowledge of the national context of the particular uncommonness, rarity, or endangered aspects of Australia’s natural or cultural history possessed by the place and the degree of the importance of this within Australia’s natural or cultural history, is critical to an assessment of whether the place is of such significance that it is of ‘outstanding heritage value to the nation’.

Key definitions (b)
uncommon		adj. 1. not common; unusual or rare. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
rare		adj. 1. coming or occurring far apart in space or time; unusual; uncommon: rare occasion; a rare smile; a rare disease. 2. few in number. 3. thinly distributed over an area, or few and widely separated: rare lighthouses. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
endangered species*		n. 1. a species that is facing a near threat of extinction. (endanger* v. to expose to danger; emperil.) Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
aspect		n. 3. a way in which a thing may be viewed or regarded: both aspects of a question. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
		n. 1. a. a particular component or feature of a matter (only one aspect of the problem). b. a particular way in which a matter may be considered. Australian Concise Oxford Dictionary 2nd  Ed OUP 1992	
* Note that these terms are also defined or categorised in the EPBC Act. However, the usage of ‘endangered’ in this criterion is necessarily broader than the Act usage as the criterion usage would seem to be intended from its context to relate to more than species so to cover other endangered aspects of the natural and cultural environments. 

Considerations in applying the criterion
The following explanatory notes are based on the Council’s approach to assessment are not exhaustive and are intended as a general guide only to the application of the statutory criteria:
-	the following types of places may satisfy this criterion:
-	a place that is the only and/or the only extant nationally important example with integrity or authenticity;
-	a place with specific nationally significant associated history.
-	this does not limit the types of places that may satisfy the criterion.
-	it will not necessarily be sufficient for a place to satisfy this criterion that:
-	it is the oldest place of its kind;
-	that a single species, community or habitat that is uncommon, rare or endangered is found in the place.
-	however these factors will be relevant considerations in determining whether a place satisfies the criterion.
-	the assessment of whether the place satisfies the criterion should be based on well-researched information including an understanding of its place in the national context.
-	a place does not satisfy this criterion if it is only presumed to possess a rare or uncommon aspect of Australia’s natural or cultural history but the aspect has not yet been confirmed or proven to be rare or uncommon.
-	a simple threat or a threatening process to a place does not enhance its claim as ‘uncommon, rare or endangered’.
-	if the threat or threatening process is both likely and imminent, and the particular ‘aspects’ of outstanding heritage value to the nation the Emergency Listing provisions can be applied.

Indicators of significance
The following are some of the grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (b). The indicators of significance are not intended to be an exhaustive statement of the grounds on which a place might satisfy criterion (b).

The grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (b) include that:

the place demonstrates uncommon aspects of the history, cultures or natural world that are of national significance to Australia for the following:
b.1 Foci for rarity (natural values)
b.2 Processes, activities, beliefs, or other aspects of culture that are uncommon, rare or endangered (cultural values)

Natural
n.b.1 Places nationally significant for the maintenance or demonstration of an area that are a foci for rarity for their biological, geomorphological or palaeontological attributes. The place will represent rare and threatened species (only at an extremely high threshold), or rare examples of geomorphological/geological attributes, possessing significant conservation values. 

The place may also comprise the last remnant or component of the Australian biota at an ecosystem scale. However, the significance will depend on both the abundance and distribution of the heritage value or type of place and will be influenced by the way in which the value or type is defined. For example a sub population of a wildlife species may be endangered, while the species, as a whole is not. An added complication would be that taxonomic investigation could lead to the reclassification as some sub populations as distinct species. ANHAT cannot query threatening processes, but it can provide information on salinity risk, threatened species, landform types and fossils and provides a fragmentation index on land clearing based on air photo interpretation. 

This indicator relates to habitats of rare flora and fauna species or populations. Habitats may be the result of climatic shift, tectonic changes, human-induced threatening processes or natural changes in ecological processes. It includes rare or uncommon landforms, groups of landform, geological features or fossils.

Indigenous
I.b.2 The criterion particularly applies to Indigenous ways of life, customs, processes, land-uses, functions or designs that were always few in number, or that are now few in their surviving number due to subsequent destruction. They will demonstrate uncommon aspects of earlier periods of human occupation and activity or a past Indigenous activity that is now rare.

Assessment for this value must be from a position of knowledge about places with similar values in their national context. It is important to know the former distribution and abundance of this type of place in Australia. An extant place that is rare must have sufficient elements to make it a good example of its type. A place with this value is also likely to meet other criteria such as (a) and (d) and it should be used cautiously. Rarity is demonstrated by systematic surveys with comparative assessments.

Historic
h.b.2 The criterion particularly applies to places which characterise past ways of life, custom, process, land use, function or design that were always few in number, or that are now few in their surviving number due to subsequent destruction. Places may include:
-	those demonstrating uncommon aspects of human occupation and activity; 
-	those demonstrating a past human activity or aspects of culture that is now rare, obsolete or no longer practised; or
-	those with uncommon integrity in their national context.

Assessment for this value must be from a position of knowledge about places with similar values in their national context. It is important to know the former distribution and abundance of this type of place in Australia. An extant place that is rare must have sufficient elements to make it a good example of its type. A place with this value may also meet other criteria such as (a) and (d).

Examples of places that illustrate the application of this guideline are provided in Section 3. A complete set of AHC place assessments will be available on the AHC website soon.

Criterion (c): The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s potential to provide information that makes a contribution of national importance to the understanding of Australia’s history, cultures, or the natural world

Shorthand title: Research

Explanatory notes 

This criterion applies generally to places with a potential to provide information from a variety of sources as a resource for research. This includes natural, Indigenous, historical, social scientific or other information which may be embodied within, be at the place, or be associated with it.

Key definitions (c)

potential		adj. 1. possible as opposed to actual. 2. capable of being or becoming; latent.  Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
contribution		n. 1. the act of contributing. 2. something contributed. (contribute v. 1. to give in common with others; give to a common stock or for a common purpose: to contribute money, time, help.) Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
understanding 		n. 1. the act of someone who understands; comprehension; personal interpretation. (understand v. to perceive the meaning of; grasp the idea of; comprehend. 2. to be thoroughly familiar with; apprehend clearly the character or nature of.)  Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	

Considerations in applying the criterion
The following explanatory notes are based on the Council’s approach to assessment are not exhaustive and are intended as a general guide only to the application of the statutory criteria:
-	this criterion is concerned with potential to yield information and not with ‘educational/interpretation value’ which is not a National Heritage value - education/interpretation is a subsequent action of promotion of heritage values after these values have been determined.
-	a potential to yield information is not merely a possibility to yield information. For a place to satisfy this criterion there should be evidence of real, proven or established potential, such as might derive from expert testing or professional examination.
-	a place can be considered for its potential to yield information in terms of evidence from a number of possible sources of information at or associated with the place, including but not limited to oral traditions, records, collections, movable cultural heritage, archaeological resources, fossils, biological material, geological features, and other contents or fabric.
-	testing to establish the potential might involve biological or geological survey, or some other close professional examination of the subject claimed to possess the potential to yield information. In the case of archaeological potential this might involve a test excavation or examination of some opportunistic revelation of the archaeological resource, such as after bushfire, erosive action or ground collapse, to establish the potential.
-	potential to yield information may be fully realised or exploited, for example, in the case of total archaeological excavation, or other extraction/destruction of all fabric relevant to a potential, so removing the potential to explore the relevant research question/s further. The place, therefore, may be seen to no longer to satisfy this particular criterion. In this case other criteria may, of course, still apply or become applicable (eg criterion (a) if the place is now seen as where a nationally significant scientific discovery has been made), so overall National Heritage value of the place may survive the removal of the recognised potential.
-	all criteria are independent in the sense that it only requires one criterion to be met for a place to have National Heritage value. However, there may be links across the values of a place so that if a certain criterion, such as (c), is met there is a likelihood that another particular criterion, related through the subject of the value/s and its/their high degree of significance, may also be met. This is not always the case.
-	the potential research value can only be shown to exist where it relates to a contribution of national importance.

Indicators of significance
The following are some of the grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (c). The indicators of significance are not intended to be an exhaustive statement of the grounds on which a place might satisfy criterion (c).

The grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (c) include that:

the place is of national significance to Australia because it could provide information deriving from records, collections, fossils, biological material, geological features, movable cultural heritage, archaeological resources, architectural fabric or other evidence for the understanding of:
c.1 the natural history of Australia, and/or
c.2 the history, ways of life, and/or cultures in Australia.

Natural
n.c.1 The place is demonstrably significant in that it could contribute to  scientific studies that have led or could lead to greater understanding of a the natural history of Australia, or the place is significant as a site of a discovery which has the potential to yield information which could contribute to an understanding of the natural history of Australia .

This relates to:
-	Research Sites
-	Sites of Discovery

Indigenous
I.c.2 This criterion applies to sites or areas with potential to contribute to research on Indigenous Australia. The research potential must be demonstrable and must relate to the development of an understanding of Indigenous history and culture.

This would include any site or area that has demonstrated potential to produce important information that would contribute to our understanding of the following:
-	one or more periods in the history of Indigenous Australians;
-	ways of life or cultures characteristic of Indigenous Australians.

Historic
h.c.2 This criterion applies to sites or areas with potential to contribute to research on Australian history and culture. The research potential must be demonstrable and must relate to the development of an understanding of Australia's history and culture. The research and teaching value will be within the site or fabric of the site and must be of national importance.

The place could be an archaeological site, a place that has been partially excavated, a scientific research plot, an arboretum or any site or area that has demonstrated potential to produce important information that will contribute to our understanding of the following:
-	one or more periods in the history of Australians;
-	ways of life or cultures characteristic of Australians.

Examples of places that illustrate the application of this guideline are provided in Section 3. A complete set of AHC place assessments will be available on the AHC website soon.

Criterion (d): The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation 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. 

Shorthand title: Principal characteristics of a class of places

Explanatory notes

This criterion applies generally to places that represent all or the critical elements characteristic of a class or type, style or design of outstanding importance within Australian natural or cultural places or environments.

Key definitions (d)
importance		n. The quality or fact of being important. 2. important position or standing; personal or social consequence. (important adj. 1. of much significance or consequence: an important event. 2. of more than ordinary title to consideration or notice: an important example. 3. prominent: an important part.) Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
demonstrate		v. 3. to manifest or exhibit. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
class		n. 1. a number of persons, things, animals, etc. regarded as forming one group through the possession of similar qualities; a kind; sort. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
places		includes:
(a)	 a location, area or region or a number of locations, areas or regions; and
(b)	 a building or other structure, or group of buildings or other structures (which may include equipment, furniture, fittings and articles associated or connected with the building or structure, or group of buildings or structures); and
(c)	 in relation to the protection, maintenance, preservation or improvement of a place—the immediate surroundings of a thing in paragraph (a) or (b).
Source: EPBC Act s528	
environments		includes:
(a) 	ecosystems and their constituent parts, including people and communities; and
(b) 	natural and physical resources; and
(c )	the qualities and characteristics of locations, places and areas; and
(d)	 heritage values of places; and
(e)	 the social, economic and cultural aspects of a thing mentioned in paragraph (a), (b), (c) or (d).
Note: The places mentioned in paragraph (d) of the definition of environment include places included in the Register of the National Estate kept under the Australian Heritage Council Act 2003.
Source: EPBC Act s528	

Considerations in applying the criterion
The following explanatory notes are based on the Council’s approach to assessment are not exhaustive and are intended as a general guide only to the application of the statutory criteria:
-	the term ‘cultural’ in criterion (d) is used in its broadest sense as in ‘of or relating to a specific design/style, particular industrial/technological process, particular way of life or particular use/land use’.
-	criterion (d) has a focus on the outstanding, exemplary representativeness of the principal characteristics of the place. In considering a place for its demonstration of principal characteristics not all examples of a type of place (eg all architectural styles) will be listed. A high degree of representation of the sub-type (or its importance or typicality) within the national population of the type is a consideration here.
-	it would generally be expected that a place would demonstrate its principal characteristics through its fabric or features and these characteristics should be to a high degree complete, coherent, authentic and have high integrity.
-	the particular class considered under this criterion may also be referred to under criterion (a),(e) or (f).
-	Criterion (d) has a focus on the outstanding, exemplary representativeness of the principal characteristics of the place.

Indicators of significance
The following are some of the grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (d). The indicators of significance are not intended to be an exhaustive statement of the grounds on which a place might satisfy criterion (d).

The grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (d) include that:

the place best represents the characteristics of its Class by virtue of its combinations of: 
d.1 Natural physical and biological attributes;
d.2 The range of variations associated with the Class;
d.3 The optimal development of the Class;
d.4 Demonstrating significant variations within the Class 
d.5 A design or style that occurred during a particular period;
d.6 A particular industrial or technological process;
d.7 A particular way of life; or
d.8 A particular use or land use.

Natural
A place that, on the basis of its attributes, demonstrates the principal characteristics of one or more (or combination of) classes or types to an outstanding degree, where ‘class’ or ‘type’ may refer to a particular kind of geological formation, landform, ecological community, land use, landscape or similar. 

The relative significance, and extent, of a place as such a representative of its type will be determined by comparison of the place to its type as a whole, analysing such factors as: 
-	Natural resource attributes of geology, landforms, soils, flora, fauna;
-	Condition and integrity, including consideration of long-term viability
-	Abundance and distribution of the type; 
-	Degree of homogeneity or variability of the type over its range.

Types should be defined in such a way as to include an essentially homogenous class of places and to allow meaningful comparisons to be made between places falling within the one type, otherwise the criterion will be difficult to meaningfully assess against.

This relates to:
Climate – places representative of various climatic zones or reflecting overlap of different bioclimatic or biogeographic zones.
Geology – places representative of different geological periods, structures, rock types or representative of different geomorphology/soils from the range of environments occurring in different bioclimatic zones.
Biology/Ecology – places with representative species and the range of geology and soil types on which they occur. Identifiable faunal assemblages.

n.d.3 The place should be the optimal development of the type.

n.d.4 The place should demonstrate significant variations within the type.

Indigenous
I.d.5 The place should represent all or the principal characteristics characteristic of a particular design or style of importance in the history of Indigenous Australia.

Most places that could be assessed under this criterion could also be assessed under criterion (a) or (e) and the assessor needs to decide whether an assessment under this criterion will contribute to the conservation of the values at the place. The place should be representative of a design or style.  It can include images, built structures or designed landscapes characteristic of Indigenous Australia.

I.d.6 The place should represent all or the principal characteristics characteristic of a particular industrial or technological process of importance in the history of Indigenous Australia.

Most places that could be assessed under this criterion could also be assessed under criterion (a) or (f) and the assessor needs to decide whether an assessment under this criterion will contribute to the conservation of the values at the place. The place should be representative of a technology or industrial process and may include images, sites, built structures or landscapes characteristic of Indigenous Australia.

I.d.7 The place should represent all or the principal characteristics representative of a particular way of life of importance in the history of Indigenous Australia.

Most places that could be assessed under this criterion could also be assessed under criterion (a) or (f). The place should be representative of a way of life and may include images, sites or built structures characteristic of Indigenous Australia.

I.d.8 The place should represent all or the principal characteristics representative of a particular land use of importance in the history of Indigenous Australia.

Most places that could be assessed under this criterion could also be assessed under criterion (a) or (f). The place should be representative of a land use. It can include images, built structures or designed landscapes characteristic of Indigenous Australia.

Historic
h.d.5 The place should represent the principal characteristics of a particular high order design or style of importance in the history of Australia.

The place must have a high integrity in its representative characteristics that may represent the period design, style. Design or style type may refer to architecture, structures, designed landscapes, planning and layout. The place may be nationally significant because it is characteristic of either an unusual or common type. It may be a type of place that has arisen from academic, traditional or vernacular designs. 

The place may be any structure or assemblage (group of structures forming a type of place), or any cultural landscape or any place demonstrating a particular technology.

The place may demonstrate more than one set of characteristics that may cover the type or technology, variation within a type, evolution of the type over time, or transition between the type and others. The place may capture the seminal or optimum period of a style development. Place examples may be a group of related places such as an urban precinct of similar architectural style. A place with this value may also be assessed for design importance (criterion (f)).

h.d.6 The place should represent most of the principal characteristics which exemplify a particular industrial or technological process of importance in the history of Australia and may be significant because it is characteristic of either an unusual or common type.

Places that could be assessed under this criterion may also be assessed under criterion (a) or (f). However this criterion will define places that are exemplars of an industrial or technological process. The places may include sites, built structures, cultural landscapes or complexes, being expressions of industrial processes practiced in Australia, such as, a water harvesting complex, a railway workshop complex, a defence base complex.

h.d.7 The class of place or environment demonstrating a particular way of life must be of a national order or level of importance. The particular characteristics of the class of place or environment must be identified and the place must demonstrate how it expresses the particular characteristics.

The place should represent all or the critical elements representative of a particular way of life of importance in the history of Australia. The place should have a high integrity in its representative characteristics. It may be significant because it is characteristic of either an unusual or common way of life or use that may be traditional or vernacular.

h.d.8 The class of place or environment demonstrating a particular land use such as arid land pastoralism or snow-based recreation must be of a national order or level of importance. The particular characteristics of the class of place or environment must be identified and the place must demonstrate how it expresses the particular characteristics.

The place should represent all or the critical elements representative of a particular land use of importance in the history of Australia. The place may be significant because it is characteristic of either an unusual or common type. It may represent traditional or vernacular land use practice.

Examples of places that illustrate the application of this guideline are provided in Section 3. A complete set of AHC place assessments will be available on the AHC website soon.

Criterion (e): The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by a community or cultural group

Shorthand title: Aesthetic characteristics

Explanatory notes

The ascription of aesthetic value may be given to a place whether it is a natural or cultural place. In relation to natural places, it is human perception of the natural place which creates the aesthetic value.

This criterion shares wording and concepts with criterion (g). They have the same meaning in both criteria.

Communities may be any group of people whose members share a locality, government, or cultural background. They can be locally based, regional, metropolitan or national groups, but should be a recognised community.

Key definitions (e)
exhibiting		v. 1. to offer or expose to view; present for inspection. 2. to manifest or display Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed	
particular		adj. 1. relating to some one person, thing, group, class, occasion etc rather than to others or all; special not general. 2. being a definite one, individual or single, considered separately: each particular item. 3. distinguished or different from the ordinary noteworthy; marked, unusual. 4 exceptional or special  (from legal advice) Macquarie Dictionary 3rd Ed 2001 & 4th Ed 2005	
aesthetic		adj. having a sense of the beautiful, characterised by a love of beauty (from legal advice 2/7/04) Macquarie Dictionary 3rd Ed 2001	
		adj. 1. relating to the sense of the beautiful or the science of aesthetics. 2. having a sense of the beautiful; characterised by a love of beauty. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
beauty		n. 1. that quality or characteristic which excites an admiring pleasure, or delights the eye or the aesthetic sense. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
beautiful		adj. 1. having or exhibiting beauty. 2. very pleasant: a beautiful meal. 4. the beautiful, an aesthetic or philosophical concept of beauty. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
characteristic		n. 2. a distinguishing feature or quality. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
value		v. 15. 10 consider with respect to worth, excellence, usefulness, or importance. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
community		n. 2. a particular locality, considered together with its inhabitants: a small rural community. 3. a group of people within a society with shared ethnic or cultural background, especially within a larger society: the Aboriginal community; Melbourne’s Greek community. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
		n. a body of people organised into a political, municipal or social unity. Source: The Complete Oxford Dictionary from legal advice, 2/7/04	
cultural group		n. 1. a group of people within a society with a shared ethnic or cultural background; community. Macquarie Dictionary 3rd Ed 2001 & 4th Ed 2005	

Considerations in applying the criterion
The following explanatory notes are based on the Council’s approach to assessment are not exhaustive and are intended as a general guide only to the application of the statutory criteria:
-	a place is considered for its aesthetic value on the basis of the ordinary meaning of ‘aesthetic’. The ordinary meaning of the word ‘aesthetic’ means pertaining to the sense of the beautiful, having a sense of beauty. ‘Aesthetic’ does not relate to the science or philosophy of aesthetics, which falls outside of the statutory test. The aesthetic response may be evoked by the environment through factors such as visual or non-visual elements - including emotional responses, sense of place, sound, and smell. However, the criterion does not relate to the specialised definition of ‘particular aesthetic characteristics’ that might trigger responses that have a strong impact on human thoughts, feelings and attitudes that are unconnected to the concept of ‘beauty’. 
-	‘particular’ here, and in criterion (g), means a characteristic that can be considered separately, rather than being outstanding or special. The usage of this word here in relation to aesthetic characteristics is not to be confused with the higher threshold consideration for this criterion, and all the criteria, that the place has to be of outstanding heritage value to the nation. The possible alternative meanings of ‘particular’ in the context of criterion (e) appear to be encompassed by the threshold requirement and by the requirement that the aesthetic characteristics are ‘valued’ by a community or cultural group.
-	shared social organisation, culture and spiritual values are among the identifiers of a community or cultural group. Communities can exist at various levels, and some shared interest groups will constitute communities.
-	professional groups and special interest groups do not constitute a community or cultural group. Common expertise is not sufficient by itself to define a community or cultural group.
-	there is no statutory requirement that a community be substantial. A community could be quite small, or it could be very large.
-	a community can refer to the Australian community as a whole.
-	places where community regard is not held strongly by an identifiable group do not meet the threshold. 
-	community or cultural group are considered on a case-by-case basis examining the strength of the attachment to the place being assessed.
-	a place can be considered for its aesthetic value in relation to a view/s of the place from outside the place and also view/s across the place. For a place to satisfy this criterion there must be clear evidence of a community or cultural group valuing its aesthetic characteristics.
-	although aesthetic value is a cultural concept or construct some places that possess aesthetic value will be viewed as either or both a ‘natural’ or a ‘cultural’ place. Artistic works, such as art, poetry, and music, inspired by the features of a place can provide evidence that the place may have aesthetic value. Expert evidence may be relevant in defining the ‘aesthetic characteristics’ of a place but it is not essential.
-	the existence of a number of relevant data sources that demonstrate the appreciation of the particular aesthetic characteristics of the place is a consideration for determining outstanding heritage value to the nation.
-	to be nationally important the community recognition is usually beyond the region or state.

Indicator of significance
The following are some of the grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (e). The indicators of significance are not an exhaustive statement of the grounds on which a place might satisfy criterion (e).

The grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (e) include that:

the place is of national significance to Australia because it exhibits particular aesthetic characteristics valued by a community or cultural group through the following:
e.1 Features of beauty, or features that inspire, emotionally move or have other characteristics that evoke a strong human response.

Indigenous
I.e.1 Aesthetic quality is particular characteristics of an area that inspire or move people. These may be places with spectacular views or vistas, designed places such as inspiring buildings gardens or streetscapes, or those with a combination of natural and cultural features.

This value covers places that are recognised as particularly important for inspiration they have engendered in Indigenous Australians.

Historic
	h.e.1 Aesthetic quality is determined by the response derived from the experience of the environment or of particular natural and cultural attributes within it. This response can be evoked by visual or non-visual elements but is predominantly visual and related to the concept of beauty. It can include related to this, emotional responses, sense of place, sound, smell, or any other factor having a strong impact on human thoughts, feelings and attitudes.
	
As the value derives from personal experience, it needs to be strongly acknowledged from many sources that are recognised throughout the nation. Expert surveys are one source that can validate the value but they must show that the value is a national one, and they must use a professionally recognised method to determine how the place meets a high aesthetic ideal when compared with other similar places. The community or cultural group must be noted in the assessment and be a recognised community or group.

This value covers what people consider 'beautiful'. These places may be natural landscapes that have a profound effect on people's emotions or landscapes that have been modified and shaped by humans.

The value may cover landscapes featuring spectacular natural phenomena such as a landform feature or a place that creates a particular sound such as a waterfall. These landscapes may also be places with spectacular views or vistas, designed places such as inspiring buildings gardens or streetscapes, or those with a combination of natural and cultural features. It may be a place where the value arises from transient properties, such as birdlife.

Guidance in the assessment of ‘inspirational landscapes’ derives from a specially commissioned methodological project that resulted in eight specific indicators for understanding aesthetic value (most of which relate to criterion (e)) as it relates to landscapes.

Examples of places that illustrate the application of this guideline are provided in Section 3. A complete set of AHC place assessments will be available on the AHC website soon.

Criterion (f): The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period

Shorthand title: Creative or technical achievement

Explanatory notes

This criterion applies generally to places that illustrate a high degree of creative or technical achievement, excellence, innovation, accomplishment, extension or creative adaptation, in a variety of fields of human endeavour such as in art, engineering, architecture, industrial or scientific design, landscape design, construction, manufacture, craftsmanship or some other technical field.

Key definitions (f)
importance		n. 1. the quality or fact of being important. 2. important position or standing; personal or social consequence. (important adj. 1. of much significance or consequence: an important event. 2. of more than ordinary title to consideration or notice: an important example. 3. prominent: an important part.) Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
demonstrate		v. 3. to manifest or exhibit. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
creative		adj. 2. resulting from originality of thought or expression. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
technical		adj. 1. belonging or relating to an art, science, or the like. 2. peculiar to or characteristic of a particular art, science, profession, trade, etc. relating to or connected with the mechanical or industrial arts and the applied sciences. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
degree		n. 1. a step or stage in an ascending or descending scale, or in a course or process. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
achievement		n. 1. something accomplished, especially by valour, boldness, or superior ability; a great or heroic deed. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
particular		adj. 1. relating to some one person, thing, group, class, occasion etc rather than to others or all; special not general. 2. being a definite one, individual or single, considered separately: each particular item. 3. distinguished or different from the ordinary noteworthy; marked, unusual. 4 exceptional or special  (from legal advice) Macquarie Dictionary 3rd Ed 2001 & 4th Ed 2005	
period		n. 1. an indefinite portion of time, or of history, or of life, etc., characterised by certain features or conditions. 2. any specified division or portion of time. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	

Considerations in applying the criterion
The following explanatory notes are based on the Council’s approach to assessment are not exhaustive and are intended as a general guide only to the application of the statutory criteria:
-	a place can be considered for its creative or technical achievement from a wide range of fields of endeavour or cultural history not just in relation to architecture or engineering. In assessing the significance to the nation of the high degree achievement consideration needs to be given as to whether the specific achievement, has significance beyond a specialist interest.
-	a consideration in an assessment under this criterion is whether the field of creative or technical achievement is widely recognised as important. However this is not a determinative factor. It may be that high degree national creative/technical achievements are not currently recognised by the Australian community as their value has not been previously widely known, understood or promoted. Such lesser known achievements may still be of outstanding heritage value to the nation.
-	in considering the high degree of achievement that the achievement represents, it may be indicative of outstanding national heritage significance if the achievement demonstrates a paradigm shift in the history of the discipline, practice or technology of the time and whether it influenced subsequent places of the same type, rather than being a minor or incremental shift.
-	it may be sufficient for the place to be a demonstration of a clear, innovative design solution that achieves its purpose successfully and is of importance.
-	‘a place may satisfy this criterion because it is regarded or acclaimed for its design excellence, arrangement of features, assemblage of structures in a landscape, structural elements, technical achievement and/or craftsmanship. A national award by or acclaim of high professional standing for the designer are relevant in considering whether a place has outstanding heritage value to the nation.
-	it would generally be expected that the place should have a high degree of integrity reflecting the design concepts, design aspects, or technical qualities for which it was nominated.
-	a place can be considered for its creative or technical achievement also under criteria (a) and (e).
-	if a place, being an outstanding example of work was seen to ‘fail’ to achieve its original design intent but if there were still strong creative values in aspects of the design, the place could still be above the threshold.
-	the particular period of the technical achievement must be stated.
-	evidence of enduring recognition for the design quality of the place will support the conclusion that the place satisfies the criterion. 

Indicators of significance
The following are some of the grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (f). The indicators of significance are not an exhaustive statement of the grounds on which a place might satisfy criterion (f).

The grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (f) include that:

the place demonstrates a creative or technical achievement, which is of national significance to Australia for the following:
f.1 A high degree of achievement in design, art, or craftsmanship 
f.2 A high degree of achievement in combining built features into a natural or designed landscape to achieve a productive or aesthetic purpose.
f.3 A high degree of ingenuity or innovative use of material

Indigenous
I.f.1 The design, art or craftsmanship must be recognised in relation to the practice or technology of the time. The place must reflect the clear intention of the designer and be relatively free of accretions.

Achievement may be apparent in images, feature, or the overall landscape.

I.f.2 The ingenuity or innovation must relate to the practices or technology of the time. The place must still clearly reflect the expression of the ingenuity or innovation

Ingenuity or innovative use of materials may be apparent in images, features or landscapes. Such places might include art sites, resource extraction and processing sites, and sites where material has been deposited.

I.f.3 The place should continue to reflect the clear intention of the designer.

The achievement must be apparent as built features in a natural or designed landscape or assemblage of features. Such places might include art sites, resource extraction and processing sites.

Historic
h.f.1 The design must be recognised in relation to the history of the discipline, practice or technology of the time. The place must reflect the clear intention of the designer where known and be relatively free of accretions.

Achievement may be apparent in any type of created place, structure, feature, designed or modified landscape or assemblage of features. Such places might include: buildings, gardens, and town planning precincts. They may be places with high quality artworks incorporated in the design or high quality craftsmanship in the features of the place. They must be intentionally designed rather than evolved.

h.f.2 The place must still reflect the clear intention of the designer. If relevant, the design intention must be recognised by experts in relation to the history of the discipline, practice or technology of the time. 

The achievement must be apparent as built features in a natural or designed landscape or assemblage of features. Such places might include complex designed landscapes such as industrial sites, engineering works (such as dams and bridges), gardens, and town planning precincts that encompass development and features of the natural environment.

h.f.3 The ingenuity or innovation must relate to the practices or technology of the time. The place must still clearly reflect the expression of the ingenuity or innovation.

Ingenuity or innovative use of materials may be apparent in images, features, structures or landscapes. Such places might include buildings, industrial sites, engineering works (such as dams and bridges), gardens, and town planning precincts and should be intentionally designed rather than evolved.

Examples of places that illustrate the application of this guideline are provided in Section 3. A complete set of AHC place assessments will be available on the AHC website soon.

Criterion (g): The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons

Shorthand title: Social value

Explanatory notes:
This criterion applies to places in the public consciousness for which a community or cultural group exhibits a strong or special attachment at the national level. The ascription of social value may be given to a place whether it is a natural or cultural place.

Communities may be any group of people whose members share a locality, government, or cultural background. They can be locally based, regional, metropolitan or national groups, but should be a recognised community. The place has to be important because of the community’s attachment to the place.

The heritage value can include religious or spiritual places, mythological places, or places of important identity. Nationally recognised groups may include religious denominations, ethnic communities, societies, incorporated groups, or political groups.

This criterion shares wording and concepts with criterion (e). They have the same meaning in both criteria.

Key definitions for criterion (g)
strong		Adj. 8.of great force, effectiveness, potency, or cogency: strong arguments. 10. firm on unfaltering under trial: strong faith. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
special		adj. 1. of a distinct or particular character. 6. distinguished or different from what is ordinary or usual. 7. extraordinary; exceptional; exceptional in amount or degree; especial. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
association		n. 3. the state of being associated. (associate v. 1. to connect by some relation, as in thought.) Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
particular		adj. 1. relating to some one person, thing, group, class, occasion etc rather than to others or all; special not general. 2. being a definite one, individual or single, considered separately: each particular item. 3. distinguished or different from the ordinary noteworthy; marked, unusual. 4 exceptional or special  (from legal advice) Macquarie Dictionary 3rd Ed 2001 & 4th Ed 2005	
community		n. 2. a particular locality, considered together with its inhabitants: a small rural community. 3. a group of people within a society with shared ethnic or cultural background, especially within a larger society: the Aboriginal community; Melbourne’s Greek community. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
		n. a body of people organised into a political, municipal or social unity.  Source: The Complete Oxford Dictionary from legal advice 2/7/04	
cultural group		n. 1. a group of people within a society with a shared ethnic or cultural background; community. Macquarie Dictionary 3rd Ed 2001 & 4th Ed 2005	

Considerations in applying the criterion
The following explanatory notes are based on the Council’s approach to assessment are not exhaustive and are intended as a general guide only to the application of the statutory criteria:
-	under this social value criterion it is people, within a particular community or cultural group, that collectively have the strong or special associations with natural and cultural heritage places, so the values are considered to be Indigenous or historic heritage values.

o	Particular community or cultural group -
-	the question of what constitutes a community or cultural group is a difficult one which needs to be considered on a case-by-case basis.
-	‘particular’ here, and in criterion (f), means a characteristic that can be considered separately, rather than being outstanding or special.
-	a particular community includes the Australian community as a whole.
-	shared social organisation, culture and spiritual values are identifiers of a community or cultural group.
-	professional groups and special interest groups do not constitute a community or cultural group. Common expertise is not sufficient by itself to define a group.

o	Connection between the place and the community or cultural group -
-	to satisfy this criterion there must be a strong or special association between particular community or cultural group and the place. This attachment will usually be enduring and contain a deep sense of ownership or connectedness.

-	a place may satisfy the criterion on grounds including that:
-	a number of people who comprise a community or cultural group have continued their association with the place;
-	there is a strong connection between a place as a setting for an event such as  a representation of the event in tradition, history and/or art and the place is significant to a community or cultural group because of this setting or representation; 
-	there is a strong connection between a place and a uniquely Australian cultural activity if it can be shown that this is the reason that a particular community or cultural group has a strong or special association with the place.
-	there is a direct association with a nationally important story which continues as a symbolic national story if it can be shown that this is the reason that a particular community or cultural group has a strong or special association with the place.
-	in some cases significant former associations, for example associations of past community or cultural groups, may meet the threshold.
-	a place which provoked a short term association, for example when a place is under threat, but did not sustain a longevity of that association would not generally be expected to satisfy the criterion.
-	public, community owned and private properties may satisfy this criterion. It is less likely, although nonetheless possible, that a privately owned property will satisfy this criterion.
-	an extensive demonstration of caring or identification by the Australian community  in determining outstanding heritage value to the nation of a place under this criterion.
-	an extensive demonstration of caring or identification by the Australian community will be relevant in determining outstanding heritage value to the nation of a place under this criterion, although some places that are little known may nonetheless be assessed as being of outstanding heritage value.
-	places of only local community importance do not meet the threshold.
-	the place must be recognised and/or used by a community or a cultural group
-	to be nationally important the community recognition is usually beyond the region or state.

Indicator of significance
The following is one of the grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (g). The indicator of significance is not intended to be an exhaustive statement of the grounds on which a place might satisfy criterion (g).

The grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (g) include that:

the place is of national significance to Australia because it has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for:
g.1 a social, cultural or spiritual reasons that could include:
traditional, religious, ceremonial or other social purpose, including a celebratory or commemorative use, or association with community action.	

Examples of places that illustrate the application of this guideline are provided in Section 3. A complete set of AHC place assessments will be available on the AHC website soon.

Criterion (h): The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation 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

Shorthand title: Significant people

Explanatory notes

This criterion applies generally to places in the first instance rather than people. The strength and nature of the association of the person or group of persons with the place, related to the particular and important contribution made by the person or group to Australia’s natural or cultural history, is critical to identifying places of outstanding heritage value to the nation.

Key definitions (h)
special		adj. 1. of a distinct or particular character. 6. distinguished or different from what is ordinary or usual. 7. extraordinary; exceptional; exceptional in amount or degree; especial. Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
association		n. 3. the state of being associated. (associate v. 1. to connect by some relation, as in thought.) Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
group		n. 2. a number of persons or things ranged or considered together as being related in some way
The Macquarie Dictionary Revised 3rd Ed 2001 & 4th Ed 2005	
importance		n. 1. the quality or fact of being important. 2. important position or standing; personal or social consequence. (important adj. 1. of much significance or consequence: an important event. 2. of more than ordinary title to consideration or notice: an important example. 3. prominent: an important part.) Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	

Considerations in applying the criterion
The following explanatory notes are based on the Council’s approach to assessment are not exhaustive and are intended as a general guide only to the application of the statutory criteria:
-	in considering a place for association with an important person/group if criterion (a) was satisfied then it was not automatic that people associated with the history of the place meet this criterion’s threshold. For the criterion to be satisfied the person or group have to be of importance in Australia’s natural or cultural history. A wide range of sources may provide evidence of importance including for example a listing for the person in the Australian Dictionary of Bibliography. No single reference can be regarded as definitive. In particular it should be recognised that Indigenous people may not be included in many documentary sources.
-	it is possible that the importance of the person could depend entirely on an activity that occurred at the place.
-	a person may be connected with a number of places, however, the place or places that demonstrate their strongest association should be considered.
-	the essential requirement for establishing the existence of a group is some relationship, in the sense of a connection or association, between the members of the group.
-	the required special association between a very broad group and the ‘life or work’ of the group of persons must be demonstrated.
-	the association is generally demonstrated to have been outstanding in the person or group’s lifetime.
-	the association with the place is acknowledged as an achievement of national importance.
-	awareness of the outstanding heritage value may not be recognised by the community or cultural group.

Indicators of significance
The following are some of the grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (h). The indicators of significance are not an exhaustive statement of the grounds on which a place might satisfy criterion (h).

The grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (h) include that:

the place is of national significance to Australia because it has a special association with a person’s or group’s life or works for the following reasons:
h.1 The place had an important formative effect on a nationally recognised person or group; or
h.2 The major national achievements of a nationally recognised person or group occurred at this place.

Indigenous
I.h.1 The intent of this value is to identify those places that are significant for their enduring associations with people or groups of national importance in Australia.

There must be a special association between the place and the group. This could be demonstrated if the place has had an effect in the philosophy, profession, practices or events. 

I.h.2 The intent of this value is to identify those places that are significant for their enduring associations with people or groups of national importance in Australia.

The place must be where the person made their major achievement.

Historic
h.h.1 The intent of this value is to identify those places, which are significant for their enduring associations with people or groups of national importance in Australia. The association of the person or group to the place must be significant in that the place greatly affected the person’s (s’) philosophy, or events associated with the person’s life; 

Any type of place in the environment may qualify: 
-	it can be a place that contributed to the productive life of person or group of national importance, such as an artist or group of artists 
-	natural places associated with field scientists or explorer’s routes may be eligible.
-	the association of a place with a particularly important but short-term event affecting the person may also be included.

h.h.2 The intent of this value is to identify those places, which are significant for their enduring associations with people or groups of national importance in Australia. The association of the person or group to the place must be significant in that the place represents a major achievement of a person or group of national importance in any field of life such as exploration, settlement, arts, politics, public life, community service, architecture, engineering, design, science, commerce, industry etc. The association may be with any type of place or environment. It can be a building or engineering project that is an outstanding example of a well-known designer’s work.

Examples of places that illustrate the application of this guideline are provided in Section 3. A complete set of AHC place assessments will be available on the AHC website soon.

Criterion (i): The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance as part of Indigenous traditions

Shorthand title: Indigenous tradition

Explanatory notes
This criterion applies generally to places that are important as part of Indigenous tradition. Indigenous tradition is defined in the Act (s.201(4)) as, ‘the body of traditions, observances, customs and beliefs of Indigenous persons generally or of a particular group of Indigenous persons’.

Key definitions (i)
importance		n. 1. the quality or fact of being important. 2. important position or standing; personal or social consequence. (important adj. 1. of much significance or consequence: an important event. 2. of more than ordinary title to consideration or notice: an important example. 3. prominent: an important part.) Macquarie Dictionary 4th Ed 2005	
tradition*		The notion of tradition is the handing down of beliefs, legends and customs from generation to generation, especially by word of mouth or by practice.	
observance*		[T]he action of conforming to, obeying or following; a keeping or celebration by appropriate procedure, ceremonies etc. A rule of custom to be observed.	
custom*		[A]n habitual practice; the usual way of acting in given circumstances; a group pattern of habitual activity usually transmitted from one generation to another	
belief*		[T]hat which is believed, an accepted opinion	
Indigenous		Member of the Aboriginal race of Australia and/or Torres Strait Islander	

*Chapman v Luminis Pty Ltd (No 5) [2001] FCA 1106 (21 August 2001) section 275

Considerations in applying the criterion
The following explanatory notes are based on the Council’s approach to assessment are not exhaustive and are intended as a general guide only to the application of the statutory criteria:
-	this criterion can apply to an area of land, a specific site or series of sites. A two stage process for identifying if a place has outstanding heritage value is useful in applying this criterion:
-	establish whether the place is part of Indigenous tradition;
-	establish whether there is something in the context or the tradition that makes it unusual or exemplary at the national level.
-	a ‘traditional’ place can be considered for its associative value, an ‘intangible’ value, where there is no physical expression at the place that relates to this association. However, if there is physical evidence of the tradition present then the relationship and the particular physical evidence needs to be clearly identified in the values table.
-	it is also recognised that Indigenous traditions are not necessarily unchanging but are by definition, often living, dynamic and evolving. Change to traditions may have occurred at any time, from earliest times to the present.
-	included within the scope of this criterion are beliefs that are fundamental to Indigenous existence and which may include age, gender or other restricted elements. Given this context, comparative analyses may not always be appropriate. Where comparative analyses are undertaken, the information used to assess the heritage value of places under this criterion may include material remains, oral tradition and historical documents. In some cases recorded information about the Indigenous traditions associated with a place may be lacking or insufficient to decide whether it is of ‘outstanding heritage value to the nation.’ Inability to demonstrate that a place meets the threshold for National Heritage listing does not mean that the place is not important as part of Indigenous tradition. It also means that many sites of high importance in Indigenous tradition which are by nature ‘private’ or ‘restricted’ will remain, appropriately, in that private realm.

Indicator of significance

The following are some of the grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (i). The indicators of significance are not an exhaustive statement of the grounds on which a place might satisfy criterion (i).

The grounds on which a place may satisfy criterion (i) include that:

the place demonstrates an aspect of Indigenous tradition which is of national significance to Australia for the following:
i.1.	Creation beings and spirits – physical places in the land created by creation beings or inhabited by spirits
i.2. People – places associated with people’s ritual and ceremonial transformations
i.3. Land – ‘increase’, trade, or ceremonial sites relating to nurturing the land

The division of Indigenous traditions into three categories that relate to creation beings, people and land, is an analytical device and it is recognised that an Indigenous tradition may encompass two or more of these categories.

I.i.1 Creation beings and spirits. Exemplary or unusual places containing the physical features (mountains, hills, rivers) formed by Creation beings during their journeys or places where Creation beings ‘put themselves’ into country during a significant event that occurred during their journey across the land. It also applies to exemplary or unusual places inhabited by mischievous or malevolent spirits.

The types of places where Creation beings may continue to reside or places that retain their essence can include mineral or rock deposits, lakes, rivers, hills and trees. Their essence may also be a part of rock art and other images such as Wandjina, Lightning Brothers and Baiame. The power of Creation beings may be dangerous and special behaviours may be required when going to places associated with them. The way that Creation beings behave(d) may affect the country they created so safe access is restricted to certain categories of people (by gender or levels of initiation) or it may make a place sick or healthy.

For Indigenous people, the land is also populated by spirits that are not Creation beings. These spirits are often mischievous or malicious and observing protective practices is necessary for people’s safety and well being. These spirits may be embodied in, or associated with, particular features of the land such as wetlands.

I.i.2 People. Exemplary or unusual places where people are transformed from one status to another through rites or ceremonies. The form of these major rites and ceremonies may come from ancestral Creation beings.

The beginning and end of life is often associated with incorporation or separation of spirits from the material world. These processes may be associated with specific places where spirits enter a woman or where departed spirits travel after death. Ceremonies conducted to change the social status of living people – for example boy to man - often express power, authority and relationships at an individual or collective level. The places where these ceremonies occur may be imbued with spiritual power.

I.i.3 Land. Exemplary or unusual places where techniques to manipulate the land and nature are practiced by Indigenous people. These traditional manipulations often derive from Creation beings that entrusted a group with the responsibility for caring for a particular country.

Indigenous people have a range of traditional techniques for managing the land and nature ranging from traditional fire management techniques, through performance of ceremonies to increase species and natural phenomena like rain, to the observance of specific prohibitions and rituals associated with resource extraction. The techniques may be associated with rock art, standing stones or other physical features.

There are also traditions associated with the sharing and trading of resources between groups. These include specific places on song lines where neighbouring groups came together to trade items.

Examples of places that illustrate the application of this guideline are provided in Section 3. A complete set of AHC place assessments will be available on the AHC website soon.

3. EXAMPLES

Criterion (a)

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (a) for their natural heritage significance.

(a) Course, or pattern, of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Grampians National Park, Vic	The Grampians are the most important area for floristic richness and endemism in eastern inland Australia, with high levels of endemism in the Christmas bush family (Cunoniaceae), southern heaths (Epacridaceae), the pea family (Fabaceae), orchids (Orchidaceae) and the pimeleas (Thymelaeaceae). The Grampians have high rates of endemism for the ash group of eucalypts (Monocalyptus), and grevilleas. 
 
The Grampians are significant at a national scale for richness in terrestrial and freshwater invertebrates including beetles (Dytiscidae, Gyrinidae, Hydrophilidae and Hygrobiidae), huntsmen spiders (Sparassidae), and butterflies (Lepidoptera). 	
Stirling Range National Park, Cranbrook, WA	The south-west of Western Australia is one of only 34 internationally significant hotspots for biodiversity (Myers et al. 2000), and the Stirling Range National Park is a very important remnant of the flora of the south-west, with exceptional richness and endemicity of species, particularly for plant species (Comer et al. 2001, Hopper et al 1996). For example, the place is one of the richest areas in Australia for families such as Myrtaceae, including the eucalypts, and Proteaceae, including dryandras, banksias, and hakeas  (Keighery 1993, ANHAT 2005). A minimum of 1,500 plant species have been recorded within the park of 115,000 hectares (Keighery 1993, CALM 1999, Paczkowska & Chapman 2000), and there are also 87 recorded endemics, or species that are found nowhere else (CALM 1999, Keighery 1993).

Deeply incised south-facing gullies provide refuge for Gondwanan relictual species such as ancient trapdoor spider species (mygalomorphs), and species of land snail, and other relict invertebrate species, including scorpions, pseudoscorpions, earthworms and primitive isopod crustaceans  (Thomson et al. 1993; Comer et al. 01, ANHAT 2005). The Stirling Range is one of most important areas in Australia for endemic mygalomorph species, and is also important for land snail richness, particularly within the Bothriembryon genus  (ANHAT 2005).	
Warrumbungle National Park, Coonabarabran, NSW	The Warrumbungles form an extensive and spectacular geomorphological site (Cochrane and Joyce 1986), and the bold volcanic landforms are unrivalled anywhere else in Australia (Yeates 2001). The volcanic features and landforms illustrate each of the stages in the development of the Warrumbungle volcano, and include an unusual opportunity to examine the inside of a volcano, in addition to parts of the original shield, or external surface, of the volcano, as well as successive layers of lava (Duggan & Knutson 1993, Johnson 2004).
The Warrumbungle National Park displays a wide array of outstanding volcanic features, including plugs, domes, dykes, sills, lava-flows, tuff layers, and horizontal and vertical columns (Duggan & Knutson 1993, Ferrett 2005, Geoscience Australia website 2005, Johnson 2004, Percival 1979, Yeates 2001).
The Warrumbungle National Park is in a transition zone between the arid western and wetter coastal zones, and is of significance as an important refugium in inland south-east Australia.  The Warrumbungles support exceptionally high numbers of species, and the place is one of a small number of places in inland southern Australia that are centres of richness for plant and animal taxa (NSW NPWS 1997, ANHAT 2005).	
Ediacara Fossil Site – Nilpena, Parachilna, SA	The Ediacara Fossil Site - Nilpena exposes an ancient Australian seafloor, revealing a spectacular array of soft-bodied marine fossils of late Precambrian age (over 500 million years ago).  The site represents
some of the best intact evidence of the oldest multicellular animal life both within Australia and internationally. The Ediacara seafloor assemblage has yielded some of the most spectacular early animal fossils ever discovered, providing a well preserved intact snapshot of a complete community of organisms (Gehling pers comm. 2005; Gehling, 2000; Gehling et al., 2005; Clapham & Narbonne, 2002; Clapman et al., 2003; Droser et al., 2004a; Narbonne & Gehling, 2003; Gehling et al., 2006).	
Flora Fossil Site - Yea, Vic	The Silurian Baragwanathia Flora Fossil Site - Yea (Barclays Cutting) exposes well preserved specimens of Baragwanathia longifolia and a range of other plants occurring as part of a floral assemblage in graptolite-bearing beds dating from the late Silurian period.  This rich fossil deposit of some of the earliest known vascular land plants is well recognised as being of international significance.  The plant fossils
considerably predate lycopsids (club mosses and their allies) found in the Northern Hemisphere fossil record. They provide evidence of the dramatic evolution and development of vascular plants that occurred during this time, particularly the adaptation of plants from the sea to the land. B. longifolia is almost exclusively found in the Southern Hemisphere and these fossils may indicate that land plants developed first in the Southern Hemisphere (Garratt 1978, Jaeger 1966, Joyce & King 1980, White 1988).

The lowermost assemblage at Barclays Cutting contains an unusually high number of early vascular land plants including Baragwanathia longifolia and another lycopsid, Yarravia sp. (Lycophytina), Salopella australis sp. nov., a new species of Hedeia (Rhyniophytina), members of the Trimerophytes (a related group of early plants from which all higher plants evolved) and at least one zosterophyll (Zosterophyllophytina). The assemblage at Barclays Cutting is considered to be of Late Silurian (Ludlow) age based on the presence of the graptolite species Bohemograptus bohemicus, known only from Ludlow strata elsewhere.  The presence of graptolites confirms the Late Silurian (Ludlow) age of about 415 million years. This makes Yea the oldest site for early vascular land plants in Australia, and one of the oldest such sites in the world (Garratt 1978, Tims & Chambers 1984, White 1988).	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (a) for their natural heritage significance.

(a) Course, or pattern, of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
War-n’hayara Plateau Area, NSW	The nominator claimed that the place contains unique flora and fauna. The Wara-N’hayara Plateau Area falls within one of the three most significant areas for biodiversity in eastern Australia, the Sydney Basin. Wara-N’hayara Plateau as a whole ranks highly both within the region of the Sydney Basin and nationally, but biodiversity values are not distributed uniformly across the place. The richest area of biodiversity within the Wara-n’hayara Plateau is in the immediate region of Royal NP and Garawarra State Conservation Area (Garawarra SCA).  Although the Illawarra Escarpment is also rich in biodiversity, the values identified along the escarpment are a subset of those in Royal NP and Garawarra SCA and are not outstanding in their own right.  Royal NP and Garawarra SCA are of outstanding value to the nation for their richness in plant and animal species under criterion (a) but that the biodiversity values of the remainder of the Wara-n’hayara Plateau Area are of regional or local significance.
There are no known geoheritage sites of outstanding value to the nation within the Wara-N’hayara Plateau.
It was concluded that part of the place, comprising Royal NP and Garawarra SCA, has natural and historic National Heritage values under criterion (a), but that the remainder of the Wara-n’hayara Plateau Area does not have outstanding heritage value to the nation under this criterion.	
Doctors Creek Tidal Area, WA	There are a large number of arid tropical/subtropical macrotidal estuaries in north-western Western Australia, including Doctors Creek Tidal Area. These estuaries share a wide range of features including high tidal flows, high mangrove species richness and communities’ diversity, little freshwater flow and high evaporation rates, resulting in inverse estuaries dominated by tidal flows where salinities can exceed the salinity of adjacent seawater. Similar estuaries are found elsewhere in King Sound, close to Doctors Creek Tidal Area and that Doctors Creek Tidal Area was not outstanding comparatively with these estuaries or with other estuaries in north-western Australia.

The Doctors Creek Tidal Area was not outstanding in terms of mangrove species richness, falling substantially short of the richest areas. There was no comprehensive, detailed national assessment of mangrove landforms, so the nominator’s claim about the richness of mangrove landforms or communities was not testable. There are an estimated 50 mangrove taxa in Australia and the presence of a single species at the end of its distribution range could not be considered of outstanding heritage value to the nation. Over 198 areas across northern Australia contain more than 37 species of fish; Doctors Creek fell well short of the richest known concentrations which had over 60 species. There was no evidence that Doctors Creek is important at a national scale for either the freshwater sawfish (Pristis microdon) or the barramundi (Lates calcarifer). There was no evidence in the literature or any of the available national databases on estuaries to suggest that any of the physical attributes of Doctors Creek Tidal Area as a tropical tide-dominated macrotidal estuary are of greater interest than similar estuaries in the region.

There are a large number of type localities for geological formations throughout Australia. While these are of great significance for geologists as reference points in undertaking stratigraphic investigations, there is no evidence that the Christine Point Clay is of greater significance than the thousands of other type localities around Australia. Doctors Creek Tidal Area was not of outstanding heritage value as a “type locality” for ecological and geological research into tidal flats in high-tidal, semi-arid deltaic areas and because of its importance for research into Holocene and late Quaternary climate and stratigraphy. A large number of sites around Australia have been used for such studies including Broome, Derby, and areas along the Northern Territory and Queensland coasts. There was no evidence that Doctors Creek Tidal Area is of notable significance in the wider literature. Doctors Creek Tidal Area has not been identified as of value in state reviews of important geoheritage. 	
Lady Julia Percy Island, Vic	Lady Julia Percy Island is one of a number of key sites for interpreting the nature and range of volcanic activity in western Victoria.  Although the place represents a largely unknown period of volcanic activity in Victoria, there are other examples elsewhere in Australia of volcanism occurring around seven million years ago.  Such examples include Lord Howe Island, dated as 6.9 million years old, and the early Miocene pillow and the well-developed columnar lava flows at Black Pyramid Island in Bass Strait. Although Lady Julia Percy Island does provide valuable information about past geological processes and changing sea levels, it is matched or exceeded elsewhere in Australia where volcanic features may be better exposed or have been more intensively studied.  The heritage value of the volcanism on the island is of regional or State significance.

The island supports important breeding populations of five species of seabirds - fairy prions (Pachyptula turtur), short-tailed shearwaters (Puffinus tenuirostris), little penguins (Eudyptula minor), common diving petrels (Pelecanoides urinatrix) and kelp gulls (Larus dominicanus).  Although it contains possibly the largest colony of fairy prions in Victoria, this species is much more abundant in Tasmanian waters on Tasman Island and on Ile du Golfe.  The Island is also notable as the site of the largest breeding colony of Australian fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus).  However other breeding colonies occur at Seal Rocks on Phillip Island (an estimated 
22 700 seals) and seven other islands in Bass Strait.  It was concluded that Lady Julia Percy Island is of State significance for its abundance and diversity of breeding seabirds and for the conservation and continued recovery of Australian fur seals.	
Brandy Marys Bago State Forest Crown Leases, NSW
	The general flora of the Brandy Marys leases is similar to that in other parts of the Snowy Mountains and is not outstandingly rich when compared with areas such as the south-west of Western Australia or Hawkesbury sandstone plateaus near Sydney. Whilst Brandy Marys Bago State Forest Crown Leases is an important part of the broader montane land system, the only natural values that may be restricted to the place or may be best represented there on a national scale are the richness and endemicity of two small orchid genera, leek orchids (Prasophyllum) and greenhoods (Pterostylis). The current undescribed taxonomic status of several of the orchids indicates that while values may exist on the Brandy Marys Bago State Forest Crown Leases, their presence cannot be confirmed at this stage. It was concluded that the heritage value is of local or regional significance. 	

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (a) for their Indigenous heritage significance.

(a) Course, or pattern, of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape – Tyrendarra Area, Vic	The Tyrendarra area is of outstanding heritage value because it contains the remains of a complex system of natural and artificially created wetlands, channels, the stone bases of weirs and stone fish traps that were used by Gunditj Mara people to grow and harvest eels and fish (Builth 2002, 2003).  The remains of the channels, weirs and fishtraps are hundreds and probably thousands of years old.

This system is markedly different from contemporary, historical and archaeological records of freshwater fish traps recorded in other parts of Australia which provided a system for channeling fish in streams or rivers into traps (Sutton 2004) rather than creating conditions for fish husbandry.

The remains of the system of eel aquaculture in the Tyrendarra area demonstrate a transition from a forager society to a society that practiced husbandry of fresh water fish (Builth 2002, 2003).  This resulted in high population densities represented by the remains of stone huts clustered into villages of between two and sixteen huts (Builth 2002, 2003).  It also provided the economic base for a stratified society ruled by chiefs with a form of hereditary succession to this office (Dawson 1881; Clark 1990).

Many of the sites in Western Victoria where eel husbandry was practiced have been destroyed by farming (Clark 1990a).  Of the systems that remain, the remains on Tyrendarra are part of the same system as the remains in the Mt Eccles/Lake Condah area.  They are a better representative of this Western Victorian system than other examples such as Toolondo (Lourandos 1980) and Mt William (Williams 1988; Clark 1990a).  The latter areas have a limited range of the features associated with eel aquaculture, mainly channels and fish traps.

The landscape of the Tyrendarra lava flow in the Mt Eccles/Lake Condah area is of outstanding heritage value because it provides a particularly clear example of the way that Aboriginal people used their environment as a base for launching attacks on European settlers and escaping reprisal raids during frontier conflicts (Clark 1990a, 1990b; Builth 2003).

Conflict between Europeans and Aborigines was endemic on the frontier of European settlement (Reynolds 1976).  Aboriginal people often used parts of the landscape that Europeans found difficult to access as a base for their resistance to encroaching European settlement.  Many of these landscapes of resistance centered on areas where vegetation made access difficult and some of these landscapes have been altered since European settlement.

Gunditj Mara used the Tyrendarra lava flow as a base from where they launched attacks on white settlers.  Because the lava flow is uneven and rocky, Europeans and their horses found it difficult to penetrate the area.  This allowed Aboriginal raiders to escape from attempted reprisals and to continue their resistance to European settlement for nearly a decade (Clarke 1990a: 238-250, 1990b; Builth 2003).	
Mount William Stone Hatchet Quarry, Vic	During the late Holocene, as woodlands expanded, ground-edged stone hatchets became an essential part of the Aboriginal toolkit in eastern Australia. They were an important all-purpose tool as well as being an item of prestige. Material for these tools was obtained from specific quarries. The Mount William stone hatchet quarry was an important source of stone hatchet heads which were traded over a wide area of south-east Australia. The quarry area has evidence for both surface and underground mining, with 268 pits and shafts, some several metres deep, where sub-surface stone was quarried (McBryde & Watchman, 1976:169). There are 34 discrete production areas providing evidence for the shaping of stone into hatchet head blanks. Some of these areas contain mounds of manufacturing debris up to 20 metres in diameter. At Mount William, the number, size and depth of the quarry pits; the number and size of flaking floors and associated debris; and the distance over which hatchet heads were traded is outstanding for showing the social and technological response by Aboriginal people to the expansion of eastern Australian woodlands in the late Holocene.

The Mount William hatchet quarry was well-known to Europeans when Blandowski (1855) visited the place during the mid-1800s. By the early 1900s people from all walks of life were visiting Mount William to see the remains of the intensive Aboriginal quarrying and extensive flaking floors. The place's importance and the need for protection attracted the interest of a number of well respected Victorians who sought Mount William's protection from 1910 to 1923. While the place was not formally protected until 1976, the early public interest and recognition that the place showed that the Aboriginal history of Australia extended back well before the arrival of Europeans is exceptional in the course of Australia's cultural history.	
Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site, NSW	The Myall Creek massacre, the subsequent court cases and the hanging of seven settlers, played a pivotal role in the development of the relationship between settlers and Aboriginal people. In the half century following British settlement, the Colonial Administration stated on numerous occasions that Aboriginal people and settlers were equal before the law. However, juries regularly found settlers accused of killing Aboriginal people on the frontier not guilty. Since the 1850s the story of Myall Creek massacre has been retold in a number of poems and books and has continued to remind Australians about the mistreatment of Aboriginal people during the period of frontier conflict. The Myall Creek massacre is outstanding in the course of Australia’s cultural history as it is the last time the Colonial Administration intervened to ensure the laws of the colony were applied equally to Aboriginal people and settlers involved in frontier killings.	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (a) for their Indigenous heritage significance.

(a) Course, or pattern, of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
War-n’hayara Plateau Area, NSW	The nominator provided documentation about the Menangle Aboriginal eel farm, at Lyrebird Creek, a minor tributary of the Nepean River. This systematic pondage is small when compared with other Aboriginal eel aquaculture sites such as those in the Budj Bim (Lake Condah) National Heritage Landscape, Victoria. The Menangle eel farm lacks the evidence for settlements and high population densities that is associated with eel aquaculture in the Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape. Although the Menangle eel farm may be important at a local or regional level, it could not be established as outstanding in national terms. 

It was concluded that part of the place, comprising Royal NP and Garawarra SCA, has natural and historic National Heritage values under criterion (a), but that the remainder of the Wara-n’hayara Plateau Area does not have outstanding heritage value to the nation under this criterion.	
Barlings Beach Area, NSW	While Barlings Beach has burials and evidence of Indigenous occupation over thousands of years, there are other sites on the Australian coast with earlier dates and evidence for longer occupation than the sites at Barlings Beach.  Burials in coastal dunes are also common throughout Australia and on the NSW coast.  	
Brandy Mary’s Bago State Forest Crown Leases, NSW	The range of physical evidence for Aboriginal occupation of the Brandy Marys Bago State Forest Crown Leases does not include evidence for the long period of Aboriginal occupation and use that is found in similar environments elsewhere in the Australian Alps. The range of Aboriginal sites on the leases are similar to those found elsewhere in the Australian Alps and in the Tasmanian central highlands. 	
Snowy River National Park, Vic, and Kosciuszko National Park, NSW (Emergency Listing request)	The Department advised that there is physical evidence of Indigenous use of Snowy River National Park (SRNP) and Kosciuszko National Park (KNP) in the form of surface artefact scatters and open campsites and scarred trees. Stone quarries, stone features and burial areas have also been recorded in KNP, while a rock art site has additionally been recorded in SRNP (Grinbergs, 1992; Goulding et al, 2000; Flood, 1980; Freslov et al, 2004, McConnell et al, 2002a, 2002b, Lourandos 2000: 199, 248-255).  Excavations at Birigai rock shelter (ACT) suggest that use of sub-alpine environments increased from about 4,000 years ago (Flood et al 1987).   There is also evidence from archaeological excavations adjacent to the Thredbo River, Kosciusko National Park that demonstrates occupation from approximately 4,300 years BP (Kamminga et al, 1989). This was originally interpreted as part of a pattern of seasonal occupation of the high country based on the ‘hunting’ of Bogong moths, based largely on a reading of ethnohistorical evidence. The Department advised that more recent interpretations, including new field findings from KNP, suggest an alternative model of Aboriginal occupation of the Alps with a major Aboriginal exploitation zone situated between 700 and 1100 metres above sea level characterised by base camps situated in open montane forests. This area was used all year round with periodic forays into high altitude areas in summer and periodic moves to lower altitude areas in winter (Chapman 1977; Grinbergs 1993). Artefact scatters have been recorded up to the alpine tree-line zone at 1830m, and rare occurrences of isolated artefacts occur above this altitude (Flood, 1980).  This model is broadly supported by recent survey results from parts of Alpine National Park and SRNP (Freslove et al, 2004, Hall 1990). The evidence for year round occupation of the upper areas of the Australian Alps corresponds with the evidence from Tasmania which suggests that high altitude areas could be used by Aboriginal people all year round (Cosgrove, 1984; Ryan 1996; Jones 1974: 342). This indicates a convergence during the Holocene in the adaptations of Aboriginal people living in the high country of the Australian Alps and Tasmania. No evidence was found to suggest that Aboriginal occupation in the Australian Alps during the Holocene period was unique, or markedly different from Aboriginal use of the mountains and high country area in Tasmania. It was concluded that there was no evidence that SRNP and KNP may have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a) for Indigenous occupation in the Holocene period.	

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (a) for their historic heritage significance.

(a) Course, or pattern, of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Kurnell Peninsula Headland, NSW	The Meeting Place Precinct, Kurnell Peninsula, was the site of first recorded contact between Indigenous people and Britain in eastern Australia, and symbolically represents the birthplace of a nation, and the dispossession of Indigenous people.  This symbolism is reinforced by its proximity to Sydney, the site of the first British settlement, as well as its accessibility.   The discovery of Botany Bay, including Kurnell Peninsula, in April 1770 by Lt. James Cook, Commander of the Endeavour, was a precursor to the colonization of Australia by Britain. The association of Cook’s visit with the place is clear and well substantiated and has been celebrated since 1822.  

The Meeting Place Precinct, including Captain Cook’s Landing Place, includes memorials and landscape plantings commemorating the events of 1770.  Place names such as Inscription Point and Point Solander, the remnant watercourse, the memorials to explorers and Indigenous inhabitants, and Cook’s maps of the Peninsula, in conjunction with Cooks Journal, and those of officers and scientists, clearly illustrate the events of 1770.   Attributes specifically associated with its Indigenous values include the watering point and immediate surrounds, and the physical evidence of Aboriginal occupation in the area broadly encompassed by the watering place and the landing stage.  

Kurnell Peninsula, Botany Bay, was the first site on the east coast of the Australian continent explored by scientists from Britain, with many of the first type-specimens of flora and fauna collected near the landing site by both Banks and Solander.  Of particular note in 1770 was the naming of the Banksia genus after Joseph Banks.  Cook’s naming of ‘Botany Bay’ in 1770 would result in its adoption as an emotive term for a destination, which came to be associated with convictism for much of the nineteenth century.

Although Cooks’ mapping of the east coast of Australia in 1770 did not appreciate the extent and importance of Port Jackson, nor the existence of Bass Strait, his running surveys were an outstanding achievement, which enabled the continental characteristics of Terra Australis, and its relationship to Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, to be defined fully for the first time.  Cook’s survey of Botany Bay in 1770, and clear description of the headlands at its entrance, provided information about a safe harbour with fresh water for British ships which followed. 

The headland area of Kurnell Peninsula, in its landmark role bounding the entrance to Botany Bay, is significant to the nation as the destination for the First Fleet under Captain Arthur Phillip in 1787.  Although first settlement occurred at Sydney Cove in January 1788, Cook’s first voyage, with his first landfall in Australia at Kurnell Peninsula, Botany Bay, informed the subsequent British declaration of terra nullius through his reports, and, as the destination of the First Fleet, began the process that would lead to British possession of the Australian continent by 1830.	
Port Arthur Historic Site, Tas	Port Arthur Historic Site is a major and critical component of the British convict system constructed in Australia.  The system is an example of a 19th century European colonial strategy of exporting prisoners and using their labour to establish a colonial economy.  In Australia, this strategy had a significant impact on early colonial development and on the overall Australian psyche.

In particular, Port Arthur demonstrates to a high degree, an aspect of this British colonial process during the 19th century - the adaptation of the British penal system to Australian conditions and the evolution of the secondary punishment system away from its British origins.

The Probation System, 1839-53 — a system used only in Van Diemen’s Land and at Norfolk Island — was a uniquely Australian approach to convict management, providing punishment to ensure that transportation remained a deterrent, but also opportunities for reform and betterment.  The system is important in the context of both Australian and World penal history.  Port Arthur is unusual as it operated as a regional centre for a number of probation stations throughout the Tasman Peninsula.

Port Arthur was effectively an industrial establishment.  The extent of former industrial operations illustrates the importance of ‘work’ in the penal system and the role of the convict used as human capital in building colonial economies.  Port Arthur has seen the advent and growth of a number of key industries in Tasmania including timber, shipbuilding, foundries and the manufacture of building materials including bricks and pottery.

The Point Puer establishment (1833-1849) and the Port Arthur Separate Prison (erected 1848-1852) demonstrate the slow global evolution and spread of 19th century ideas about punishment and social reform.

The Separate Prison represents the British (and hence Australian) shift away from the use of physical punishment in an isolated setting to deter crime to an emphasis on psychological manipulation to reform criminal attitudes including isolation from contamination.

After the cessation of transportation in 1853, Port Arthur also became a welfare institution for lunatics (convicts found insane during servitude), ex-convicts, convict invalids and paupers, demonstrating the human legacy of the British convict system.  The Port Arthur Asylum (1868) is an important exemplar of then contemporary British thinking about better ways to manage and cure mental illness.

Port Arthur Historic Site is an outstanding, very rich and complex cultural landscape, the primary layers of which relate to the convict era (1830-77) and subsequent eras as a country town and tourist site, including a State National Park and a major historic site under conservation management.  It combines the contradictory landscape qualities of great beauty and association with a place of human confinement and punishment.  Since 1830 there have been many phases of significant development, decline and change with several major bushfires, demolitions, constructions, major landscape alteration and maturity of plantings, and more recently, restoration, stabilisation and conservation.

A gunman took the lives of thirty-five people and wounded nineteen others on 28 April 1996 - an additional layer of tragic significance was added to the place.  A memorial marking the event was created around the site of the former Broad Arrow Cafe and includes the Huon Pine cross erected soon after the event.  Port Arthur Historic Site is significant as the site of contemporary large-scale loss of human life outside the context of war, and as an event that led to changes in Australia's national gun laws.  	
Glenrowan Heritage Precinct, Vic	The Glenrowan Heritage Precinct was the site of the Glenrowan siege in 1880.  The events at Glenrowan clearly established Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang as symbols in Australian culture.  Only Ned Kelly survived the fight, with other members of the Kelly Gang killed at the site by the police.  Ned Kelly was executed, after trial, at Melbourne Gaol following his capture at Glenrowan.  

The Glenrowan siege established Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang as cultural symbols, fostered the notion of bushranging as an attempt to come to terms with established authority and added new stories to Australian folklore.

The association of the event with the place is well documented, as is its impact on the nation.  Ned Kelly, in his armour, has become an iconic Australian image, featuring in paintings by Sidney Nolan and at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.  The precinct’s attributes include the following: the original railway platform and the alignment of the railway siding, the site of Platelayer’s tents; the site of Anne Jones’ Glenrowan Inn and its outbuildings; the remnant of the creek used for shelter by the police and various police positions; the site of Ned Kelly’s fall and capture – the ‘Kelly Log’ site; the site of the ‘Kelly Copse’; the site of McDonnell’s Railway tavern where the bodies of Steve Hart and Dan Kelly were taken, and also where the gang left their horses and the blasting powder intended to be used at Benalla; as well as a suite of archaeological sites, locations and buildings, which relate to the events of 1880.	
Old Parliament House, ACT	Old Parliament House as the Provisional Parliament House was the first purpose-built home for the Australian Parliament.  It was central to the development of Australia as a nation from its opening in 1927 until the opening of the new Parliament House in 1988 and demonstrates Australia's political process.

Old Parliament House is a site that has provided a physical focus for events that reflect Australian democratic values, and political and social rights.  It also stands for the right to argue and dissent, and reflects the orderly succession of governments through the democratic process, as reflected by the seven changes of government that took place during the years in which Parliament sat in the building.

The building set the pattern of combining the functions of the executive arm of government and the legislative function in the one building.  This commenced with the provision of ministerial offices at the design stage followed by Prime Minister James Scullin moving Cabinet meetings into the building in 1930-31.  These actions initiated the major expansion of the building to house both the legislative and executive functions of government, a pattern that continued in the design of Parliament House.

The North Wing has historic importance as the main venue for parliamentary functions from 1927-88.  The Senate Chamber, House of Representatives Chamber, and King's Hall are highly significant as venues for the debates, petitions and votes associated with 61 years of Australian legislature.

Old Parliament House is an important place in the story of the creation of the Australian democracy and has associations with several related defining events.  Landmark political events associated with the building included legislation in 1942 adopting the Statute of Westminster 1931 and the declarations of War in 1939 and 1941.  The building was also the place of 61 years of national legislation shaping Australian society, the extension of the voting age to 18 year olds in 1973, and the establishment of new political parties such as the Democratic Labor Party in the 1950s, the Australian Democrats in 1977 and the Liberal Party of Australia in 1944-45.  

Old Parliament House saw the growth of Commonwealth responsibility for Aboriginal affairs.  Key events included the Bark Petition sent by the Yirrkala community to the House of Representatives in August 1963 protesting bauxite mining in Arnhem Land, and the Referendum in 1967 that overwhelmingly supported Commonwealth power to legislate for Aboriginal people.  Amongst other developments, the Referendum result led to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, proclaimed on Australia Day 1977.  With the new responsibilities arising from the 1967 Referendum, the Commonwealth Parliament became the focus of Aboriginal political protest.  The siting of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy outside Parliament House in 1972 was a part of this protest.

The front façade of Old Parliament House and the immediate grassed area to its north have been the scene of numerous events, gatherings, protests and demonstrations.  Significant events included the formal opening of the Provisional Parliament House in 1927 and the address by the former Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, on the front steps of the building after his dismissal by the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, in November 1975.

Old Parliament House, in particular King’s Hall and the Chambers, has been the venue of important ceremonial events including: the public mourning for the deaths of Prime Minister John Curtin in 1945 and former Prime Minister Ben Chifley in 1951; State receptions held in honour of Queen Elizabeth II in 1954 and 1963; and events associated with Royal visits in 1927, 1935, 1945, 1954, 1963, 1974 and 1977.

Old Parliament House has a richness of internal fabric and collections that convey the way in which parliamentary functions were conducted and the everyday use of the building.   In particular these features include the purpose-designed furniture and furnishings that maintained their original setting and purpose for over sixty years. 

King's Hall and the Chambers have features that reflect both the austerity of the time and a dignified formality.  These features include the decorative skylights, elegant pendant lights, and parquet flooring, as well as the high ceilings accentuated by the raked galleries, the timber wall panelling, and the extensive, restrained and subtle decoration.  The Hall features bas-relief busts of prominent personalities (related to Federation, the judiciary and of the first Parliament in 1901) on its colonnades, and portraits of former Prime Ministers as well as a statue of King George V.  The Chambers demonstrate (through their fabric, furnishing and objects) the growth of Parliament over 61 years, including the evolution of communications technology applied to the reporting of parliamentary debates and events to all Australians.

Significant furniture of Old Parliament House includes the John Smith Murdoch designed furniture and fittings; the HMAS Australia table; the Country Party Table (Murdoch's original cabinet table from West Block) and the Cabinet table (used by the Whitlam, Fraser and Hawke Cabinets). Furniture items which underlie the significance of Australia's role initially as a member of the British Empire and later as a member of the Commonwealth of Nations include the President of the Senate's Chair (presented by the Dominion of Canada) and the Speaker's Chair (presented by the United Kingdom Branch of the Empire Parliamentary Association). Furniture and fittings designed or purchased for the extension or alterations to the building including those items associated with the Senate and House of Representative Wings and the President of the Senate and Prime Minister's suites are of particular value. 

Old Parliament House has a rare record (documented in the Old Parliament House) which is made up of both furniture and a variety of documents related to the furniture.  The documents include initial design concepts, specifications, quotes and detailed drawings for manufacture.

The Old Parliament House Library is of heritage significance, in particular, the remaining features of the original library and the later additions or changes to the library up to and including the 1958 extension are of value.	
Bonegilla Migrant Camp, Vic	Block 19 Bonegilla formed part of the Bonegilla Reception and Training Centre which operated between 1947 and 1971. 

The settlement in Australia of post-war immigrants has had a major impact on the nation's economy, society and culture and is regarded as an important factor in shaping the nation. Post-war immigration transformed the composition and size of the Australian population and is responsible for the second largest demographic change in the nation's history (the largest being the gold rush migration of 1851-1860). 

Bonegilla was the largest and longest operating migrant reception and training centre of the post-war era. Altogether over 300 000 people, principally from Europe, spent time at Bonegilla between 1947 and 1971.

Bonegilla is highly significant as a place which demonstrates a defining change in Australia's immigration policy. Previously, immigration was subject to the White Australia Policy but after the Second World War with the perceived need to rapidly increase Australia's population for economic and defence reasons, government policy enabled large numbers of non-English speaking Europeans displaced by war to emigrate. The majority of 'Displaced Persons' were sent to Bonegilla where they were given courses in English and the Australian way of life.	
Melbourne Cricket Ground, Vic	The first inter-colonial cricket match was arranged by the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) on the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in 1856, and in 1858 the club drew up the codified rules of Australian Rules football. In 1877 the MCG was the venue for the first test match between Australia and England. Cricket has broad appeal to Australians and, of all the football codes played in Australia, Australian Rules football more broadly encompasses the whole of Australia than any other code of football. The MCG is associated closely, both historically and in the public mind, with the development and history of both of these sports in Australia. 

The staging of the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, the first in the Southern Hemisphere, centred on the MCG, was a highly successful event which was significant in raising Australia’s international profile and drawing Australians together.

There is an identifiable continuity of use of the MCG for domestic cricket from 1856, international cricket from 1877, and Australian Rules football since the 1880s, first for Victorian football competitions and later for the national competition. Spectator and playing facilities at the ground have evolved to support on-going use and contemporary standards. There is little remaining fabric dating back before 1992. Approximately 30% of the wrought iron fence dating from 1884, which surrounds the arena, remains and is the only physical link with this era.

Sport has played an important role in the social fabric of Australia. The MCG is a place that Australians associate with some of the greatest moments in Australian sporting history. The significance of the MCG extends far beyond that of a mere sports stadium. It is an integral part of the fabric of Melbourne and the nation.	
Eureka Stockade Gardens, Ballarat, Vic	The Eureka Stockade Gardens are significant for their association with the Eureka Stockade rebellion of 3 December 1854.  The goldminers’ revolt against the goldfields administration, and particularly the loss of life (33 miners, 5 soldiers) resulting from the insurrection, is a major event in Australia’s political and social history.  The rebellion was fuelled by discontent with the mining licence, which the diggers claimed was taxation without representation and a tax upon labour.  More generally, the uprising was underpinned by a desire for fair treatment for all, and an egalitarian spirit which pervaded the goldfields.  The rebellion led to a fairer goldfields system with the licence replaced by the cheaper Miners Right, which also gave miners the vote.  Various other political changes were achieved, helping the process of democratizing colonial government in Victoria and more generally the Australian colonies.  The Eureka Stockade uprising is part of the national experience.

Regarding the attributes of the place, there is little or no surviving above ground evidence dating from the time of the rebellion, and thus the value is in the place mainly for its associational significance. However, the place also has potential to yield archaeological evidence.  Of the above-ground elements that are present, the most important is the 1884 Monument and the surrounding square of trees, owing to it being the earliest attempt to mark the location of the Stockade.	
South Australian Old and New  Parliament Houses, Adelaide, SA	The South Australian Old and New Parliament House is strongly associated with the enfranchisement of men and women in the nineteenth century.  Full adult manhood suffrage, notably including Aboriginal men, was first granted in an Australian colony here in South Australia in 1856, and this may have been the first time this voting right was granted anywhere in the world.  The secret ballot was also first introduced in South Australia the same year.  Women, again notably including Aboriginal women, were given the vote in 1894 in South Australia, and at the same time were allowed to stand for parliament.  South Australia was the first Australian colony, and one of the first jurisdictions worldwide, to give women the vote.  It was the first jurisdiction in the world to allow women to stand for parliament.  The rights granted in South Australia were subsequently introduced in the other Australian colonies/states (however, it was many years before Aboriginal enfranchisement issues were resolved).  South Australia strongly influenced the granting of voting and standing rights to women in federal elections in 1902.

Attributes:
Both Old and New Parliament Houses are associated with the enfranchisement of men and women in the nineteenth century.  The attributes are: the surviving original fabric of the 1843 section of Old Parliament House and the 1855 building works for both adult male and female suffrage; the1857 building works, the extensions of 1861, 1864, 1875 and 1876 and the 1889 section or west wing of the New Parliament House for adult female suffrage.  The Women’s Suffrage Petition of 1894 and a tapestry commemorating women’s suffrage listed in the AHDB place record are also attributes for adult female suffrage.	
Flemington Racecourse, Vic	Flemington Racecourse has importance in the cultural history of Australia as the place of the continuous running of the Melbourne Cup from its inception in 1861 to the present day.  During the last one hundred and sixty years since the flats beside the Saltwater River were first used for racing, Flemington has been transformed into a richly grassed acreage supporting one of the finest racing surfaces in the world.  The circumference of the main Flemington track at 2,312 metres together with the 1,200 metre ‘Straight Six’ make it one of the great racecourses of Australia.	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (a) for their historic heritage significance.

(a) Course, or pattern, of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Luna Park, Milsons Point, NSW	Luna Park, Milsons Point is an early twentieth century amusement park in Australia, personifying generations of Australians at play. While Luna Park, St Kilda is older, Luna Park, Milsons Point is probably better known Australia wide, due to its high profile harbour location.

There is insufficient information available to place Luna Park, Milsons Point (and amusement parks in general) in the context of other places of recreation and mass public entertainment.

While the site that Luna Park, Milsons Point, was built on tells other stories, including Depression employment, the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and World War II defences, these are not regarded as being of outstanding national heritage value.
	
Millthorpe and immediate environs, NSW	The nominator claimed that the village of Millthorpe and its immediate environs has NHL values against this criterion, but had made no specific claim in relation to what course or pattern the place demonstrated.  From an analysis of the village of Millthorpe and immediate environs, it was concluded that the nominator was referring to the historic character of the town, not the existence of an outstanding national event or historical association.

The history associated with towns has the potential to tell important stories about the course and pattern of European settlement in Australia and the growth of agricultural service centres like Millthorpe can also tell a story about the area's rural economy and changes in patterns of agriculture.  

The history associated with Millthorpe is able to demonstrate the common processes of town establishment in New South Wales. The evidence shows that the town was developed gradually in response to various factors such as the presence of a major cross road and the government stock station. The richness of the area also attracted farmers to the area. The discovery of gold and the gradual increase in farming activity also fostered its early growth and consolidation as a town. Later the town's growth was further increased by the arrival of rail and the consequent location of the flour mill.  

The establishment of the flour mill in general terms shows the growing importance of wheat as a major agricultural product. In the nineteenth century wool production was the dominant rural industry. By the late nineteenth century new rural industries of wheat, meat, dairy products and fruit were beginning to replace the dominance of wool. Increased farm mechanisation and improvements in transport (such as the expansion of country rail networks) facilitated the expansion of these industries. Manufacturing also began to become much more important.

Evidence also shows that the town was not planned or laid out to a formal pattern. Nor did it have a special government function. The history associated with Millthorpe is similar to many small country towns throughout Australia and no evidence was cited to establish any outstanding historical events.

In comparison to Bathurst, Millthorpe’s town history is not outstanding in its ability to tell a comprehensive or outstanding national story about the course or pattern of European settlement in Australia. In its history reflecting rural economic change, Millthorpe is similar to many other small rural towns such as Carcoar (NSW), Braidwood (NSW), Bowral (NSW), Blayney (NSW), Gundaroo (NSW), Evandale (Tas), and Bothwell (Tas).

Millthorpe’s historical associations, while of local and regional significance are not oustanding at the national level. 	
Dundullimall, Dubbo, NSW	 ‘Dundullimal’ homestead demonstrates some aspects of the course and pattern of land settlement during the nineteenth century.  ‘Dundullimal’ was the head station of a large run established in the squatting era and during the extension of squatting beyond the limits of the 19 settled counties proclaimed by Governor Darling in 1826.  However, ‘Dundullimal’ is only one of a number of homesteads which were located outside Darling’s ‘limits of location’ and may not be the earliest in Australia. While its significance as a site marking the expansion of settlement in New South Wales is clear, its wider importance on a national level is not substantiated, and there is no evidence that the place was of defining or pivotal importance in relation to the history of European settlement during the nineteenth century or in the process of squatting. While ‘Dundullimal’ had an unusual sophistication in its interior design features and architectural detailing, and that these design features may represent a new phase in squatting history, when wives and families were brought out to western New South Wales, the significance of these features could not be clearly substantiated.  In addition, there was no evidence to establish that ‘Dundullimal’ was of outstanding importance in the course or pattern of the development of Australia’s vernacular building traditions.  There was no evidence to establish that ‘Dundullimal’ homestead was of defining importance in the history of squatting or in the development of vernacular building traditions in Australia, and is not outstanding in national terms.	
Yooroonah Tank Barrier, NSW	Yooroonah Tank Barrier is an example of a type of defence installation, established in the early part of World War 2, for the inland and coastal defence of Australia in the event of invasion.  It can be clearly identified as being associated with the defence of Australia at that time, and appears to be relatively intact.  However, there is insufficient information available to place it in context with other such works undertaken for national defence. It was concluded that Yooroonah Tank Barrier is not outstanding in national terms.	
Church Hill, Port Macquarie, NSW	Australia’s oldest convict-built buildings. The nominator claimed that the place is the oldest site with a cluster of buildings built by convicts in Australia.

There are other older convict-built ‘clusters’ including at Anglesea Barracks in Hobart and the cluster of St James’ Anglican Church, Hyde Park Barracks, Rum Hospital/Mint Building in Sydney.  These other places are more significant in the course of Australia’s history. 

Potential heritage values associated with convict secondary punishment settlements, economic benefits and convict settlement population size. Secondary punishment (that is, punishment of those convicts who had been transported and then re-offended) is an important element of the overall convict story. The three Port Macquarie structures dating from 1822-1827 relate, in their ‘oldest’ or earliest period, to the first phase of the convict establishment there, when Port Macquarie was a place of secondary punishment, 1821-1831.

Important attributes of secondary punishment places are intactness and ability to reflect the lives of convicts.  There are surviving core buildings at other penal establishments that better represent secondary punishment stations than at Port Macquarie – one such place being Kingston and Arthurs Vale Historic Area on Norfolk Island.  Church Hill does not contain surviving buildings of incarceration or places of heavy labour. Buildings in the Church Hill site have been altered since first constructed with considerable loss of integrity in respect of the former Surgeon’s Quarters and the former Dispensary.

Potential heritage values associated with the role of Church Hill representing Port Macquarie as a place of secondary punishment, economic benefits and the size of the convict population are not sufficient reasons for Church Hill to meet the threshold for outstanding heritage value to the nation.

The age of St Thomas’ Church and the continuity of Anglican Church use of Church Hill. In terms of the age of St Thomas’ Church and the continuity of the congregation’s use, there are four other older churches still in use (St Luke’s Liverpool 1819, St Matthew’s Windsor 1820, St James’ King Street, Sydney 1822, and St Peter’s Campbelltown 1823), and that without a nationwide thematic study of the history of religious observance, including the identification of significant places of worship covering all denominations/religions it is not possible to assess these claims for St Thomas’, as an element of Church Hill. On the available evidence it was concluded that the place did not meet the threshold for outstanding heritage value to the nation for criterion (a) against this claim.

Importance of religion and the Anglican Church in the penal settlement and other historical factors. Religion was an important part of colonial life and it was the intention of the founder of Port Macquarie, Governor Macquarie, and others who came after, that there would be a key role for religion and the Anglican Church in this penal settlement. This is represented by the establishment and continuation of St Thomas’ Church. The establishment of an Anglican Church in a settlement of this era was common and that this role of St Thomas’ Church was not sufficient to cause the place to meet the threshold for outstanding heritage value to the nation.

The nominator implies that the following are claims for national heritage significance – the choice of the place by Governor Macquarie, the naming of the place after John Oxley, the original intention to make the church a multi-purpose building, its original ownership by the military, the age of the respective structures and of the three old Norfolk Island pines, and the statement concerning how the tower was erected. This information is of historical interest but does not cause the place to meet the threshold for outstanding heritage value to the nation.

In conclusion, whilst these structures may have heritage value at the state and local level, Church Hill does not meet the threshold for outstanding heritage value to the nation.	
Haberfield Conservation Area, NSW	While the estates developed within the Haberfield Conservation Area demonstrate an important early evolutionary phase in the development of the garden suburb, Castlecrag and some garden suburbs in Canberra can demonstrate more clearly the defining aspects of the history of the development of the garden suburb in Australia.	
Bradman’s Birthplace, Cootamundra, NSW	While the event of the birth of Sir Donald Bradman is of significance for Cootamundra, it cannot be classified as being of outstanding significance to the nation.  It was Bradman’s cricketing career which is of high significance to the nation.	

Criteria (b)

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (b) for their natural heritage significance.

(b) Uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Flora Fossil Site, Vic	Localities with Silurian graptolites and an extensive Baragwanathia flora fossil assemblage in close association are restricted to two sites in Australia. The Barclays Cutting site has the best-preserved specimens and has yielded the widest array of fossil species. This site also provides the most conclusive evidence for the Silurian (Ludlow) date (Garratt 1978; Garratt & Rickards 1984, 1987).	
Dinosaur Stampede National Monument, Qld	The dinosaur trackways within the Lark Quarry Conservation Park are nationally significant because of their abundance and their location within an interpreted landscape and behavioural context. They are currently the best known and most informative fossilized trackways within Australia (Molnar 1991 p659) and their excellent condition places them among the best-preserved dinosaur trackway sites in the world (Long 1998 p126). 

The integrity and fine preservation of the trackways can be attributed to the characteristics of the clay-sand matrix in which they were originally formed. Fine detail such as scratch marks in the digit imprints on some Skartopus australis tracks (Thulborn and Wade 1984 p427) as well as the presence of scrape marks across many of the Wintonopus latomorum tracks (Thulborn and Wade 1984 p421) attest to the high level of preservation of the trackways.  

Lark Quarry and Seymour Quarry are the only known fossil sites that preserve trackways made by numerous dinosaurs running in a single direction. This unusual behaviour is consistent with, and has been interpreted as, a dinosaur stampede event (Thulborn 1990 p324). No other known trackway site in the world indicates dinosaur stampede behaviour such as this (Wade and Molnar 2000 p3). 

The trackways contain the most concentrated known set of dinosaur footprints in the world (Cook 2004). Lark Quarry and Seymour Quarry contain between 170 and 200 individual dinosaur trackways made up of nearly 4000 individual footprints (Wade and Molnar 2000 p2). The trackways are almost entirely pointed in a single, northeasterly direction (Thulborn and Wade 1984 p414) although there are 11 large theropod footprints comprising a single trackway that point in a southwesterly direction (Wade and Molnar 2000 p1).

At Lark Quarry, the trackways are in an area of approximately 200m2 of exposed, almost horizontal bedding plain (Thulborn and Wade 1984 p414) that is roughly triangular in shape (Wade and Molnar 2000 p1). The trackways at both Seymour and New Quarries (which are an extension of those found at Lark Quarry) (Thulborn and Wade 1984 p414 and Cook 2004)) are currently buried.	
Ediacara Fossil Site – Nilpena, Parachilna, SA	Ediacara fossil sites with a diversity of species and excellent preservation are internationally rare.  The Ediacara Fossil Site - Nilpena is unique as the richest and only undisturbed Ediacara fossil site in Australia.  The fossils preserved at the site are uncommon with exquisite preservation of a diverse array of specimens preserved in-situ (Gehling pers comm. 2005; Gehling et al., 2005; Gehling & Narboone, 2002; Knoll et al., 2004; Gehling et al., 2006).	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (b) for their natural heritage significance.

(b) Uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Wara-n’hayara Plateau Area, NSW	The nominator claimed that the place is important for its unique flora such as the white waratah, and for fauna such as the platypus and rock wallaby. While the white waratah is a form of the New South Wales (NSW) waratah (Telopea speciosissima), white to cream colour variants of plant species, including other waratahs, are not uncommon and that this is not nationally significant. The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is locally common along the eastern seaboard, and so its occurrence in the place is not of outstanding value. The brush-tailed rock wallaby (Petrogale pencillata) is locally common in north-eastern NSW and south-eastern Queensland, although its distribution in southern and western NSW has declined. The potential occurrence of this nationally vulnerable species on the Wara-n’hayara Plateau is not outstanding at a national scale. It was concluded that the occurrence of rare or uncommon biota in the Wara-n’hayara Plateau Area is of local or regional significance.	
Doctors Creek Tidal Area, WA	The particular claims in the nomination were that the place was of outstanding importance because of the presence of a number of rare species. 

It was concluded that the evidence available did not establish that the place contained a high concentration of nationally recognised rare and threatened species or vegetation communities. 	
Lady Julia Percy Island – Tyrendarra Area, Vic	Islands that have developed from a combination of submarine and terrestrial eruption are uncommon in Australia. Lady Julia Percy Island is reported to be the only offshore volcano in Victorian waters.  However, there are a number of volcanic islands in Australian waters that share many geological features with Lady Julia Percy Island.  Other outstanding examples of volcanic islands are Heard, McDonald and Macquarie Islands.  It was concluded that Lady Julia Percy Island is of State significance for its rarity as a volcanic island.	
Grey Nurse Shark Critical Habitat and Buffer Zones/Marine Hotspots, NSW and Commonwealth waters (Emergency Listing request)	It was claimed that the places comprise the critical habitat of the east coast population of the Grey Nurse Shark (Carcharias taurus). The Commonwealth’s recovery plan for the Grey Nurse Shark lists 19 aggregation sites along the east coast of Australia, which are considered critical habitat for the survival of the species. The 13 places nominated are all included in the 19 sites identified in the recovery plan. 

The World Conservation Union (IUCN) and the EPBC Act separate Grey Nurse Shark in the Australian waters into eastern and western populations. The Department advised that the eastern population of the Grey Nurse Shark is listed as critically endangered under the EPBC Act and by IUCN. The western population is listed as vulnerable under the EPBC Act and by IUCN. 

The places could be considered foci for rarity for the Grey Nurse Shark in respect to the observed aggregations. The Grey Nurse Shark is a migratory species that moves between particular sites along the east and west coasts of Australia. When not migrating, Grey Nurse Sharks aggregate in or near deep sandy-bottomed gutters or in rocky caves around inshore rocky reefs and islands. The habitat is of particular importance to Grey Nurse Sharks. 

Notwithstanding the limited amount of information that is available for each place, the places may possess uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia’s natural history. The heritage value of a place includes the place’s natural environment having aesthetic, historic, scientific or social significance. These places were not of outstanding heritage value when compared with places which contain a large number of rare, endangered or uncommon aspects of the natural environment. Other places provided greater concentrations of rare and endemic species, such as the centres of endemism in Port Phillip Bay, the south-west coast of Western Australia, and the Great Australian Bight, and could be considered better examples of places associated with the evolution of Australia's temperate marine fauna. It remains to be tested whether any of these places will meet the criterion. 

Sixty-seven other taxa or other entities are listed under the EPBC Act as critically endangered and over 1600 taxa are listed as critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable. Given the high threshold for National Heritage List places, the fact that a place was habitat for an endangered or critically endangered species was not by itself a sufficient reason for concluding that a place met the threshold requirement in criterion (b), although it was a matter that was relevant to determining whether the place met the threshold.

Although the nominated places were likely to be very important for the conservation of the eastern population for the Grey Nurse Shark, and the conservation of this population was itself a matter of national environmental significance, this critically endangered status did not establish that any of the individual places nominated met the threshold for outstanding heritage value to the nation for criterion (b) of the National Heritage Criteria.

It was claimed that the places provide important habitat for other potentially threatened marine species. Much of the southern temperate Australian coastline consists of rocky reef habitats similar to the nominated places and would provide important habitat for those species mentioned, being the Black Rock cod (Epinephelus daemelii), the Elegant Wrasse (Anampses elegans), Eastern and Western Blue Gropers (Achoerodus viridis and A. gouldii), Eastern Blue Devilfish (Paraplesiops bleekeri) and the Weedy and Leafy Seadragons (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus & Phycodurus eques).	
ADI Site Western Precinct, Llandilo, NSW (Emergency Listing request)	It was claimed that the place comprises a remnant of Cumberland Plain Woodland (CPW), a vegetation community endemic to western Sydney and one of the largest continuous remaining remnants. 

The Department advised that there are only approximately 11,054.5 hectares or 8.8% of moderate to high quality CPW remaining (NPWS 2002) and CPW is an endangered ecological community listed in the EPBC Act. CPW is currently poorly represented in formal reserves. Perkins (1999) identified small fragments of CPW in the place. The largest remaining remnants of CPW are at “Western Sydney Shale Woodlands St Mary’s” (outside the nominated area) and at East Orchard Hills defence facility, both of which are very much larger than the Western Precinct. These two places are also comprised of mature, high quality remnants of CPW rather than regeneration. The nominated place is adjacent to the RNE listed place (“Western Sydney Shale Woodlands St Mary’s”).

Both the largest areas of CPW are listed in the RNE. The registration criterion for the RNE required in the Australian Heritage Council Act 2003 is that the place has a 'significant heritage value', a much lower threshold than for the National Heritage List. 

The Department advised that the nominated place was previously considered for inclusion in the RNE and rejected by the then Australian Heritage Commission (AHC). The adequacy of previous decision-making on the inclusion or exclusion of the Western Precinct from “Western Sydney Shale Woodlands St Mary’s” was therefore considered. It was found that the AHC investigated the western half of St Mary’s ADI, which includes the place, to establish an appropriate boundary for the RNE place entitled “Western Sydney Shale Woodlands St Mary’s”. Claims that the decision of the AHC was based on the Perkins report and that this report comprised an inadequate survey effort with only one vegetation survey plot were noted, however, it was found that this claim was incorrect. The Perkins study covered the entire Western Precinct using a 500 metre grid system, with each grid-cell traversed at least four times. These traverses were used as a basis for identifying areas as comprised primarily of either native or exotic vegetation. Two subsequent plots in the Western Precinct were then used for comparative purposes with plots in other parts of the place. 

The Perkins study identified the place as being heavily infested by exotic weeds (notably carpet grass), having high levels of past site disturbance and regular slashing activities. The study recommended to exclude most of the place from the proposed RNE boundary on the basis that the woodland present was largely cleared, heavily infested with exotic species and had a poorer representation of native species comprising CPW than areas to the east. The Department advised that the report identified that some areas containing low quality CPW may exist within this area, but they were small and degraded and the RNE boundary was established to reflect the distribution of medium to high quality CPW. This decision was based on heritage significance. The woodland remnants in the Western Precinct are of poor quality compared with better examples listed on the RNE at St Mary’s and at East Orchard Hills. 

It was claimed that CPW had some significance as the first ecological community listed under the Endangered Species Protection Act 1992. The timing of the original listing of CPW did not contribute significantly to the claimed heritage values.

Listing by the National Trust has been put forward to support the claim against criterion (b).The National Trust listing pertained to the whole of the ADI St Mary’s Site, including both the Western Precinct and the area on the RNE. Upon further investigations, the values described related primarily to the medium and high quality stands of CPW within the area included on the RNE, rather than the degraded and mostly cleared woodland within the Western Precinct. The National Trust listing identified regionally rare species.

A letter from a botanist and parts of the legal proceedings of Plumb v Penrith City Council and Anon in the NSW Land and Environment Court have been provided to support the claim against criterion (b). In a response to comments from UDIA, additional evidence was provided about the CPW floristic elements occurring in widespread regeneration in the Western Precinct. I noted that the discussions in Plumb v Penrith City Council and further deliberations were based largely on investigations of regeneration following cessation of slashing in cleared areas and a claimed increase in the number of species associated with CPW as a result. 

Previous advice of the Endangered Species Protection Act 1992, Endangered Species Scientific Subcommittee was that the Cumberland Plain Woodlands ecological community is characteristically of woodland structure but may include both more open and more dense areas. The canopy is dominated by species including one or more of the following: Eucalyptus moluccana, Eucalyptus tereticornis, Eucalyptus crebra, Eucalyptus eugenioides and Eucalyptus maculata. The understorey is generally grassy to herbaceous with patches of shrubs, or if disturbed, contains components of the indigenous native species sufficient to re-establish the characteristic native understorey. The Cumberland Plains Woodlands ecological community includes regrowth that is likely to achieve a near natural structure or is a seral stage towards that structure. 

It was concluded from this that, were the Western Precinct to be considered CPW, it would be as a regrowth component, currently lacking the characteristic woodland structure, but with potential to develop that structure if future conditions were appropriate.

There is no fixed prescription for the minimum number of characteristic species that need to be present to enable a remnant stand of vegetation to be defined as CPW. Perkins (1999) originally found regeneration of some species associated with CPW in the Western Precinct, but in addition to species numbers he also included CPW woodland structure as an important element in determining which areas he recommended to the AHC as possessing suitable heritage values for listing on the RNE. The subsequent decision by the AHC reflected agreement that quality of the CPW in its characteristic features, both floristics and structure, was an important issue in reaching the statutory heritage threshold of “significance or other special value for future generations as well as the present community”. 

Were the presence of CPW the key issue in determining whether the Western Precinct met NH criterion (b), then the Western Precinct is not among the better examples of extant CPW, nor is it yet clear whether it will develop the full characteristics of CPW, since it is at an early stage of regrowth. The changes in the Western Precinct seem to be only incremental since the AHC decision not to include it on the RNE and the threshold for meeting National Heritage Criteria is much higher.

The more general suggestion that an endangered ecological community such as CPW is of outstanding heritage value to the nation such that all places containing CPW meet NH criterion (b) was also noted. It was not considered further for the nominated place since the Western Precinct at present expresses only a very limited aspect of CPW characteristics based on early regrowth. It cannot be judged at this stage whether it is likely to achieve near natural CPW characteristics or the degree to which it might contribute to the conservation of CPW in the future.

The claim against criterion (b) that the place contains a population of the endangered plant Pimelea spicata was also noted. Pimelea spicata is one of 509 plant taxa listed as endangered under the EPBC Act. It is known from at least 42 locations from Western Sydney and Wollongong. No evidence was found that the occurrence of a population of this plant at the place is of more than regional significance.	
Murraba National Heritage Landscape, NSW/Qld (Emergency Listing request)	The nominator claimed that the place possessed uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia's natural or cultural history. The nominator made several claims of significance under this criterion, all of which related to the significance of the area for its concentration of threatened species and ecological communities. The nominator claimed that the concentration of listed threatened species and ecological communities found within the nominated area is unique. When determining outstanding significance at a national scale, it is most appropriate to measure the nominated area for its importance for the conservation of nationally threatened species and ecological communities protected under the EPBC Act rather than those protected under state legislation. 

The uniqueness of the concentration of the EPBC-listed species found within the area was considered.  The Department advised that four fauna species and six flora species listed as endangered or vulnerable under the EPBC Act have been recorded in or close to the nominated area (ANHAT 2005, DEH 2004 and DoTaRS et al 2004).  The Department advised that in order to assess the value of ten EPBC-listed species in an area of approximately 450 hectares with other places nationally, the number of species would need to be assessed in a systematic, spatial manner (ANHAT 2005).  Over two hundred places in Australia with twenty or more EPBC-listed species were found and therefore the nominated area could not be considered outstanding in this respect.  There are 113 animals and 509 plants listed under the EPBC Act as endangered species, and 190 animals and 671 plants are listed under the EPBC Act as vulnerable.  Although the nominated place was likely to contribute to the conservation of the species present, and that the conservation of these species was itself a matter of national environmental significance, their threatened status was not in itself a sufficient reason for concluding that the place had National Heritage value under criterion (b).

The uniqueness of the concentration of threatened ecological communities listed in the EPBC Act found within the area was also considered.  The endangered ecological communities present in the area are considered endangered at state and not national level.  A number of similar concentrations of ecological communities endangered at state scale occur elsewhere in New South Wales, notably the Sydney Basin.  Although the nominated place was likely to contribute to the conservation of the communities present, none of the communities are currently regarded as nationally threatened and none are currently listed as threatened ecological communities in the EPBC Act (DEH 2004).	
Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, National Park, Lion, Long and Spectacle Island Nature Reserves, NSW	An analysis revealed that the Sydney area (Sydney 1:100,000 map sheet) contains 27 EPBC Act listed threatened species (DEH 2006a), many of which have also been recorded from other conservation reserves in the Sydney Basin.   Of the 27 EPBC listed species located within the Sydney area, about 23 (6 species of animals, 17 species of plants) have been recorded within the place (DEH 2006a, Benson and Howell 1994, NSW NPWS Atlas 2006a, NSW NPWS 2002).   No EPBC listed ecological communities occur in the place.   Further analysis revealed that there are over two hundred other places in Australia with twenty or more EPBC species and that the place could not be considered outstanding in this respect (DEH 2006b).  While the place is important for the conservation of the species present it is not considered outstanding at a national scale.	

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (b) for their Indigenous heritage significance.

(b) Uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Dampier Archipelago (incl Burrup Peninsula), WA	The Pilbara has been described as ‘… without doubt the richest and most exciting region of rock engravings in Australia’ McCarthy (1968: vi). It is the diversity of representations of the human form (anthropomorphs), many of which are in dynamic attitudes, and the way in which they are sometimes arranged in complex scenes that makes the Aboriginal engravings in the Pilbara exceptional. Although there are a number of distinct regional engraving styles in the Pilbara (Wright 1968), the greatest diversity in depictions of the human form, which also include representatives of human figures characteristic of the other Pilbara style provinces, occurs in the Dampier Archipelago (McDonald and Veth 2005: section 4.6). There are a number of complex panels showing groups of people engaged in both mundane and sacred activities, including hunting scenes, ceremonial activity and images of human figures climbing or hanging from lines. At a national level, the Dampier Archipelago is outstanding for its diversity of engraved human forms and the antiquity of depictions of complex scenes showing human activity, which are rare at the national level.

There is a very high density of rock engraving sites on the Dampier Archipelago. Although the majority of these sites contain relatively few engravings (Vinnicombe 1987a; Veth et al 1993;) there are some sites with hundreds (Virili 1977; Vinnicombe 1987a: Fig 6; Veth et al 1993: Fig 7.1), thousands (Dix 1977; Virili 1977; Vinnicombe 1987a) or tens of thousands of engravings (Lorblanchet 1992; Veth et al 1993). An analysis of site locations demonstrates that large concentrations of engravings in the Dampier Archipelago are found on inland plateaus, steep valley inclines bordering watercourses and on rock platforms next to the ocean (Vinnicombe 2002; McDonald and Veth 2005). The Dampier Archipelago contains concentrations of rock engravings, which when compared with other similar sites in Australia are rare (McNickel 1985; Wright 1968; Stanbury and Clegg 1990).

There is a high density of standing stones, stone pits and circular stone arrangements on the Burrup Peninsula (Veth et al 1993). The stone pits on the Burrup Peninsula have been interpreted as hunting hides and the standing stones may be either ceremonial sites (thalu sites), or markers for resources such as potable water. There is also a high diversity in the standing stones and stone arrangements across the Dampier Archipelago, including some with unusual components (Vinnicombe 1987a). The density of standing stones, stone pits and circular stone arrangements on the Burrup Peninsula, and the diversity of these stone features across the Dampier Archipelago are rare at the national level (Vinnicombe 1987a).	
Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps, (Biaimes Ngunnhu), NSW	The Aboriginal fishery at Brewarrina (Ngunnhu) is rare in being a dry-stone fish trap located on a large river system and the largest trap recorded.  The Ngunnhu features a very complex design that exploits an unusual location. 

Aboriginal people used the unusual combination of a large rock bar, seasonal river flows and suitable local rocks to develop the Ngunnhu.  It is nearly half a kilometre long and consists of a series of dry-stone weirs and ponds arranged in the form of a net across the Barwon River. The size, design and complexity of the Ngunnhu is exceptionally rare in Australia.	
Mount William Stone Hatchet Quarry, Vic	Although there are no first hand descriptions of the operations of Mount William, in 1882 and 1884 William Barak, a Wurundjeri man who witnessed the final operations of the quarry, described aspects of the custodial control over this resource to the anthropologist Alfred Howitt (1904:311).  Records of Aboriginal custodial control of stone resources are uncommon in Australia, and the information on Aboriginal custodial control at Mt William is one of two examples in Australia (McBryde, 2000:248; Jones & White, 1988:54-55).  The detailed ethnographic records of custodial control of the valuable stone resource at Mount William quarry by an individual, Billi-billeri of the Wurundjeri, demonstrate a rare occurrence that makes this place of outstanding significance in Australia’s cultural history. 	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (b) for their Indigenous heritage significance.

(b) Uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Barlings Beach Area, NSW	The archaeological site cluster at Barlings Beach has been assessed as rare at the local, regional and state level, and appears to be typical of those found along the coast of NSW.  Better representatives of coastal site complexes are found along the NSW coast.  It was concluded that the heritage value is of local or regional significance.

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (b) for their historic heritage significance.

(b) Uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Eureka Stockade Gardens, Ballarat, Vic	Excepting Indigenous resistance to colonial dominance, rebellion against government authority has been a rare occurrence in Australia’s European history.  Eureka in Victoria, Vinegar Hill (ie Castle Hill) in NSW, First Government House Site (Rum Rebellion) NSW, and Norfolk Island are the major sites of uprisings (as opposed to places of protest/resistance/riot, such as Barcaldine Shearers Strike Camp, Wave Hill Station, ‘Battle of Brisbane’ site etc).  While there is little above ground evidence of the event that took place at Ballarat, and while the exact location is not agreed upon, the Eureka Stockade Gardens are very important for their association with this uncommon and highly significant event in the nation’s past. 
	
HMVS Cerberus, Vic	The HMVS Cerberus was one of only three vessels of its exact type ever built, and is the only surviving example of this type of vessel in the world.  It is the only substantially intact, surviving warship of Australia’s pre-Federation colonial navies.

The HMVS Cerberus was the first British built naval ship in which sail-power was dispensed with and which used steam power alone for propulsion. It was the first ship to have a central superstructure, with gun turrets above deck both fore and aft. It was also the first British designed warship to use low freeboard in the monitor style and the first to have iron breastwork protection.  

The HMVS Cerberus, both as an example of Reed’s naval design and a monitor style vessel, is a rare feature of Australia’s maritime and naval history at a time when the defence of the Australian colonies relied on British expertise and technical assistance.	
Coal Mines Historic Site, Tas	The Coal Mines is one of the few Australian convict sites which outstandingly represent the economic role of convicts. It is rare as the only surviving penal coal mines with coherent surface remains.  The place contains features related to the extraction of coal including coal seams at the beach, the remains of the original adits, the main pit head with original machinery footings, the boiler and the airshaft, and ground circular depressions which indicate the sites of the 1838, 1842 and 1845 main shafts. The place also contains features relating to the transportation of coal including evidence of the inclined plane for coal tram cars, which extends from the 1845 shaft on Coal Mine Hill to Plunkett Point, subsidiary inclined planes which appear as modifications to the natural landscape and the remains of wharves and jetties.

The alternating solitary cell complex built in 1845-6 is the only extant example of this form of convict punishment accommodation and an outstanding example of the extreme harshness of convict life.  The cells effectively isolate convicts from contact with fellow prisoners and were a way of both punishing convicts and ensuring that homosexual activity did not occur.	
Royal Exhibition Building National Historic Place, Melbourne Vic	The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens including the gardens' associated ornamental features has outstanding historic values as the major extant nineteenth century international exhibition building and garden complex in Australia.

The Royal Exhibition Building in its garden setting is a rare surviving example of an Australian response to the international exhibition movement.

The Royal Exhibition Building is one of the few major nineteenth century exhibition Great Halls to survive substantially intact worldwide and represents a rare example of the nineteenth century international movement’s belief in the benefits of industrialisation, the transmission of ideas and social progress and development of an extensive international economy.

The Royal Exhibition Building in its original garden setting is a rare example of a surviving nineteenth century exhibition precinct, nationally and internationally.

Carlton Gardens is a significant example of nineteenth century classicism in an Australian public garden, featuring earlier nineteenth century 'Gardenesque' style elements and later more classical features. These more classical features are seen in the south garden and are references to the classical gardens of European aristocracy and royalty. These features include the main north-south tree-lined avenue framing the southern entrance to the Exhibition Building (Grande Allee and tapis vert), the east-west terrace, the circular garden bed surrounding a central fountain (Hochgurtel fountain), the radial pattern of tree-lined linear pathways  (allees) all converging on the Hochgurtel fountain (patte d'oi), the formal garden beds created along the south facade (parterres), the eastern forecourt with circular garden beds and the French fountain, the creation of axial views with foci and the planting of trees in groups or clumps (bosquets). 

Further axial features are used to reinforce the building's function as the focus of the garden. These design elements are reminiscent of European baroque palace gardens. These features include the axial layout of the building on a north south alignment extended by the Grand Allee, the creation of the Promenade Deck (at the base of the dome) which reinforces the importance of the view down the Grande Allee and across to the city  (which is intended to link the Exhibition Building with other central places of democracy and civic institutions - Parliament and Government House) and the placement of the building on the high point of a ridgeline so that the building's dome would become a landmark in the surrounding city. The adjacent gardens on the north and south sides of the Yarra River, the Fitzroy, Treasury and Parliament Gardens, Yarra Park and the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, all heightened the contrived device of the Carlton Gardens and Royal Exhibition Building as set within an endless boulevard of greenery and civic grandeur (World Heritage nomination report). 

The ornamental lakes, the diagonal tree-lined pathways and lawn in the north garden and the mature nineteenth century specimen tree planting, some of which are rare, also contribute to the garden's values.

The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens retain high integrity. They retain continuity of public use.	
Mawsons Huts and Mawsons Huts Historic Site, Antarctica	The AAE was the first and the only expedition organised, manned and supported by Australians during the Heroic Era. It is, therefore, unique in Australian history. The Mawson’s Huts Historic Site is the only surviving site representing the work of an Australian expedition of the Heroic Age. It is one of only six sites remaining from the international contribution to the Heroic Age exploration of Antarctica.
The site has a high level of integrity, retaining the Main Hut, plus the three scientific huts and a large number of artefacts.  	
Sydney Opera House, NSW	The Sydney Opera House is a cultural icon that has no counterpart in Australia. With its distinctive sail-like concrete shell roofs standing boldly upon a massive granite-faced platform, located prominently on the Sydney Harbour foreshore, the Sydney Opera House is the most widely recognised building in Australia, and one of the most definitive national architectural icons of the twentieth century. It is also a rare example of a national cultural centre that has gained widespread recognition and respect as a performing arts venue.	
Port Arthur Historic Site, Tas	Port Arthur Historic Site is one of a small set of penal settlements in Australia specifically developed for convicts described at the time as recidivists and political prisoners.  It was established in 1830 as a ‘prison within a prison’.  Today, only Port Arthur, Norfolk Island and perhaps Maria Island are able to actively demonstrate this aspect of Australia’s convict history through their cultural landscapes and artefact collections.

The Port Arthur Historic Site includes the satellite convict settlement of Point Puer set up specifically to house convict boys.  Point Puer is one of a limited set of convict settlements in the Australian colonies to receive a single category of prisoners and is rare as a reformist institution for convict boys.

The Separate Prison and the Lunatic Asylum are relatively intact rare examples of innovative ways of managing criminals and the mentally ill in the mid-19th century adapting the most modern European ideas of reform.

The attributes related to this criterion are the entire place, including the artefact collection, and particularly, Point Puer, the Separate Prison, and the Lunatic Asylum.	
Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Vic	Castlemaine Goldfield possesses sites and landscapes which reflect the whole period of gold mining in Australia, and has particularly important large areas relating to the early phase of the great Australian gold rushes.  In this regard, the goldfield is a very rare entity.  Some of the types of sites represented are very rare, such as the expanses of early alluvial workings, roasting kilns, Cornish technology, the Vaughan Chinese Cemetery, large numbers of puddling machine sites, the unusually well preserved hydraulic sluicing sites, the early reefing sites which are among the earliest surviving in Australia, and an early Chilean mill site.

The goldfield is associated with a large range of earlier forms of gold mining which are no longer practised, and earlier forms of habitation which are now foreign to most Australians.  Mining in Australia has for some time been almost wholly the preserve of mining companies, and the era of independent gold miners is long passed.  The work and life of these miners is well represented on the Castlemaine diggings.	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (b) for their historic heritage significance.

(b) Uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Luna Park, Milsons Point, NSW	Luna Park, Milsons Point is not the only remaining early twentieth century amusement park in Australia. Luna Park, St Kilda, built in 1912, was the first Luna Park built in Australia.  Luna Park, St Kilda, and Luna Park, Milsons Point, have both been through an ongoing process of updating and renewal, consistent with their continuing use as amusement parks.  Both, however, still retain significant original fabric.

While Luna Park is the only example of an Art Deco amusement park in Australia, it is not regarded as a pre-eminent example of Art Deco design more generally.  ‘Art Deco amusement park architecture’ is a very narrow category, and its outstanding heritage value to the nation has not been demonstrated.

While the site that Luna Park, Milsons Point was built on tells other stories, of the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and World War II defences, this is not regarded as being of outstanding national heritage value.

.	
Swing Bridge, Longford, Vic	There is evidence that the Swing Bridge, Longford is the oldest swing bridge in Australia. However, it is not the only swing bridge remaining intact. Like the Swing Bridge, Longford, the Pyrmont Bridge in Sydney built in 1902 is operational. The Pyrmont Bridge is the first electronically operated swing bridge, and for its time, its use of electricity was considered the cutting edge of engineering. By comparison, the construction methods of the Swing Bridge, Longford were characteristic of cast and wrought iron bridges of the time. There are no less than eighteen potentially significant bridges across Australia: the convict built bridge at Richmond, Tasmania, dating from 1823; the laminated timber arch bridge at Angle Vale, SA, from 1876; timber truss bridges like that at Bredbo, NSW, from 1889; and cast-iron bridges like those at Menangle, NSW, from 1863 and the Swing Bridge, Longford, from 1883. It was found that the Swing Bridge did not have National Heritage values as an uncommon or rare aspect of Australia’s cultural history. 	
Dundullimal, Dubbo, NSW	 ‘Dundullimal’ homestead was found to be an example of a timber slab building which demonstrated an early architectural form of homestead building in nineteenth-century Australia, and that the construction of buildings using timber slab technology, while once common, is now a disappearing tradition.  However, ‘Dundullimal’ is one of many heritage-listed structures of timber-slab construction, including woolsheds, homesteads and other farm buildings.  Dundullimal’s sophisticated architectural detailing, its lack of evolutionary architectural form and its broken-back form of roof may be uncommon, but there was no evidence to establish that these features are of outstanding importance in Australia’s architectural history.	
Old Melbourne Gaol, Vic	While Old Melbourne Gaol has a degree of rarity within the Victorian context there are other examples of similar prison types around Australia.	
Arch of Victory and Avenue of Honour, Ballarat, Vic	The Avenue of Honour is the longest and earliest known memorial-avenue of trees commemorating those who died in the First World War.  However, although this may confer some degree of rarity at a national level, the choice of a memorial avenue should not be seen as being more important than the use of other war memorial types across Australia when such memorial avenues were restricted by climate to the southern states and many memorials could not be completed by some communities until the 1920s.  Memorial avenues and triumphal arches are but two aspects of the national story of war memorials.	
Barwon Sewer Aqueduct, Geelong, Vic	The Barwon Sewer Aqueduct appears to be the only one of its kind in Australia, both in terms of its length and in the use of the Considere reinforcing technique.  However, although this may confer some degree of rarity at a national level, there is insufficient information to address the pioneering importance of engineering projects erected using the Considere method in context with other construction techniques and civil engineering works, which may be of potential national significance. 	
BMA House, Sydney, NSW	While BMA House has a degree of rarity within the NSW context there are other similarly excellent examples of Interwar Art Deco office buildings both within Sydney and around Australia. 	
New Farm Park, Brisbane, Qld	The band rotunda is a unique example of Federation style, designed to be similar to a band rotunda in Bowen (Queen’s Beach) which no longer exists.  The rotunda (and a similarly styled kiosk which was damaged by fire in 2000 and has since been removed) were designed by Brisbane City Council architect, A.H. Foster and erected in 1915.  The band rotunda is a distinctive feature dating from the Federation/Edwardian era and is still used for regular band recitals.

Bandstands of various and unique designs exist throughout Australia and while this one is distinctive, it is not considered sufficiently outstanding in national terms.	

Criterion (c)

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (c) for their natural heritage significance.

(c) Understanding of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Glass House Mountains National Landscape, Qld	The site is important for elucidating the volcanic history of the eastern Australian mainland. Recent research at the site has shown that there was more than one volcanic migration trend in eastern Australia, and that the Glass Houses were part of an older migration trend separate from the main migration line (Sutherland 2005). This recent research at the Glass House Mountains has led to a greater understanding of the dynamic tectonic processes that generated the older chain of volcanoes, and their relative ages, and to the geochemical evolution of the rock types making up these volcanic centres (Sutherland 2005). This research has also resulted in more accurate measurement of the rate of movement of sections of the Australian plate.	
Ediacara Fossil Site, SA	The Ediacara Fossil Site - Nilpena contains the most abundant, diverse and intact examples of Precambrian multicellular animal life found within Australia. The excavation and laying out of extensive areas of fossil-covered seafloor for continuing study at the site makes it unparalleled in any other part of Australia. Retaining the fossils on site has also enabled a much closer scrutiny of trace fossils, which has revealed important information relating to the behavioural patterns and community associations of various taxa. The site has already contributed to our understanding of early animals and has the potential to reveal further significant information surrounding the biological affinities and relationships between the Ediacaran fauna and modern fauna (Gehling pers comm. 2005; Gehling et al., 2005; Clapham et al., 2003; Yeates 2001; Gehling et al., 2006; Jensen et al., 2006).	
Flora Fossil Site - Yea, Vic	The presence of Baragwanathia flora in association with graptolite fossils has attracted considerable research since the site’s discovery in 1875.  Graptolites, such as Bohemograptus bohemicus which occur at the locality, are key faunal taxa used to stratigraphically age fossils and hence determine the relationships of Baragwanathia floras (Garratt 1978, Harris & Thomas 1942). The Yea site has played a central role in the long-running debate surrounding the evolution of the earliest land plants. Only relatively recently has the stratigraphy been conclusively confirmed as of Silurian age (Garratt & Rickards, 1984).	
Dinosaur Stampede National Monument, comprising Lark Quarry Conservation Park, Winton, Qld	The primary research conducted on the dinosaur trackways within the Lark Quarry Conservation Park is commonly cited as the benchmark for study into dinosaur footprints and behaviour (Cook 2004). As the place preserves nearly all of the fossil tracks made by running dinosaurs known worldwide, it is an important and rare information source for locomotion studies and performance analysis for both ornithopods and coelurosaurs (Thulborn pers. comm. 2002).
The study of the dinosaur trackways within the Lark Quarry Conservation Park has also provided a large body of published information that has contributed to the understanding of the Australian environment during the Cretaceous (Long 2004).
It is estimated that a further 20 000 to 80 000 unexcavated footprints may be contained within the stratigraphic layer bearing the known stampede event.  As a result, there is scope for further discovery and research.  The areas most likely to contain these footprints are southwest of Lark Quarry as well as the area between Lark and New Quarries and may extend deep into the hillside (Cook 2004).	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (c) for their natural heritage significance.

(c) Understanding of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
13 areas of Grey Nurse Shark Critical Habitat and Buffer Zones/Marine Hotspots, NSW and Commonwealth waters (Emergency Listing request)	It was claimed that the Miocene-aged fossil history (cc 23 million years) of the Grey Nurse Shark confers additional heritage value as a living fossil. The Department advised that the claim of a Miocene lineage for the Grey Nurse Shark must be considered in a wider context. Marine ecosystems generally provide habitat for species with long evolutionary lineages as a function of the buffering capacity of marine environments. Two highly significant groups of Shark, the six and seven-gilled Sharks (Hexanchidae) and the frilled Shark (Chlamydoselachidae) also occur in Australian waters. These Sharks have an evolutionary lineage exemplified in the fossil record of over 142 million years and are widely recognised as living fossils. It remains to be tested whether any of the places associated with these two groups will meet the criterion. It was concluded that the lineage of the Grey Nurse Shark was not a sufficient basis for the nominated places to meet criterion (c).

It was claimed that the places have the potential to yield information regarding the evolution of Australian marine ecosystems and the role of top predators. It was found that marine ecosystems generally provided habitat for species with long evolutionary lineages as a function of the buffering capacity of marine environments, and many marine taxa have representatives in the fossil record extending back to the Palaeozoic Era. Published data on the evolution of Australian marine ecosystems and southern Australian species are too fragmentary to substantiate claims that any of the 13 places have any more potential to yield information on the evolution of Australian marine ecosystems than similar places on the temperate Australian coastline. The places were not found to be demonstrably significant for scientific studies that have led to a greater understanding of a major aspect of the natural history of Australia. While the places are the most likely sites where researchers might find the Grey Nurse Shark, the research potential of the places in respect to the biology of the Grey Nurse Shark, and sharks more generally, has not been demonstrated. The potential to yield information was not a sufficient basis for the nominated places to meet criterion (c).	
Tasmanian Seamounts Area	The Tasmanian Seamounts Area alone are not demonstrably significant for scientific studies that have led to a greater understanding of a major aspect of the natural history of Australia, or significant as a site of past discoveries relating to a greater understanding of a major aspect of the natural history of Australia. The majority of the seventy seamounts nominated have not been surveyed and the composition of the fauna and its significance cannot be determined other than in general terms. In the Commonwealth Marine Area, outstanding marine research sites exist, notably the Great Barrier Reef (GBR).  Research on the GBR started in the 1920’s, and long-term monitoring on the GBR has been in operation since 1992 with 48 ‘core’ reefs across the continental shelf and along the length of the GBR monitored for benthic organisms and 191 fish species each year. The usefulness of the ‘baseline’ seamount data has not been demonstrated to contribute to a significant understanding of Australia’s natural history whereas the data from the GBR has made significant contributions. 

While it is possible to hypothesise that seamount research might at some future date provide a greater understanding of Australia’s natural history, the same could be said of all seamounts in the Commonwealth Marine Area.  

The level of existing knowledge of Tasmanian seamounts is insufficient to determine if they have significantly influenced the understanding of Australia’s natural history to such an extent as to meet the threshold of outstanding significance against criterion (c).	
Black Mountain, Aranda Bushland, O’Connor and Bruce Ridges, Gossan Hill, Australian National Botanic Gardens areas, ACT (Emergency Listing request)	The nominator provided information and a statement making references to the significance of Black Mountain as a research area for truffle-like fungi, based on the total number of species identified (34 species), the number of new species identified (19 species) and the high level of endemism. The Department advised that while truffle-like fungi are an important functional element of biodiversity in Australian forests, their significance being established in several key studies in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia, only about 5% of the estimated 250,000 species of Australian fungi have been described. Given the current level of data available, the significance of Black Mountain for fungal research couldn’t be established and was not sufficient to assertain that the place may have National Heritage values because of this claimed attribute.	

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (c) for their Indigenous heritage significance.

(c) Understanding of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Dampier Archipelago (including Burrup Peninsula), WA	'Archaic Faces' occur on the Dampier Archipelago and are found in many parts of arid Australia (McDonald and Veth 2005; Dix 1977).  The distribution of these engravings indicates there were shared representations across the area in the deep past. There is evidence that at the time of European contact Western Desert peoples were actively moving towards the coast (Tindale 1987).  The 'Archaic Faces' in the Dampier Archipelago have outstanding potential to yield information contributing to an understanding of the long history of connections between the coast and the Western Desert.

The distribution of engraved motifs across the Dampier Archipelago reflects economic and cultural variability (Green 1982; Vinnicombe 2002; Veth et al. 1993). Previous work on the Dampier Archipelago provides an outstanding demonstration of the way in which a detailed analysis of archaeological remains (middens, grinding patches, quarries) and associated rock engravings can contribute to an understanding of the cultural and economic meaning of the rock engravings (Lorblanchet 1992). The analysis demonstrated a close association between animal motifs and midden contents in one area of Skew Valley and the way in which some motifs (tracks) are placed in inconspicuous positions while other motifs (anthropomorphs) are publicly displayed. This work demonstrates that on the Dampier Archipelago, areas where archaeological remains are associated with large numbers of engravings have outstanding potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the nation’s cultural history.

The Dampier Archipelago contains engravings of human figures (anthropomorphs) characteristic of most of the major art provinces in the Pilbara as well as a number of forms unique to the area (McDonald and Veth 2005). It has the potential to become a key site for establishing the sequence of engraved motifs in the Pilbara, an area described as without doubt the richest and most exciting region of rock engravings in Australia (McCarthy 1968: vi). The different degrees of weathering and the large number of super-positioned engravings provides an outstanding opportunity to establish a relative chronology for motifs characteristic of the major style provinces in the Pilbara (Lorblanchet 1992; Vinnicombe 2002; McDonald and Veth 2005).	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (c) for their Indigenous heritage significance.

(c) Understanding of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
New Farm Park, Brisbane, Qld	While the park is built on land used by the Undambi clan of the Turrabal language group before European settlement and named by them for the Binkinba or land tortoise, and is part of the site of the Moreton Bay penal agricultural settlement, there are no visible artefacts from those periods, although it is likely that Aboriginal and penal settlement artefacts exist in the subsurface.  The ring path, now bitumenised and lined with jacarandas, is believed to be the track from its previous use as a racecourse from 1846-1861. 

Although the previous uses of the land are known and artefacts in the subsurface may exist, the place has not been used for research, nor have any artefacts been found that would substantiate any potential outstanding value to the nation.  It was concluded that the place is not considered sufficiently outstanding in national terms to enable the park to meet Criterion (c).	
Appin Colliery Area 3, NSW	The nominator claimed that Appin Colliery Area 3 has the potential to yield information about the non-Pama-Nyungan speakers who arrived in the area about 23,000 years ago and who produced rock art that was different from Pama-Nyungan Aboriginal people from the coast and inland.  No evidence was found to support the claims of the arrival of non-Pama-Nyungan speakers in the nominated area evidenced in the rock art. Therefore, it was not considered that the nominated area might have outstanding heritage value to yield information about this event.	

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (c) for their historic heritage significance.

(c) Understanding of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Mawsons Huts and Mawsons Huts Historic Site, Antarctica	The whole of Cape Denison contains evidence of the AAE, with the largest concentration in the Main Valley. This is an area of substantial archaeological deposit and archaeological potential. The interiors of the huts contain evidence of the domestic and work life of the AAE during the period of occupation (1912-1913). The site retains a great deal of physical evidence which can be interpreted by archaeological study. 
As an archaeological resource, the significance of Mawson’s Huts Historic Site lies not only in the provisions and equipment available to expeditions during the early twentieth century, but also in the insights they provide into human responses to isolation and confinement and extreme climactic conditions. Of all the remaining historical hut sites in the Antarctic region, it appears to have been subject to the least intervention. The scientific huts still allow for research to be undertaken, with potential to yield information on climatic impact and environmental change as well and material deterioration and conservation in arctic environments.
The significance of the site comes from the powerful interplay of documentary and physical evidence in Australia and physical evidence on-site. Unlike sites where only physical evidence or only documentary evidence is available, the significance of the site has the potential to be accessed and understood both on-site and elsewhere.
 
The attributes are the AAE fabric including the four timber buildings, and the original points from which surveying, cartographic, meteorological, and magnetic observations were made. The interiors of the Main Hut and the Magnetograph House include foodstuffs, personal memorabilia and clothing. A large amount of stores, equipment, animal food, caches and AAE artefacts remain in concentration around the Main Hut and the whole of Cape Denison.	
Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park, Vic	The goldfield’s numerous mining and habitation sites have potential to yield new information about the conduct of Australian gold mining over a lengthy period, and particularly during the nineteenth century.  These sites include the early alluvial landscapes, the cemeteries, the later alluvial sites reflecting various technologies, the many reef mining sites, and the habitation sites which are likely to yield further evidence of living practices during the goldfield’s lifetime.

Australian War Memorial and the Memorial Parade, ACT	The AWM has a unique and important function in the nation in collecting and displaying objects and records on Australians’ experience of war.  The AWM and other institutions have used these materials to produce research on social, political and military history.  The place has the potential to yield further substantial information on Australians’ experience of war.  These values are expressed through the collections.	
North Head – Sydney, NSW	An estimated 47 potential archaeological sites within the North Head Quarantine Station, and in other areas of North Head, have the potential to add to our understanding of the development and operation of nineteenth century quarantine practices and procedures from the 1830s-1870s.  In particular, archaeological research would enable the period from the 1830s-1850s, a formative period for quarantine practices in the Australian colonies, to be better understood and interpreted in the context of the archival record and the surviving, functionally-related, buildings, planning and layout of the Station.  The potential for archaeological investigation extends to the former mooring areas and littoral zones at Quarantine Cove, where vessels were cleansed before being returned to their owners, and to Stores Beach.	
Fremantle Prison, WA	Fremantle Prison has extensive research potential because of the place’s high degree of integrity and authenticity and the ability of the material culture present to provide unique insight into the convict experience throughout the imperial, colonial and state periods. The National Heritage values are expressed through the structures comprising the Fremantle Prison complex (1852-1991), including its underground engineering heritage, archaeological subsurface remains, records and collections.
 
In combination, the oral tradition, documentary evidence, collections, structures, engineering relics and archaeological features at Fremantle Prison have unparalleled potential for community education.
 
Fremantle Prison’s buildings, engineering relics and other structures contain, within their fabric, evidence of construction technology, available materials and adaptation to suit local conditions.
 
The Fremantle Prison records and collections, including archaeological, provide a substantial research resource which, in conjunction with documentary evidence, have the potential to reveal and present much of the Fremantle story.	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (c) for their historic heritage significance.

(c) Understanding of Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Dundullimal, Dubbo, NSW	 ‘Dundullimal’ has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Australia’s history related to past building techniques, vernacular crafts, building conservation techniques and nineteenth century rural lifestyles.  ‘Dundullimal’ has some intact interiors, furniture and other associated farm buildings which also have some potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of nineteenth-century agricultural lifestyles and production processes.  However, while ‘Dundullimal’ has some potential research value and some importance as a demonstration site relating to early European settler/frontier life, there was no evidence to establish that this potential is of outstanding importance to the nation. 	
Portable Iron Houses, South Melbourne, Vic	The evidence did not support the claim that the houses contributed at a national level to a greater understanding of the migrant experience in Australia in the early 1850s.  Of the three houses, only the Abercrombie house is believed to have been imported into Australia by a migrant.  While the Abercrombie house may have a provenance associated with migration, it is the house which is in the poorest condition.  It was substantially altered during its lifetime, including being divided into two houses in the 19th century.  The interior was extensively altered, and the exact nature of its original interior layout is uncertain.  Given these changes, the potential for the Abercrombie house to contribute to an understanding of mid-19th century migration was limited.  	
Barwon Sewer Aqueduct, Geelong, Vic	The place has been thoroughly documented and discussed by engineers, architects and historians and that the original drawings survive.  Its potential to yield further information is limited.  	
Lavender Bay, Milsons Point Foreshore, NSW	While the area may contain evidence of a multi-layered historical landscape dating back to first settlement and beyond, this is not a unique occurrence around Sydney Harbour.  It is not considered in itself to be of outstanding national heritage significance.

Luna Park, Milsons Point, while containing a wealth of original fabric and considerable supporting material, is not considered to be of national heritage significance for this criterion.  Luna Park, St Kilda, also retains significant fabric and has supporting material, and so offers similar research opportunities.  The outstanding contribution that such research would make to an understanding of Australia’s cultural heritage has not been demonstrated.

Port Adelaide Heritage Area, SA
(Emergency Listing request)	It was claimed that Port Adelaide Heritage Area (PAHA) has outstanding heritage value to the nation because the area has the potential to yield information that will contribute to the nation's cultural history with research into the documentary, artefacts, historic boats, oral history and archaeological resources. 

The potential value of documentary records, standing structures and subsurface remains in the PAHA to reveal further information about the history of PAHA. I noted that historical archaeology investigations combined with historical research undertaken at one site, 8-12 Divett Street, had provided greater understanding of the history of the site (Matic, A 2000:64). Research work undertaken on the Garden Island Ships' Graveyard, north arm of the Port River, Port Adelaide, outside the PAHA, provided a rare insight into both local and global practices which led to the abandonment of ships (Richards, N 1997:70). The research potential of PAHA is of significance for the State of South Australia. However there was insufficient evidence to conclude that the research potential of the nominated place was of outstanding heritage value to the nation.

Criterion (d)

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (d) for their natural heritage significance.

(d) Principal characteristics of:
a class of Australia’s natural or cultural places; or
a class of Australia’s natural or cultural environments	Description of Value	
Warrumbungle National Park, NSW	The Warrumbungles are one of the best examples of a number of central shield volcanoes along the east coast of Australia (Yeates 2001, Sutherland 2003 & 2005), and constitute the best representation of exposed volcanic features within the main north-south volcanic line in eastern Australia (Sutherland 2005). The site illustrates an outstanding diversity of volcanic features within a relatively small area that have high integrity.	
The Grampians National Park (Gariwerd), Halls Gap	The Grampians display an outstanding succession of strata, igneous intrusions, faulting and many well-preserved sedimentary structures such as cross-bedding of all scales, ripple marks and desiccation cracks.	
Stirling Range National Park, Cranbrook, WA	Stirling Range National Park is one of the top ranking places across Australia representing areas of richest biodiversity (ANHAT 2005, CALM 1999, Hopper et al. 1996, Keighery 1993, Paczkowska & Chapman 2000). The place represents one of the most important remnants of the rich flora of the south-west (Hopper et al 1996). 

The Stirling Range National Park provides an example of the extraordinarily diverse flora of the south-west, and over 1500 species have been recorded in the Park, which represents almost one fifth of all the flora species found in the south-west. The Stirling Range also exemplifies the abundance of endemic species found in the south-west, with 87 species being found solely within the Park (CALM 1999, Keighery 1993).	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (d) for their natural heritage significance.

(d) Principal characteristics of:
a class of Australia’s natural or cultural places; or
a class of Australia’s natural or cultural environments	Description of Value	
North Head, Sydney, NSW	Flora
The nominator claimed that the Sydney Sandstone heath and scrub vegetation, which is in relatively intact condition at North Head, provides an important reference site against which to assess human-induced change in other areas (Benson & Howell 1990; Hochuli 1999). However, there are other larger and more intact areas of this vegetation type occurring in large protected areas outside the metropolitan area, for example at Royal National Park (NSW NPWS 2004). In addition, North Head contains areas of exotic weed infestation, and dieback infestation (NSW NPWS 1998, Hochuli 1999).
 
Geology
The nominator claimed that North Head is characteristic of the landscape of the Sydney Harbour region, and that the place represents a highly accessible opportunity to view an array of features associated with Hawkesbury Sandstone and the Newport Formation, which are both geological strata of the Sydney basin. 
 
It was found that the Hawkesbury Sandstone is widespread, and dominates the Sydney region in a 100km radius from the Blue Mountains to the Hawkesbury River (Conaghan 1980). Within the sandstone, three features are recognised: Massive lithofacies, which have no obvious layering; sheet facies, which are recognisably layered; and discontinuous lenses of mudstone. While the three features are represented at North Head (AHC 2002), these features are characteristic and widespread of Hawkesbury Sandstone (Conaghan 1980). For example, an outstanding exposure of the Hawkesbury Sandstone sequence is found at Cape Banks, La Perouse in Sydney (Conaghan 1980; Percival 1979, 1985; Yeates 2001).
 
The nominator stated that North Head is a striking cliff-bound tied island complex surrounded by spectacular sea cliffs up to 60 metres high and flooded river valleys. North Head provides an accessible opportunity to view an array of sedimentary depositional features commonly associated with Hawkesbury Sandstone and the Newport Formation, with features including: Channels with basal conglomerate, crossbeds both normal and overturned, flaser bedding, shrinkage cracks, and burrows (AHC 2002, Osborne & Osborne 1999). While these features at North Head may be representative, they are widespread in the Sydney Basin, and good examples can be found at Long Bay, Malabar; Prince Henry Hospital Reserve, Little Bay; Cape Banks Military Reserve; and St Michaels Cave, Avalon, (Conaghan 1980, Herbert 1983) North Head is not noted in assessments for geological significance (Percival 1979, 1985; Yeates 2001), and there was no evidence that the features at North Head demonstrated the principal characteristics of a class of Australia's natural places or environments that comprised outstanding heritage value to the nation.	

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (d) for their Indigenous heritage significance.

(d) Principal characteristics of:
a class of Australia’s natural or cultural places; or
a class of Australia’s natural or cultural environments	Description of Value	
Dampier Archipelago (incl Burrup Peninsula), WA	The rock engravings on the Dampier Archipelago include an extraordinarily diverse range of animal and human figures which are characteristic of regional styles that occur elsewhere in the Pilbara. Images of terrestrial and marine animals and birds in the Dampier Archipelago are similar to the range of images found at other coastal sites in the Pilbara such as Depuch Island and Port Hedland while the range of land animals is similar to those depicted in inland areas (cf Wright 1968; Ride et al 1964). A slightly simpler version of Kurangara figures, characteristic of the Upper Yule, is found in the Dampier Archipelago, only differing in the exaggeration of genitalia and intricacy of headdresses (McDonald and Veth 2005: Section 4.6). Similarly, a type of Minjiburu figure characteristic of Port Hedland also occurs in the Dampier Archipelago. Large birds or macropods with spears in their backs, images of turtles and hunting scenes characteristic of Sherlock Station and Depuch Island are found in the Dampier Archipelago, as are examples of stylised figures with exaggerated hands and feet, stylised stick figures with small human figures positioned under both arms. There are a number of images central to the style found on the Dampier Archipelago (McDonald and Veth 2005). They include: solid-bodied human figures with disconnected circular infilled heads and sinuous arm positions; profile figures with solid bodies and thin arms (often with an erect penis), occasionally positioned in rows; profile figures with the disconnected heads, grouped with each other or around a central line (as if climbing); groups of figures positioned beneath lines, as if hanging; the use of infilled circles to indicate joints (elbows, knees) or body parts (genitalia, stomachs, hands, feet); and therianthrops with various mixed human and animal characteristics, particularly lizard and bird. The Dampier Archipelago is outstanding as a place where engravings of human forms representative of all of the style provinces in the Pilbara, the richest and most exciting region of rock engravings in Australia, are found (McDonald and Veth 2005: Section 4; McCarthy 1968: vi).

Standing stones on the Dampier Archipelago range from single monoliths through to extensive alignments comprising at least three or four hundred standing stones (Vinnicombe 2002). While some standing stones are associated with increase ceremonies, thalu, others were used to mark particular places with scarce resources, such as seasonal rock pools, and were also used to mark sites of traditional significance. The standing stones in the Dampier Archipelago are outstanding in a national context for the number of purposes they are known to have served.	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (d) for their Indigenous heritage significance.

(d) Principal characteristics of:
a class of Australia’s natural or cultural places; or
a class of Australia’s natural or cultural environments	Description of Value	
Appin Colliery Area 3, Appin, NSW (Emergency Listing request)	The nominator claimed that the area has outstanding heritage value in demonstrating the ‘evolution of post contact Aboriginal cultural connection to traditional country as physical/geographical connection was increasingly severed in the course of European settlement’.  The Department advised that Indigenous people throughout Australia have been able to retain strong connections to their traditional country despite the effects of European settlement.  There was no evidence to suggest that the existence of such connection is specific to the nominated area, and therefore concluded that Appin Colliery Area 3 is not of outstanding heritage value to the nation under criteria (d) in demonstrating the evolution of post contact indigenous connection to traditional country.	
Murraba National Heritage Landscape, Teed Heads, NSW (Emergency Listing request)	The nominator claimed against criterion (d) that the Murraba complex represents a class of Australia’s Aboriginal cultural places, as an ocean and estuarine campsite associated with evidence of a range of cultural practices, located in a unique ‘geophysical’ position and largely undisturbed environmental context.  The nominators’ statements about the value to the local Aboriginal community of retaining such a site complex were more appropriately addressed under criterion (g).

The Department advised that Aboriginal shell middens occur along the entire eastern coast of Australia in a variety of environmental contexts (e.g. Bonhomme et al, 1994, McNiven, 1991; Aiken et al, 1992; Bowdler, 1982; Dean-Jones, 1990, Lampert, 1971).  Open site shell midden complexes comparable to the Murraba complex occur in SE Queensland; on the NSW north and central coast at Forster, Macleay River, Tweed Heads, Myall Lakes and on the NSW south coast, for example at Pambula.  Some of these occur within protected areas.  

While the Murraba complex could demonstrate some of the principal characteristics of shell midden complexes associated with cultural practices, there was insufficient evidence to suggest that this site had outstanding heritage value to the nation for this reason compared to other such sites.  It was therefore concluded that the nominated area does not have National Heritage values under criterion (d).	

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (d) for their historic heritage significance.

(d) Principal characteristics of:
a class of Australia’s natural or cultural places; or
a class of Australia’s natural or cultural environments	Description of Value	
Point Cook Air Base, Vic	RAAF Base Point Cook demonstrates the principal characteristics, including building types, planning and layout, which illustrate the development of military aviation bases in Australia during the pre-World War One, World War One, Inter-war and World War Two periods.  
 
The 1917 master plan for the base established the clear separation of functions required for military aviation.  The dominant functional zones included the Southern (hangars and workshops) and Central (accommodation) Tarmac areas and the runway areas formalized in 1943.  The administration and training areas were typically located between the early accommodation areas and the hangars and workshops, with a clearly articulated layout based on major and minor planning axes.  The plantings of windbreak trees in the 1920s, in particular Cupressus species, created a landscape with both functional and formal values, with characteristics reflected in other military and aviation bases such as RAAF Base Richmond.  The parade ground at Point Cook, completed in 1930, would become a prominent feature of later RAAF bases, as would the rows of prefabricated Bellman Hangars, erected during World War Two, at the interface with the runway and apron areas.  These functional zones, landscape elements and features would be characteristic of RAAF bases erected between 1924 and 1945, their relationship depending on site parameters and operational requirements, including runway layout and orientation.  
 
The social hierarchy, way of life and organisation of the RAAF, are expressed in the location and range of accommodation types at Point Cook.  These accommodation types would become characteristic of RAAF bases such as RAAF Base Richmond and had similarities with early accommodation at HMAS Cerberus and Duntroon College, the pre-WW1 Navy and Army equivalents to RAAF Base Point Cook.  Of particular note are excellent representative examples of single-storey houses and two-storey weatherboard accommodation units (e.g. Bldgs 18, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 41, 42, 46, M011 and M001-002 erected from 1914-1939), in addition to examples of servant’s quarters associated with the single officer’s quarters erected in 1918 (Bldg 22).  
 
At Point Cook, a range of building types demonstrate the role of the Commonwealth Architect’s department in introducing high standards of design across sites associated with military activities.  These generic standards continued into the post 1945 period (the National Service era which began in the 1950s), although little detailed information about these structures at RAAF base Point Cook and elsewhere is available.  
 
Buildings and structures of particular interest, and which characterise the major periods of development, include:
a) Pre-World War One and World War One; 18, 21, 22, 23, 30, 72, 81, 82, 95, 104, 108, 210, 488, M011, M004-006, M010, M026.  
b) Inter-war; 24, 27, 28, 29, 33, 34, 38, 41, 42, 46, 70, 71, 74, 86, 87, 88, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 96, 100, 101, 121, M00, M001-003, M007-009, M0027-0028, sentry boxes; and 
c) World War Two; 161, 178-187, 211-214 and the concrete runways of 1943.  P-type, timber hutments illustrate the need for a considerable work force during the wartime years 1939-1945.  These include buildings Nos 73, 110, 122, 155, 156, 158, 163, 176, 188, 190, 203, 221, 225, 228, 241-243, 259, 261, 277, 327-329, 427, 453, 455, 457, 458, 459, 481, 482 and 485.	
Kingston and Arthurs Vale Historic Area, Norfolk Island	Kingston and Arthurs Vale Historic Area (KAVHA) demonstrates the principal characteristics of a longstanding penal settlement in its physical layout, governance arrangements, the management and control of convicts, and the functional arrangements associated with settlement.  
 
It has substantial ruins, standing structures and archaeological sub-surface remains related to its operation as a place of primary incarceration and early settlement, as a place of secondary punishment and finally as a place spanning both incarceration and secondary punishment.  
 
The 1829 Government House, one of the earliest and most intact remaining government house buildings in Australia, is positioned prominently on Dove Hill with commanding views of the military precinct, colonial administration, convict quarters, farmland and the pier.  The military precinct on Quality Row contains two extant barracks complexes:  the Old Military Barracks and officers quarters constructed between 1829-1834 surrounded by high walls giving it an appearance of a military fortress; and the New Military Barracks commenced in 1836 which follows a similar fortress-like design.  The Commissariat Store (now All Saints Church) (1835) is the finest remaining colonial (pre 1850) military commissariat store in Australia. The Old Military Barracks, together with the Commissariat Store and the New Military Barracks, form a group of buildings which is the most substantial military barracks complex in Australia dating from the 1830s. The military complexes are positioned in view of the convict precinct located closer to the water and at a lower elevation to optimise surveillance.  Nine houses in Quality Row built from 1832-47 provided quarters for military and civil officers.
 
The archaeological remains of the two convict gaols, the perimeter walls and archaeological remains of the Prisoners' Barracks (1828-48) with the Protestant Chapel, show the development of penal philosophies with the original gaol built for barrack type accommodation while the extant remains of the New Prison and its perimeter walls (1836-40, 1845-57) provides a rare representation of a radial design.  The role of harsh labour as punishment is evident in the archaeological remains of the blacksmith's shop (1846); lumber yard; water mill; the crankmill (1827-38), the remains of the only known human powered crankmill built in Australia before 1850; the salt house (1847); the windmill base (1842-43); lime kilns; the landing pier (1839-47) and sea wall, two of the earliest remaining large scale engineering works in Australia.  The possibility of reform is evident in the Protestant and Catholic clergyman’s quarters.  
 
The settlement patterns are evident in the existing street layout and in the buildings along Quality Row which form the most extensive street of pre 1850 penal buildings in Australia.   The functioning of the settlement is evident in the remains of institutions, buildings and precincts such as the commandant's house; magistrate's quarters; the ruins of the hospital, built on First Settlement remains (1829); the Surgeon's quarters and kitchen (1827), on the site of a First Settlement Government House, one of the earliest European dwellings in Australia; the Royal Engineer's office and stables (1850); the Beach Store, a former commissariat store (1825); a double boat shed (1841); the Police Office, now boatshed (1828-29); the flaghouse (1840s); Constable's Quarters, partly standing (1850-53); and the cemetery which has an outstanding collection of headstones and other remains dating from the earliest period of European settlement, including the first and second penal settlement periods and the Pitcairn period with associations with the Bounty, set in an evocative and picturesque historical landscape. Many stone walls, wells, drains, building platforms, bridges including Bloody Bridge, culverts, roads, quarry sites, privies and archaeological sites of former buildings remain which are important in demonstrating the rich patterns of KAVHA’s settlement history. The remnant serpentine landscape is an outstanding example of colonial period (pre-1850) attitudes to landscape design in Australia.	
High Court-National Gallery Precinct, ACT	The High Court - National Gallery Precinct is a rare example of an integrated design employing modernist building and landscape architecture on a scale and of a fineness of finish designed to project a sense of national importance. The precinct architecture is the work of the firm Edwards, Madigan Torzillo & Briggs.  Colin Madigan designed the National Gallery and Christopher Kringas designed the High Court.

The High Court and National Gallery buildings are excellent examples of the Late Twentieth Century Brutalist style, demonstrating boldly composed shapes and massing. 
 
The landscape design by Harry Howard, predominantly reflects the Australian Native design style that developed in Australian in the late 1960s, inspired by a distinctively Australian landscape character.	
Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne, Vic	The Sidney Myer Music Bowl (1956-59), the first major purpose-built outdoor cultural venue constructed in Melbourne, is an excellent representative example of the Late Twentieth Century Structuralist style. It demonstrates the broad characteristics of the style include large scale free, sculptural, non‑rectilinear spaces floating above the site. The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is an exemplar of a free standing structure featuring its large landscaped setting for dramatic effect.	
Australian Academy of Sciences Building, Canberra, ACT	The Academy of Science is an excellent example of the Geometric Structuralism characterised by the use of tension to maximise the function of the structural system. The building demonstrates the characteristics of this style with a highly structured theoretical base, effectively synthesising a simple plan and three dimensional form into a building which blends comfortably into its setting. 

A circular moat surrounds the building, providing further emphasis on the natural setting. The circular form continues into the interior, with curved walls and spaces emphasising the geometry of the roof. The delicate complexity of form and materials was part of a reaction against the rough, heavy concrete buildings of the same period.

The building has retained a high degree of integrity, with few alterations. Most of the interior design and furnishings remain intact and on site.	
Port Arthur Historic Site, Tas	Australia’s convict sites share patterns of environmental and social colonial history including classification and segregation; dominance by authority and religion; the provision of accommodation for the convict, military and civil population; amenities for governance, punishment and healing, and the elements of place building, agriculture and industry.  Port Arthur Historic Site is outstanding in demonstrating the principal characteristics of an Australian Convict Site because:
• It presents important aspects of Australia’s convict system including changing attitudes to punishment, reform, education and welfare;
• The physical landscape and setting at Port Arthur Historic Site retain a high degree of integrity and authenticity, thereby providing important evidence of the history and use of the place;
• The form and location of elements at Port Arthur Historic Site display deliberate design and arrangement, reflecting the order and hierarchy of Port Arthur’s military and penal history;
• The built environment at Port Arthur Historic Site displays a large, surviving concentration and wide range of 19th century design, engineering and construction techniques in a range of materials and built forms;
• Substantial parts of the site include known stratified archaeological deposits of material culture, which can be analysed to yield information about the site unavailable from documentary sources alone;
• Port Arthur Historic Site’s records, including manuscripts, maps, published material, photographs, historical, archaeological and architectural records, and databases, provide an extensive resource for a broad range of historical and social research; and
• Port Arthur Historic Site illustrates changing approaches to heritage conservation philosophy and practice and is considered a landmark place for place and materials conservation.	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (d) for their historic heritage significance.

(d) Principal characteristics of:
a class of Australia’s natural or cultural places; or
a class of Australia’s natural or cultural environments	Description of Value	
Charing Cross Commercial Centre, Waverley, NSW	The nominator claimed that the Charing Cross Commercial Centre has NHL values against this criterion, but had made no specific claim in relation to what class the place demonstrated.  From an analysis of the Charing Cross Commercial Centre, it could be considered to demonstrate a class of place called a mainstreet.  A mainstreet is defined as the principal street of a town or settlement.  It usually contains a mix of buildings reflecting the commercial and civic functions of the town or settlement.  A search of the Australian Heritage Places Inventory shows that there are a number of examples of mainstreets which reflect similar characteristics.  A comparative study of these mainstreets show that there is a great variety in function, layout, architecture, and level of modern infill development, or level of intactness.

While the Charing Cross Commercial Centre demonstrates commercial architecture of a particular period it does not demonstrate a comprehensive mix of building uses which tell a more rounded story about the town or civic life of the place.  This mix of building functions is a principal characteristic of a mainstreet.  An outstanding mainstreet would demonstrate a comprehensive representation of commercial and civic functions illustrative of town life in a particular period.  This was not found with the Charing Cross mainstreet.

Another principal characteristic of a mainstreet is its architecture.  Often the best examples of a town’s civic and commerical architecture are on display on the town’s mainstreet.  Once again, this is not the case with the Charing Cross mainstreet.

It was therefore concluded that the Charing Cross Commercial Centre, Waverley, is not outstanding in national terms to enable the place to meet criterion (d).	
Dundullimal, Dubbo, NSW	While a type of building is not normally considered to be a class of place, the timber slab cottage with bark roof could be considered a class of place because of its extraordinary prominence in Australia in the nineteenth century, as the timber slab cottage with bark roof is the most typical bush dwelling of much of nineteenth-century Australia. There is a high degree of evolution and variation in this form of housing, however the principal characteristics of this class are considered to include a hipped roof, a single-storey house form, a verandah, use of timber-slab technology, a bark roof and a separate kitchen.  ‘Dundullimal’ demonstrates only some of these characteristics of the class - timber slab cottage with bark roof, in that it is in a single-storey form with a high-pitched hipped roof, a verandah, and timber-slab walls, however, it does not have a bark roof and its former separate kitchen has been demolished.  In addition, the place does not contain many associated farm buildings which could demonstrate the homestead within its farm or run context.  ‘Dundullimal’ does not demonstrate all of the principal characteristics of the class of place and is further limited by the lack of associated buildings.  ‘Dundullimal’ homestead is not sufficiently outstanding in national terms to enable the place to meet criterion (d).	
Church Hill, Port Macquarie, NSW	Possible heritage values in relation to the link that the place might have with aspects of the penal ‘system’ as a class of cultural place or environment have been considered under criterion (a) and found there not to meet the threshold of outstanding heritage value to the nation.

Church Hill, possessing only a few, relatively non-core, surviving elements of the former Port Macquarie secondary punishment station, does not demonstrate as well as other places in New South Wales, such as Kingston and Arthur’s Vale on Norfolk Island (at the time, part of New South Wales), the principal characteristics of the secondary punishment station of the convict ‘system’ as experienced in Australia.  Thus, Church Hill did not meet the threshold for outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (d). 	
Haberfield Conservation Area, NSW	The Haberfield Conservation Area had many features which demonstrated some of the principal characteristics of a garden suburb. These included the allocation of a single house (of high quality design) to each block, the large block size enabling sizable gardens to be established, the wide streets with a street tree outside each house, the nature strips next to pedestrian pavements and the homogeneity of domestic architecture throughout the suburb.

While the Haberfield Conservation Area had many features which demonstrated some of the principal characteristics of a garden suburb it was not considered that the ‘Garden City ideals’, of which Haberfield is an example, is nationally important in its own right. In addition, if ‘Garden City ideals’ is nationally important, Haberfield Conservation Area may not be an outstanding example when compared with other examples such as Eaglemont (Victoria), Reid (ACT) and Castlecrag (NSW).	

Criterion (e)

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (e) for their Indigenous heritage significance.

(e) Exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by a community or cultural group	Description of Value	
Grampians National Park (Gariwerd), Halls Gap, Vic	The Grampians National Park contains the densest concentration of rock art paintings in Victoria and constitutes one of the major rock art regions of south-eastern Australia (Goulding & Schell, 2006). Billimina Shelter has exceptionally high significance, with the single largest assemblage of Aboriginal art motifs in Victoria, and a total of some 2000 definable motifs on a single panel.	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (e) for their Indigenous heritage significance.

(e) Exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by a community or cultural group	Description of Value	

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (e) for their historic heritage significance.

(e) Exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by a community or cultural group	Description of Value	
Port Arthur Historic Site, Tas	Port Arthur Historic Site is a complex layered cultural landscape, where the topography, plants and built elements combine to provide a physical chronicle of an eventful and dramatic past.  The physical landscape present today evokes both the establishment of a British convict settlement in a remote Tasmanian setting and more than a century and a half of human history.

Port Arthur is a landscape of picturesque beauty.  Its ruins and formal layout, in a serene setting, and the care with which this is maintained, symbolise a transformation in Australia from ‘hated stain’ to celebration of a convict past.

The picturesque setting of Port Arthur, recognised since the early days of the settlement, features buildings in a landscape of hills with valley, edged by harbour and forest.  Port Puer and the Isle of the Dead, especially when viewed across Mason Cove, provide visual and historic focal points in important vistas.  Similarly, Port Arthur is dramatic when viewed across the water from these settlements or from the water.  The Church and the Penitentiary have both landmark and symbolic value for a variety of vistas to and within the historic site.

The melancholic drama of Port Arthur’s cultural landscape both in the past and today has inspired art and literature including its portrayal in Marcus Clarke’s 1874 novel “For the Term of His Natural Life”.

The Port Arthur penal settlement is one of a small set of places of secondary punishment (together with Norfolk Island, Sarah Island and Maria Island) which relied on an ‘alien’, often water-bounded landscape to form the bars of the prison.  The harbour location and views to and from the water are integral elements of both the visual and historical quality of the place.

The parkland of today’s Port Arthur is, in part, an accidental and deliberate artefact of park management practices.  This, in the context of ruined buildings and mature English trees, which in their turn, were, in part, a function of deliberate design intent, now seems to project an idealised notion of rustic contentment contrasting dramatically with Port Arthur’s known penal history.  This paradox is a very important part of the place’s significance.  The built and planted elements at Port Arthur combine in an image of an ‘English’ place established in the strongly contrasting Australian bush and marine setting of a rugged coastline.

For families, survivors, rescuers, staff and others associated with the 1996 tragedy, the Broad Arrow Cafe and other areas on site associated with the tragedy and subsequent memorial services evoke strong emotional responses as a reminder of the event.

The attribute related to this criterion is the entire place in its setting.	
Sydney Harbour Bridge, NSW	Sydney Harbour Bridge is an integral component of the Sydney Harbour vista and represents one of the most recognisable and iconic images in the world.  It is the picturesque blending of the natural environment and man-made structures around the harbour foreshores that has proved an inspiration for generations of artists and writers.  In its harbour setting, it has inspired a rich and diverse range of images in a variety of mediums – paintings, etchings, drawings, linocuts, photographs, film, poems, posters, stained glass - from the date of its construction through to the present day.

The bridge is conceivably one of Australia’s most-photographed cultural landmarks, and striking images of the bridge have been captured by some of Australia’s best-known photographers.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge has also been replicated in tourist posters, postcards, crafts and the folk arts, its image reproduced in media including glass, ceramic, metal, shells and crochet cotton, embroidery and etchings in a huge array of objects.	
Kingston and Arthurs Vale Historic Area, Norfolk Island	Kingston and Arthurs Vale Historic Area (KAVHA) is outstanding for its picturesque setting, historic associations, part ruinous configuration and subsequent lack of development.  The aesthetic qualities of the landscape have been acknowledged since the First Settlement, forming the subject matter of an artistic record that has continued to the present.

Elements that contribute to the aesthetic qualities of the place include the sea, reef and islands, historic graves, Quality Row buildings, the New Gaol and prisoner’s barracks in a ruinous state, and the extent of the nineteenth century buildings. The picturesque landscape setting, with its domestic scale and agricultural character, is valued for the contrast it represents between the horror of the past and the charm of the present.

KAVHA is outstanding for its views across the site, within the site, from the site to the seascape, and views of the site in its landscape setting.	
Australian Alps National Parks and Reserves	The AANP is a powerful, spectacular and distinctive landscape highly valued by the Australian community. The mountain vistas, including distinctive range-upon-range panoramas, snow covered crests, slopes and valleys, alpine streams and rivers, natural and artificial lakes, the snow-clad eucalypts and the high plain grasslands, summer alpine wildflowers, forests and natural sounds evoke strong aesthetic responses. Much of the terrain of the AANP is highly valued for its remoteness, and naturalness, including views to and from the region that capture snow clad ranges and mountain silhouettes against clear skies as well as expansive views of natural landscapes from the high points of the Alps.

The upper Snowy River and Snowy Gorge, Mount Buffalo, the Kosciuszko Main Range, Lake Tali Karng, Dandongadale Falls the peaks and ridges between and including Mt Cobbler, Mt Howitt and the Bluff, and other high peaks, ridgelines, granite outcrops and escarpments are examples of dramatic awe-inspiring landscapes. Recreational pursuits in these landscapes are enhanced by aesthetic appreciation of their wild and natural quality. 

Snow-covered eucalypts, huts in mountain settings and mountain landscapes are distinctive Australian images captured by numerous artists and photographers. The mountain landscapes have inspired poets, painters, writers, musicians and film makers.	
Warrumbungle National Park, Coonabarabran, NSW	The Warrumbungles form a distinctive and spectacular volcanic landscape of spires, domes, plugs and dykes that is uncommon in Australia (Context 2006, Crocker & Davies 2005b, Duggan & Knutson 1993), and the sharp rise of the landform from the surrounding plain to heights of more than 700m contributes to the aesthetic drama. The site beautifully exposes the inside of a shield volcano, and the bold volcanic landforms are unrivalled anywhere else in Australia (Yeates 2001). The integrity and scenic vistas of the features within the Warrumbungle National Park are of outstanding value to the community.	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (e) for their historic heritage significance.

(e) Exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by a community or cultural group	Description of Value	
Stirling Range National Park, Cranbrook, WA	The nominator claimed that the dramatic mountain scenery and spectacularly colourful wildflower displays of the Stirling Range attract thousands of visitors.
 
The aesthetic features for the Stirling Range are described under two aesthetic indicators: powerful landscapes, and uncommon landscapes, which were indicators developed in studies by Crocker & Davies (2005a) and Context (2004). This assessment also draws on the detailed assessments by Crocker & Davies (2005b) and the desk top review of four landscapes by Context (2006), and also considers how the aesthetic characteristics are valued by the community.  
 
Powerful Landscapes 
The Stirling Range is regarded as having aesthetic characteristics that create a strong emotional response, as noted in the following quotes from CALM and R. Hammond respectively (Crocker and Davies 2005:85). 
 
‘The brooding beauty of the mountain landscape, its stunning and unique wildflowers and the challenge of climbing Bluff Knoll have long drawn bushwalkers and climbers to the Stirling Range National Park. At 1,095 metres above sea level, Bluff Knoll is the highest peak in the south-west of Western Australia. …’ (CALM Internet site)
 
In a personal response to calls for input into development of the Inspirational Landscapes study (Crocker & Davies 2005b), R Hammond stated: 
 
‘The Stirling Range is a spectacular uplifted ancient landform with a brooding and enticing aura that is unusual in WA.  The challenge of a climb up Bluff Knoll, at 1095 metres, or an inspirational walk amid 1500 species of vegetation, many found no where else on earth, attract visitors from around the world.  The Stirling Range is a landscape of unquestionable scenic beauty .., but more importantly, it is a landscape that inspires deep emotional responses from both traditional owners and visitors. ..’ (R Hammond CALM, quoted in Crocker & Davis 2005b:85).
 
Notwithstanding the above quotes, Crocker & Davies (2005b) found that the strength of the data to support the Stirling Range as an inspirational landscape is moderately low. The report found there to be no data available on artistic and creative associations, and moderate levels only for the numbers of historical studies, appearances in popular publications and for the level of information on the internet. 
 
In its detailed aesthetic assessment of the Stirling Range, Context (2006) states that the Stirling Range rates highly at a regional scale only against the Powerful Landscapes indicator. The report goes on to say that the Range is a distinctive landscape form that is unusual within the region, but that there is limited to no evidence to show that it is recognised at the national level.
 
Uncommon Landscape 
Uncommon aesthetic characteristics relate to the diversity and profusion of wildflowers of the Stirling Range, and the CALM website states: ‘the number and beauty of the wildflowers is staggering. …spring wildflower viewing is incredible.’(CALM 2005).  
 
In considering the wildflower displays of the Stirling Range, Context (2006) reports that wildflowers are an important tourist attraction in Western Australia. Tourism Western Australia listed eight broad areas in the southern region as being popular for wildflower viewing, including the Stirling Ranges, although the Wildflower Society of Western Australia described the best areas as being north of Perth. However, there is limited data available on which are the most popular specific wildflower destinations in Western Australia (Context 2006).
 
The Inspirational Landscapes study also mentions the importance of wildflowers displays for the Flinders Ranges, the Grampians, and the Alpine National Park.  While there is evidence that this is an important aesthetic value to the community, there is not an established framework for determining which sites possess national significance for this value, and therefore the Stirling Range could not be shown to meet this criterion. 
 
Community value
The landscape of the Stirling Range is comparable with the Grampians as a range with many natural aesthetic features that protrudes from a flat plain and is regarded as a regional icon.  Due to its more isolated location and with few internal roads, it does not have the high visitation or the recognition of the Grampians. 
 
The inspirational landscapes study (Crocker & Davies 2005a), lists the Stirling Range as one of 68 landscapes in Australia that have been proposed as being potentially significant as an inspirational landscape at a national scale.  In this study, the strength of supporting data was rated and used to determine which places had sufficient relevant information for further assessment as potentially significant inspirational landscapes. The ranking for each place was determined by four main criteria, these being: the number of artistic and other creative references; the number of historic studies; the number of tourism publications, guidebooks and large format books; and the number of references on the internet, thereby helping to determine which places rank highly in terms of how well known they are to the Australian community. 
 
In comparison with a number of mountain ranges studied, Crocker and Davies (2005a & b) found that the Stirling Range had moderate strength in its supporting information and was ranked lower than most other mountain landscapes for supporting evidence as an inspirational landscape.  Out of 25 mountain landscapes considered, Stirling Range ranked  25th, along with the Gammon Ranges, and King Leopold Ranges. Other places that might intuitively be considered to be more isolated, or less well-known included Lawn Hill in Queensland,  Mutawinji in NSW, Mount Field in Tasmania, Karajini in WA, and the Warrumbungles in NSW. All these places however, ranked more highly for supporting information than the Stirling Range in the Crocker & Davies (2005a) report. 
 
When comparing the Stirling Range to other sandstone ranges, all other sandstone mountains considered in Crocker and Davies (2005a & b) ranked more highly for evidence as an inspirational landscape, including for the Grampians in Victoria, the Flinders Ranges in SA, the Blue Mountains in NSW, the West Macdonnell Ranges and Kakadu (Arnhemland Escarpment) in the NT, and Purnululu in WA.  
 
Of this selection of mountainous sandstone landscapes, the Inspirational Landscapes report found that most of the above places demonstrated outstanding value to the community, ranking highly or very highly for the indicators of historic studies, artistic and literature references, popular and tourism publications, and internet references. The Stirling Range, however, while being arguably spectacular, ranked poorly for the four categories.
 
The Stirling Range was one of 10 places identified in WA as being an indicative inspirational landscape (Crocker & Davies 2005a).  Of these, two had insufficient information to be ranked. Of the remaining eight, the Stirling Range ranked 7th, along with the King Leopold Ranges, and the Mitchell River and Prince Regent Nature Reserve. Places that ranked more highly in WA for the strength of supporting information included the Pinnacles, Karijini in the Pilbara, and Shark Bay. 
 
In its detailed aesthetic assessment of the Stirling Range, Context (2006) states that: ‘the Stirling Range rates highly at a regional scale against the two indicators, Powerful Landscapes and Uncommon Landscapes.’ The same report concludes that the place is not recognised nationally for its aesthetic qualities. 
 
There is insufficient evidence to show that the aesthetic characteristics of the Stirling Range are of outstanding value to the nation, nor is there evidence to show that the place is strongly valued by a community or cultural group, as required in determining if the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation.	

Criterion (f)

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (f) for their Indigenous heritage significance.

(f) High degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period	Description of Value	
Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape – Mt Eccles Lake Condah Area, Vic	The system of ponds, wetlands, channels, weirs and fish traps in the Mt Eccles/Lake Condah area are of outstanding heritage value.  Gunditj Mara people constructed the channels to manipulate water flows and the weirs to modify and create wetlands that provided ideal growing conditions for the shortfinned eel and other fish (Coutts et al 1978; Lourandos 1980; Williams 1988; Clark 1990a; Aboriginal Affairs Victoria and Kerrup Jmara Elders Aboriginal Corporation 1993; Builth 2002, 2003).  This system is confined to Western Victoria and shows a high degree of creativity not found in freshwater fish traps in other parts of Australia.  Unlike other places in Western Victoria like Toolondo (Lourandos 1980) and Mt William (Williams 1988), the Mt Eccles/Lake Condah area contains all the elements that demonstrate the functioning of this system.	
Dampier Archipelago (incl Burrup Peninsula), WA	The rock engravings in the Dampier Archipelago show exceptional creative diversity when compared with the other art provinces in the Pilbara or rock engravings elsewhere in Australia (McDonald and Veth 2005: Section 4.6). They include examples of the types of human figures characteristic of the other art provinces in the Pilbara as well as having unique human forms and figures indicating activity. The engravings on the Dampier Archipelago include detailed and finely executed examples of water birds, crabs, crayfish, kangaroos, turtles and fish, some of which, because of their detail, can be identified to species level. The finely executed animals identified to species level, the diversity of human forms and the panels of engravings showing scenes of human activity exhibit a high degree of creativity, particularly during the Holocene, that is unusual in Australian rock engravings.	
Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps, (Biaimes Ngunnhu), NSW	The Ngunnhu is exceptional as it is an unusual and highly innovative development in pre-European Aboriginal technology.  The stone-walled pens are designed to withstand the high water flows of the Barwon River.  They are tear-drop shaped with the convex wall facing upstream.  Some of the pen walls are higher than others enabling their use during both low and high water flows.  This is combined with pond gates set at different locations enabling fish to be caught as they migrated both upstream and downstream.  The structure of the Ngunnhu demonstrates the development of a very efficient method for catching fish involving a thorough understanding of dry stone wall construction techniques, river hydrology and fish ecology.	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (f) for their Indigenous heritage significance.

(f) High degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period	Description of Value	
Appin Colliery Area 3, Appin, NSW (Emergency Listing request)	The nominator claimed that the rock art of the nominated area is ‘culturally and artistically unique’ under criterion (a), as this claim was linked to the arrival of a particular language group in the region.

The nominator also claimed that the Appin Colliery Area 3 demonstrates the creativity of Aboriginal people, ‘documenting their dispossession in strands of lore so powerful, enduring and compelling that they crossed cultural boundaries, enabling May Gibbs who drew upon them to become a national icon of unique status’.  The evidence relating to the significance of the May Gibbs’ characters and stories and their association with Aboriginal tradition under criterion (h) was considered.  The Department advised that Indigenous stories about creation, the landscape, plants, and animals are common to indigenous traditions throughout Australia.  There was no evidence that the Appin Colliery Area 3 may be of outstanding heritage value to the nation.	

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (f) for their historic heritage significance.

(f) High degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period	Description of Value	
Australian Academy of Science Building, ACT	The Australian Academy of Science Building was a milestone in the Australian construction industry. The moat, beam, piers and the footings which form the load bearing capacity of large radius copper clad dome are a continuous entity, making the dome extremely stable, preventing movement and the need for expansion joints. The internal walls, including the perimeter curtain wall do not structurally support the dome.

The design demonstrates a high level of creativity in its concept, and a high level of integrity in the execution of the design concept. The building demonstrates clarity of design philosophy in the uncompromising, integrated and consistent architectural style and detailing of the buildings exterior and interior. 

The interior design and furnishings are an integral part of the building and its significance.

The national heritage importance is expressed in the Academy of Science Building, its interior design finishes and furnishings, the encircling water filled moat and a surrounding garden setting that allows for a clear view of the building.	
ICI Building (former), Vic	The free standing tower of the ICI Building, set in a landscaped garden and incorporating on site parking, introduced the idea of trade-offs between height and public amenity in Australian cities.  Based on international models, this would reach its full expression in complexes such as Australia Square in Sydney.  

At the time of its completion in 1958, the ICI Building was the tallest freestanding office building in Australia, which in its modern materials and technological aesthetic also presented the most progressive architectural statement in Australia.  However, the ICI Building was, in general, a transfer of American architectural concepts to Australia, repeating an established pattern, in which architectural fashions tended to originate overseas. 	
High Court-National Gallery Precinct, ACT	The High Court - National Gallery Precinct is important for its design achievement. The Precinct is an integrated complex of buildings, gardens, landscaping, water features and architectural elements which create a setting for the national art and sculpture collection as well as venue for important national functions. The complex is stylistically integrated in terms of architectural forms and finishes, and as an ensemble of freestanding buildings linked by a footbridge in a cohesive landscape setting. 

The High Court of Australia is an imposing civic building which incorporates the significant design features of the ceremonial ramp, the forecourt, the courtrooms, the emblematic designs on fittings and the Public Hall. The highly prominent ceremonial ramp with its integral water cascade is a design feature that symbolically invites public access to the High Court and links to the National Gallery entrance. The high profile of the building in the precinct and Parliamentary Triangle is also an important design feature that emphasises the separation of the Judiciary from Parliament and the role of the High Court as the intermediary between the government and the people. 

An innovative design feature of the Precinct is the extension of the underpinning triangular geometry of the spatial layout of the National Gallery projecting into the surrounding landscape, particularly in the Sculpture Garden and High Court Forecourt, expressed in path layout patterns, paving patterns, the angled siting of the Flugelman Sculpture and the water patterns of the High Court cascade. The triangular shape is further expressed in structural columns and beam patterns of the Gallery as in numerous small elements.  

A key design feature for the Sculpture Garden is the integration of the sculptures with the garden by the use of partially enclosed display spaces, long sight lines and water features. A further design feature is the subtle division of the garden into seasonal areas to reflect flowering in the spring and winter gardens, and a cool ambience with water in the summer garden . The Fiona Hall Fern Garden is an individual creative work.

The Precinct is important for the artistry and craftsmanship of the water features of the marsh pond with its cascade and the adjacent Fujiko Nakaya Fog Sculpture, the reflecting pool with the Lachaise  Floating Figure, and High Court Ceremonial Ramp Cascade.

The innovative design excellence arising from the high quality integrated concrete structures and spaces composition combined with the craft based approach to concrete construction, is expressed throughout the precinct with the exception of the 1997 Gallery wing.	
Sydney Opera House, NSW	The Sydney Opera House represents a masterpiece of architectural creativity and technical accomplishment unparalleled in Australia’s history. In every respect, it is a structure at the leading edge of endeavour.  Its many awards, including the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Gold Award given to architect Jørn Utzon in 1973, reflect its pivotal place in the national story of creative achievement providing, as Utzon envisioned, ‘an individual face for Australia in the world of art’ (Frampton and Cava 1995, 296). The design of the building reflects Utzon’s intention to create a sculptural form that would be both a focal point in Sydney Harbour and a reflection of its character. ‘The white sail-like forms of the shell vaults relate as naturally to the Harbour as the sails to its yachts’ (Assessors Report cited in Norberg-Schulz 1980, 56). 

The ‘hybrid’ interior spaces of the Sydney Opera House reflect the creative genius of both Utzon and Todd, Hall and Littlemore, who completed the building and interior finishes after Utzon’s departure. The major public spaces with outside views, for example were designed by Utzon (and completed by Peter Hall) to be finished in natural materials, textures and colours similar to those on the exterior of the building in order to bring the outside inside (Kerr 2003, 69). In his Design Principles booklet submitted to the Sydney Opera House Trust in 2002, Utzon revealed the two ideas of particular importance in his design: first, his use of organic forms from nature, evident in the leaf form pattern devised for the ceramic roof tiles, and second was the creation of sensory experiences to bring pleasure to the building’s users, particularly the experience of approaching, mounting the grand staircase to the podium, passing through the low ribbed box office, up to the foyers flanking the auditoria with their harbour views, and the climax of the performance itself. ‘Both ideas were…reinforced by Utzon’s application of counterpointing techniques using light and dark tones, soft and hard textures and richly treated warm and cool interior colours. On a grander scale, the light toned shells of the building were to stand out against the (then) darker fabric of the city’ (Kerr 2003, 44). 

The interior spaces designed by Peter Hall, including the major auditoria known as the Concert Hall and Opera Theatre, and the minor performance spaces, performers’ and staff areas, and rehearsal rooms, known collectively as ‘Wobbly Land’ because of the distinctive ‘U’ shaped timber panelling, demonstrate the distinctive design solutions that made the Opera House a functioning performing arts centre in the 1970s, and reflect the prevailing aesthetic values, building standards, and financial constraints of the day. 

The process of building the Sydney Opera House resulted in the development of a number of innovative technical and creative solutions that were groundbreaking in the history of building design and construction in Australia.  This is especially the case with the design and construction of the roof, based on the geometry of the sphere. The roof shells had to span large areas to accommodate the main hall and smaller hall. The solution to the structural challenges of the roof shells devised by Utzon and Ove Arup and Partners over a four year period involved the production of arched segments of varying curvature from the same range of precast modular units. The concrete shells were finally produced by cutting a three-sided segment out of a sphere and by deriving regularly modulated curved surfaces from this solid (Frampton and Cava 1995, 273). The roof shells with their vaulted concrete ribs were constructed using precast concrete segments fixed together with epoxy resin and held together by pre-stressing tendons, representing a considerable structural innovation for the period. The roof shells were faced in off-white Swedish Hoganas tiles inspired by the Chinese ceramic tradition. Using a European technique of prefabrication, over one million tiles were cast into precast concrete lids on the ground then bonded onto the ribbed superstructure of the shells (Frampton and Cava 1995, 280). From the point of view of science, the Opera House embodies within its structure the integration of sophisticated geometry, technology and art. It epitomizes the extraordinary creative potential of the assembly of prefabricated, repeated components (Norberg-Schulz 1996, 101).

The building was the first of its kind in Australia to use computer-based three-dimensional site positioning devices, geothermal pumps, tower cranes, chemical anchors, non-competitive tendering, life-cycle engineering, parametric design (such as the use of governing equations to model a design), and critical path methods. It gave rise to the establishment of a testing laboratory at the University of New South Wales that became one of the first organizations in the world to commercialise university research and support technology transfer. It also promoted Australian expertise internationally, and opened the way for international engineering construction firms such as Ove Arup to establish their operations in Australia. Utzon’s approach to project management was instrumental in changing Australian building and building procurement practices, including de facto pre-qualification of bidders, use of scope drawings, performance-based design assistance from trade specialists, mock-up testing, and on-the-job skill development (Tombesi 2005).	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (f) for their historic heritage significance.

(f) High degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period	Description of Value	
Portable Iron House, South Melbourne, Vic	The high degree of technical art achieved by 19th century British ironmongers, the quality of the casting, and precision of the fittings, was better demonstrated by other iron houses extant in Australia, such as ‘Wingecarribee’ or ‘Corio Villa’, than by the three nominated houses.  The ‘James Hogg’ house provides a better example of corrugated iron construction than do the nominated Portable Iron Houses. athe Portable Iron Houses, Coventry Street, South Melbourne, are not outstanding in national terms to enable the place to meet criterion (f).	
Swing Bridge, Longford, Vic	The development of construction techniques and civil engineering in Australia in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries followed British, American and European models, in particular relating to bridge construction.  The exception was in the use of timber where Australia developed its own techniques using round timbers rather than squared timbers.  The Nepean River Rail Bridge at Menangle, NSW (1863), the Shoalhaven River Road Bridge (1880) at Nowra in NSW, and the Pyrmont Bridge (1899) in Sydney used similar technology to that used for the Swing Bridge, Longford.  In the absence of a broad comparative study of bridges and transport systems, it could not be determined whether the seminal design features of the Swing Bridge, Longford, conferred National Heritage values.  It was concluded on the available evidence that the place did not satisfy criterion (f).  	
Barwon Sewer Aqueduct, Geelong, Vic	The design of the Barwon Sewer Aqueduct was based on the Considere technique by engineer G. E. Stone.  The place can be considered to have some technical and creative merit for its pioneering role.  In terms of outstanding heritage value to the nation, however, there is insufficient information to demonstrate that the Barwon Sewer Aqueduct, when considered with other construction techniques, civil engineering works and sewerage systems, represents a technical or creative achievement of national importance. 	

Criterion (g)

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (g) for their Indigenous heritage significance. 

(g) Social, cultural or spiritual association	Description of Value	
Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps (Biammes Ngunnhu), NSW	The Ngunnhu has a strong social, cultural and spiritual association with Aboriginal people.  While the Ngemba people are the custodians of the Ngunnhu, it was Baiame’s wish that other tribes in the region, including the Morowari, Paarkinji, Weilwan, Barabinja, Ualarai and Kamilaroi should use it in an organised way.  He allocated particular traps to each family group and made them responsible under Aboriginal law for their use and maintenance.  The Ngunnhu is of outstanding heritage value to the nation because it shows how an ancestral creation being, under Aboriginal law, determined the social, cultural and spiritual associations between a number of Aboriginal groups and a built structure on one group’s land.	
Cyprus-Hellene Club – Australia Hall, Sydney, NSW	The Day of Mourning played a significant role in the history of Indigenous peoples' struggle for the recognition of their civic rights and is regarded by Indigenous people as one of the most important moments in the history of the Indigenous resistance in the early 20th Century (Martin 1996, Foley 2005). The strong social and cultural association Indigenous people have with Australia Hall and the Day of Mourning is demonstrated by the continuous references made by Indigenous leaders from across Australia to this event (Pearson 1997; Djerrkura 1998; Dodson 2000; Foley 2005). It is also shown through the campaign during the 1990s for the recognition of the significance of the building to Indigenous people and the depiction of the Day of Mourning at Reconciliation Place. Indigenous people have a strong association with Australia Hall, the site of the Day of Mourning, as the first national Indigenous protest which identified social justice issues of continuing relevance to Indigenous people.	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (g) for their Indigenous heritage significance. 

(g) Social, cultural or spiritual association	Description of Value	
Burrup Peninsula	Environmentalists, heritage professionals, rock art specialist and others who collectively seek protection of the Aboriginal heritage in the nominated area do not meet the definition for a community or cultural group. They do not reside in, or share a heritage in a specific locality, and they do not share a common ethnicity or cultural background required for a cultural group. The grouping of people by a common purpose described as to ‘seek the protection of the precinct’ suggests that this is an interest group rather than a community or cultural group.
Ngarda-Ngarli people have a strong or special association with the Damper Archipelago through their traditions and Aboriginal law. Some Ngarda-Ngarli people know and can sing images of particular animals or ceremonies found on the Dampier Archipelago. They also have knowledge of a number of the engraved images, standing stones and stone arrangements that are part of thalu, or increase sites. However, this strong or special association through tradition is common throughout Indigenous communities. There is insufficient evidence to show that this association is of outstanding significant at the national level.	
Lady Julia Percy Island	The Gunditjmara have a strong spiritual association with Lady Julia Percy Island (Deen Maar).  According to their traditions, it is the place where the spirits of dead people go.  They also have traditions about spirits and creation beings that link Deen Maar to places on the mainland, including the cave, Tarn Wirring, Mt Eccles (Budj Bim) and Mt Napier.  Spiritual associations to country through the activities of creation beings at particular places are characteristic of Aboriginal societies throughout Australia and there was insufficient information to show the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation under this criterion.  	

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (g) for their historic heritage significance. 

(g) Social, cultural or spiritual association	Description of Value	
Sydney Harbour Bridge, NSW	It was part of John Job Crew Bradfield's vision for the bridge that it be used at times of national rejoicing.  Since its opening it has regularly supported flags, banners, and especially fireworks, becoming a focus for national and local celebrations.  Community ceremonial and celebratory occasions centred on Sydney Harbour Bridge, either for the people of Sydney or the broad Australian community, are well recognised and have been widely noted.  Since 1932, the broad Australian community has identified the Sydney Harbour Bridge as one of the most nationally and internationally recognised symbol of Australia and the bridge in its harbour setting represents a composite national symbolic image.	
Australian War Memorial and the Memorial Parade, ACT
	The AWM is the national war museum and national shrine, and together with Anzac Park, has special associations for the Australian community, particularly veterans and their families.  These special associations are reinforced on ANZAC Day and at ceremonies specific to particular memorials on Anzac Parade.  The AWM and the Anzac Parade memorials are the nation’s major focal point for commemoration including the ANZAC Day march and other ceremonies and events.  These values are expressed through: the AWM building (including the Hall of Memory); the collection; the surrounding landscape (including the Sculpture Garden); and Anzac Parade including the memorials	
Tree of Knowledge, Qld	The Tree of Knowledge is significant to the nation, in particular the Trade Union Movement because of the place’s special association with the Shearers Strike of 1891.  The Australian Shearers Union merged with the General Labourer’s Union in 1894 to form the Australian Workers Union, which affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unions in 1966.  Labour Day in Queensland is celebrated annually in the first week in May, coinciding with the march of shearers and bush workers on 1 May 1891, May Day, during the Shearers Strike.	
Flemington Racecourse, Vic
	Flemington Racecourse has a special association with the people of Australia as the venue of some of the country’s greatest horse races, and in particular the Melbourne Cup which each year captures the imagination of the country on the first Tuesday in November and brings it to a standstill.  The Cup has been a stimulus for the arts, including literature, painting, drama and ballet.  As a spectator sport, racing has one of the highest participation rates in Australia, and the Melbourne Cup and the cult of the turf have become part of the national psyche.
Flemington Racecourse has also become an important venue for Australian fashion.  The Melbourne Cup spring racing carnival is a major part of the fashion industry’s year.  ‘Oaks Day’ of the spring carnival was developed as a ‘ladies day’ in 1885, and within two years had become the fashion event of the Melbourne year.	
Port Arthur Historic Site, Tas	Port Arthur Historic Site is a place where the aspects of Australia’s convict experience are recalled within a picturesque landscape as a reminder of our inherited psyche and our communal past.
Port Arthur is the best-known symbol of Australia's convict past, a highly revered icon that symbolically represents Tasmania's place in Australian history.
The Arcadian qualities of the Port Arthur landscape are valued by most visitors to the place and by generations of Tasmanians.
For Australians broadly, particularly those of Anglo-Celtic background, Port Arthur is a place to reconnect with their colonial roots, real or imagined, and reflect on the meanings of the past.  For some, the search for early family associations and identity has led to Port Arthur and the rediscovery of personal links with convictism.
Port Arthur has always been a place where visitors from across the world are moved emotionally, possibly one of the few such cathartic locations in post-settlement Australia.
Port Arthur Historic Site is a symbol of modern heritage practice in Australia – an expression of how we care (or, as in the past, have not cared so much) about our heritage.  It holds an important place in the history of modern heritage conservation in Australia.
Port Arthur has become a particularly poignant, symbolic and special place following the April 1996 tragedy.  The tragedy has become a prominent political symbol in Australia – ‘Port Arthur’ is now understood nationally and worldwide to encapsulate the debate and new policies for national gun reform.  This has clearly added a new and emotionally powerful layer to the national meaning of the place.	
Bonegilla Migrant Camp – Block 19, Viic	Bonegilla holds powerful connections for many people in Australia. Currently, there are an estimated 1.5 million descendents of migrants who spent time at Bonegilla. 

Bonegilla forms an important part of Australia's recent collective memory and has become a symbol of post-World War II migration. It represents the role of Australia as the 'host' nation.

For the migrants who spent time at the migrant reception and training centre and their descendants, Block 19, Bonegilla is representative of their first home in Australia. For the broader Australian community, Bonegilla represents the post war migration which transformed the nation economically, socially and culturally: I have come to understand, as have so many others, that it is truly an iconic place in the land where the 'journey' takes on so much significance for the new Australians as well as the original ones' (Skowronska 2004:11). 

Bonegilla and its associated oral and written records yield insights into post-war migration and refugee experiences.	
Melbourne Cricket Ground, Vic	The MCG is one of the most nationally recognisable landmarks in Australia. It has been the venue for major sporting events of both international and national significance for 150 years, and is strongly identified with the beginnings and continuing tradition of national and international cricket and Australian Rules football. It has strong associations for the sporting community in Melbourne, Victoria and the rest of Australia.

The important association of the MCG for the sporting community is evidenced by very large attendances to events at the ground. Boxing Day cricket, a tradition since the earliest days of the MCG, is now firmly established as an annual event, the ‘Boxing Day’ Test. Significant sporting events at the MCG, particularly AFL football, attract a high number of people, including several occasions where attendances of over 100,000 have been recorded.

The MCG is closely identified with the MCC, the biggest sporting club in Australia and one of the biggest in the world, with a membership in March 2005 of 91,200 and 156,200 on the waiting list for entry. The membership extends beyond Melbourne, to the country, interstate and overseas. As well as access to sporting events at the MCG, the attraction for its members is the historical and social associations of belonging to one of Australia’s oldest clubs.

The MCG has assumed an identity beyond that of a sporting venue. Government and the commercial world utilise the status of the MCG to promote the city and the state. Its importance for the community lies in participating in events as well as experiencing the place itself. The writer Brian Matthews has noted that the MCG has long since gone beyond its status as a site, or architectural entity, or even major sporting stadium, and is now part of the Melburnian, Victorian and Australian mental and imaginative world.	
Rippon Lea House and Garden, Elsternwick, Vic	Rippon Lea has a strong association with the National Trust community which has undertaken major conservation works and re-established historic cultivars in the garden. It is important for its association with the Melbourne community and has been publicly accessible for over 30 years. It has been selected as a setting for films and documentaries because of the high degree of integrity of the historic buildings and garden.	
Glenrowan Heritage Precinct, Vic	The Glenrowan Heritage Precinct has social and cultural significance to members of the wider Australian community for its defining role in the creation of the Ned Kelly 'myth' or 'legend'  The place is directly associated with a nationally important story, which has become part of Australia’s cultural traditions. 	
Batavia Shipwreck and Survivor Camps Area 1629 – Houtman Abrolhos, WA	The Batavia wreck sites have social and cultural significance to members of the wider Australian community due  to their role in defining the archetypal Australian shipwreck story.  The places on which the events unfolded during and after the wreck of the ship, are associated with a nationally important story which graphically illustrates the dangers inherent in sea travel to Australia.  The hardships inherent in this travel have become part of Australia's cultural traditions, expressed through books like Hugh Edwards’ Island of Angry Ghosts and Henrietta Drake-Brockman’s Voyage to Disaster and music, such as Richard Mill’s opera ‘Batavia’.	
Flemington Racecourse, Vic	Flemington Racecourse has a special association with the people of Australia as the venue of some of the country’s greatest horseraces, and in particular the Melbourne Cup which each year captures the imagination of the country on the first Tuesday in November and brings it to a standstill.  The Cup has been a stimulus for the arts, including literature, painting, drama and ballet.  As a spectator sport, racing has one of the highest participation rates in Australia, and the Melbourne Cup and the cult of the turf have become part of the national psyche.

Flemington Racecourse has also become an important venue for Australian fashion.  The Melbourne Cup spring racing carnival is a major part of the fashion industry’s year.  ‘Oaks Day’ of the spring carnival was developed as a ‘ladies day’ in 1885, and within two years had become the fashion event of the Melbourne year.	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (g) for their historic heritage significance. 

(g) Social, cultural or spiritual association	Description of Value	
Bradman’s Birthplace	The place evidently has high social significance for the Cootamundra community and for sections of the wider community (as evidenced by visitation to the museum, and the results of public consultation), but there are insufficient grounds for regarding the place as being outstanding to the nation under this criterion.	
Bondi Surf Pavilion

NB This is a separate assessment from that for Bondi Beach	The Bondi Surf Pavilion is likely to have social meaning for residents of Sydney, but that the place is not outstanding in this regard	
Millthorpe and immediate environs	While the RNE place report states that “the township has considerable social significance for the local and district community”, no further evidence was found to establish any other strong or special social values and none valued at the national level	

Criterion (h)

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (h) for their Indigenous heritage significance.

(h) Association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Hermannsburg historic Precinct, NT	Albert Namatjira
Hermannsburg Historic Precinct has a special association with Albert Namatjira and Aboriginal artists who paint in the watercolour tradition.  
 
Namatjira's importance lies in his development of a distinctive Aboriginal school of Central Australian landscape painting executed in watercolour.  He was the first Aboriginal artist to be commercially exhibited nationally and internationally.  Namatjira's work became widely acclaimed and a national symbol for Aboriginal achievement.  
 
Namatjira grew up at Hermannsburg Mission, and the mission was pivotal to Namatjira's development as an artist.  His first experience in art for commercial return occurred at the mission, and in the early 1930s Namatjira was introduced to European style watercolour painting during artist Rex Battarbee's visit to Hermannsburg Mission. The Lutheran missionaries at Hermannsburg played an important part in supporting and promoting Namatjira's early artwork, and managing his affairs.  Namatjira maintained a close association with Hermannsburg Mission throughout his later artistic career, frequently returning to the mission for periods of time.  
 
Aboriginal artists from other family groups in this area continue to paint in the watercolour tradition today.
 
Carl T. G. Strehlow and Theodore G. H. Strehlow
Lutheran missionaries based at Hermannsburg Mission have made a singular contribution to the record of Aboriginal traditions through their work in this region.
 
Pastor Carl Strehlow was a scholar and skilled linguist whose early research with the Western Arrernte and Luritja people in Central Australia over a 30 year period made a landmark contribution to the development of anthropology as a comparative discipline.  His main work Die Aranda – und Lorita-Stamme in Zentral Australien adds to the early anthropological work of W. B. Spencer and F. J. Gillen on the Arrernte.  Disagreements between the Lutheran Strehlow and the secular anthropologists set the scene for conflict over the interpretation of Aboriginal beliefs and traditions and over Aboriginal policy throughout the later twentieth century.  Carl Strehlow's missionary posting at Hermannsburg Mission and the relationships he formed with Aboriginal people in the region were fundamental to his work and key elements in the enduring Lutheran perspective on Aboriginal affairs. 
 
This work was consolidated and developed by T. G. H. Strehlow, Carl Strehlow's son.  His knowledge of Arrernte language and custom began with his early life at the mission, allowing him to develop the close relationships with Aboriginal people that were crucial throughout his career.  He became a skilled linguist and was acknowledged as the leading anthropologist of Central Australia based on his intimate knowledge of Arrernte religious life and traditions.  Hermannsburg Mission provided a base for much of his fieldwork, and many of his most important informants were associated with the mission.
 
The Strehlows and other Lutherans based at Hermannsburg left one of the most comprehensive and detailed records of an Australian Aboriginal people.  In Australian anthropology and Aboriginal policy circles T. G. H. Strehlow was regarded as an authority on Central Australia, and the positions he adopted on Aboriginal issues continued a strain of Lutheran non-conformity that developed at Hermannsburg Mission.	
Wave Hill Walk Off Route, NT	Vincent Lingiari OAM is an important figure in Australian history because of his role in the Wave Hill Walk-Off and subsequent events that contributed to the fundamental shift of Aboriginal policy following the 1967 referendum, towards Aboriginal self-determination and land rights. Vincent Lingiari combined leadership on industrial issues, with high authority in Aboriginal tradition, and dignity in impoverished circumstances to exemplify the Australian notion of ‘a fair go’.
 
In 1977, Vincent Lingiari was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to his people.
 
At every stage of the Route, Vincent Lingiari had a key leadership role.  This includes his role in initiating the walk-off, in leading his people to Wave Hill Welfare Settlement, in the important meetings at the camps near Wave Hill Welfare Settlement, in the decision to establish the community at Daguragu and as the recipient of lands on behalf of the Gurindji, which took place at Daguragu.	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (h) for their Indigenous heritage significance.

(h) Association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (h) for their historic heritage significance.

(h) Association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Kurnell Peninsula Headland, NSW	The Meeting Place Precinct, Kurnell Peninsula, is significant to the nation as the first landfall of Captain James Cook during his successful mapping of Australia’s eastern coastline in 1770.  This event has been celebrated by the placing of memorials since 1822 and through commemorations such as the bicentenary in 1970.
 
On this, Cook’s first of three voyages in the Pacific, Joseph Banks was botanist, assisted by Daniel Solander and the artists Sydney Parkinson, Alexander Buchan and Herman Sporing.  The artists were to produce botanical, zoological and ethnographic drawings.  Banks and Solander collected 83 specimens, many of which are now the type specimens of species and genera, including Banksia.  Both Banks and Solander as scientists on Cook’s crew are remembered by local geographical place names; Cape Banks and Point Solander have defined the entrance to Botany Bay since 1770.  
 
Attributes clearly associated with the landing are included within the Meeting Place Precinct.  Although the location of botanical specimens collected by Banks and Solander was referred to generically as ‘Botany Bay’, the landing place, as the site of first exposure to the environment, was a key source of botanical specimens and species types.  A number of species, including Angophora costata woodland on the adjacent headland areas and a native violet at the watering place, named after Banks, occur in close proximity to the landing site.  	
Mawsons Huts and Mawsons Huts Historic Site, Antarctica	Mawson’s Huts Historic Site is significant for its associations with all members of the AAE and the crew of the expedition vessel SY Aurora. The site’s association is not only with the eighteen members of the Main Base at Cape Denison, but also the eight members of the Western Base, and five members of the Macquarie Island Base. These activities and associations are important to Australia’s history in terms of early achievement in Sub-Antarctic and Antarctic scientific exploration and discovery. 
Mawson’s Huts Historic Site is particularly associated with AAE members who continued their Antarctic associations (including Davis, Wild, Hurley and Moyes) and those who continued careers in science and applied science (including Madigan, Webb, Laseron, Stillwell and Kennedy). The AAE is significant for the photography of Frank Hurley, including his innovative use of colour images and cinematography.
The place is directly associated with Sir Douglas Mawson’s major Antarctic expedition, one which made him a hero to much of the Australian population. Mawson is a major figure in Australian science and played a huge role in Australia’s Antarctic history.  The place is similarly, though less prominently in the public mind, associated with all the members of the AAE. A number of these men went on to have significant careers either in Antarctica and/or in science. Perhaps the best known of the other expeditioners is photographer and filmmaker Frank Hurley, who made a major contribution to his fields of endeavour.  

Old Parliament House, ACT	Old Parliament House has an important association with many people, particularly national politicians.  Prime Ministers of Australia who served their term in Old Parliament House include:
 
Stanley Bruce          from      29/10/1922     to      22/10/1929
James Scullin          from      22/10/1929     to      6/1/1932
Joseph Lyons          from      6/1/1932         to      7/4/1939
Earle Page              from      7/4/1939         to      26/4/1939
Robert Menzies       from      26/4/1939       to      29/8/1941
Arthur Fadden         from      29/8/1941       to      7/10/1941
John Curtin             from      7/10/1941       to      5/7/1945
Frank Forde            from      6/7/1945         to      13/7/1945
Ben Chifley             from      13/7/1945       to      19/12/1949
Robert Menzies      from      19/12/1949     to      26/1/1966
Harold Holt             from      29/6/1966       to      19/12/1967
John McEwen        from      19/12/1967     to      10/1/1968
John Gorton           from      10/1/1968       to      10/3/1971
William McMahon  from      10/3/1971       to      5/12/1972
Gough Whitlam     from      5/12/1972       to      11/11/1975
Malcolm Fraser     from      11/11/1975     to      11/3/1983
Robert Hawke       from      11/3/1983 and continued beyond 1988 when Federal Parliament moved to the new building.
 
Prominent individuals associated with the Wings include Senator Neville Bonner AO, the first Aboriginal parliamentarian, elected in 1972, and Dame Enid Lyons and Senator Dorothy Tangney, the first women parliamentarians, elected in 1943.
 
The building is the most prominent example of the work of the Commonwealth's first government architect, John Smith Murdoch.	
Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Vic	The Sidney Myer Music Bowl has a special association with the works of Sidney Myer and the Myer family. Named for its benefactor, the Sidney Myer Music Bowl is among the best known projects of the Sidney Myer Charity Trust. The Bowl is of historical importance to the state of Victoria for its association with the Sidney Myer Charitable Trust and its association with the Myer family.
 
The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is a fine example of one of Australia's leading architects, Yuncken Freeman Brothers, Griffiths and Simpson, and particularly the work of architect Barry Patten. However this recognition is not of outstanding heritage value to the nation.
 
The National Heritage List values are expressed through the whole of the Music Bowl structure including stage, seating, the retaining walls to the side of the stage and rear of seating and the associated landscaping as an expression of the structure. The new works introduced below ground, during the 1998-2001 refurbishment, and the sculpture Maggiore are not included in the associated landscaping. 
 	
Flora Fossil Site, Yea, Vic	Baragwanathia fossils were first discovered at Yea in 1875 and subsequently described by Australia’s eminent pioneer palaeobiologist Dr Isabel Cookson and Professor William Lang from Manchester University in 1935. Cookson (1893-1973) was world renowned for her fossil plant studies and is strongly associated with the Yea fossil site. Cookson’s description of the Baragwanathia fossil assemblage rates as one of her major achievements over a research career that spanned 58 years and produced great insight into the history and evolution of Australia’s flora (Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre 2005).	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (h) for their historic heritage significance.

(h) Association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Australia’s natural or cultural history	Description of Value	
Bradman’s Birthplace, Cootamundra, NSW	That Sir Donald Bradman was born at this place is not sufficient to satisfy the criterion for outstanding value to the nation.  It is the man’s birth, and that alone, which is associated with the place.  The Bradman family was not living in Cootamundra at the time of the birth, and it moved to Bowral three years after the birth.  In terms of the man’s life and more essentially his contribution to Australian cricket, this place plays only a slight part.  All people who have made a major contribution to Australian life were born somewhere, and this simple fact does not alone make those birthplaces worthy of entry on the NHL.	
Judith Wrights former property – Edge, Mongarlowe, NSW	Nominators claim that Edge has national significance under criteria (h) (the place has outstanding heritage value to the nation 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). The research below indicates that compared to other places in Judith Wright’s life (Mt Tamborine or her family property in New England), Edge has a lesser association with her poetry.

Heritage Listings
Edge is not on the RNE.  It is also not listed on the NSW Heritage List, or the local Palerang Shire heritage overlay.

Historic Heritage Significance
Judith Wright, born 31 May 1915 at Armidale in northern New South Wales, is one of Australia’s pre-eminent poets.  For over fifty years her poetry explored the spiritual dimensions of Australia, its people, landscape and history.  She saw her poetic role to include public responsibility for challenging what she saw as negative social forces and inhumane attitudes that demeaned life and the environment.  Later in life she became well known as a conservationist and campaigner for Indigenous rights and reconciliation (AWB 2007: p.1).

Significant Places in Judith Wright’s Poetry Career
Judith Wright began publishing poems in 1938, her first volume was published in 1946. From 1946 until 1973 she produced thirteen collections of poems and other literary works, including poems considered to be the best of modern Australian poetry (Hall 2007: p.2).  In 1950 she settled at ‘Calanthe’ at Mt Tamborine in Queensland with her future husband, Jack McKinney.  In 1976 White moved to a property just outside Mongarlowe near Braidwood in southern New South Wales which she called ‘Edge’ where she lived until her death on 25 June 2000 (Hall 2007: p.4).

While she lived at Mt Tamborine and at Mongarlowe for roughly equal periods of time, ‘Calanthe’ was a more important influence on her, and more productive of her poetry.  Collections of poems produced at ‘Calanthe’ include The Gateway (1953); The Two Fires (1955); Birds (1962); Five Senses (the Forest) (1963); City Sunrise (1964); The Other Half (1966); Shadow (1970); Collected Poems (1971); and Alive (1973) (Hall 2007: p.4). 

After her move to Edge in 1976, her poetry output dropped; she effectively stopped writing poetry in 1986. Most of the volumes published while she lived at Edge were collections of previously written works such as The Double Tree: Selected Poems 1942-1976 (1978); A Human Pattern: Selected Poems (1990); and Collected Poems (1994) (Hall 2007: p.4).

Awards and Acknowledgements of Judith Wright’s Poetry
Judith Wright received numerous awards for her literary work, including: the Encyclopedia Britanica Prize for Literature (1964); the Poetry Society of Great Britain Award (1967); and both the Robert Frost Memorial Award and the Christopher Brennan Award in 1976.  In 1980 she was invested with the degree of Ridder (Knight) in the Order of the Golden Ark by HRH Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands.  In 1984 she won the ASAN World Prize for Poetry, and in 1992 she was awarded the Queens Gold Medal for Poetry.  In 1997 she won the Human Rights Commission Award for Literature (AWB 2007: p.2).

In 1956 Wright received honorary doctorates from the University of Queensland (which she later returned), and from the University of New England.  Wright later received honorary doctorates from six different universities for her poetry: Sydney University (1976); Monash University (1977); ANU (1981); University of NSW (1985); Griffith University (1985); and Melbourne University (1988) (AWB 2007: p.1 & Hall 2007: p.4).

Campaigner and Conservationist
Judith Wright was an active conservationist and campaigner, co-founder of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland in 1962, a Foundation Council Member of the Australian Society of Authors in 1963, a Council Member of the Australian Conservation Foundation from 1964 to 1972 and a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 1970.  She was a member of the Committee of Enquiry into the National Estate in 1973-4, and a member of the Aboriginal Treaty Committee from 1979 to 1983 (AWB 2007: p.1 & Hall 2007: p.4).

Wright developed a reputation as a keen gardener.  Her garden at ‘Calanthe’ (which she named after a native orchid growing on Mt Tamborine) was a mix of native and introduced plants.  With its sub-tropical climate and fertile soil, Calanthe’s lush fecundity contrasts with Edge’s ironstone rock ridges and sparse native vegetation.  Edge enabled Wright to see the landscape around her in a different way. (Holmes 2007: p.7).  Wright herself called the garden at Edge, ‘a mere gardener’s gesture’, believing the land in which it sat was garden enough.  Little remains of the garden itself (Holmes 2007: p.7).	

Criterion (i)

The following places are above the National Heritage threshold for criterion (i) for their Indigenous heritage significance.

(i) Indigenous tradition	Description of Value	
Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps, (Biaimes Ngunnhu), NSW	Baiame, an ancestral being, is responsible for the design and traditional use of the Ngunnhu.  He created the plan of the Ngunnhu by throwing his net across the Barwon River.  Baiame dug up stones and boulders and he and his two sons Booma-ooma-nowi and Ghinda-inda-mui set them out in the pattern of a great fish net.  They were constructed to resist damage during periods of high and fast water flows.
 
Neighbouring tribes were invited to the Ngunnhu to join in great corroborees, initiation ceremonies, and meetings for trade and barter.  The Ngunnhu were, and still are, a significant meeting place to those Aboriginal people with connections to the area and continue to be used.
 
The role of an ancestral being (Baiame) in creating built structures is extremely unusual in Aboriginal society and makes both the structure (Ngunnhu) and the story nationally important.	
Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape – Mt Eccles Lake Condah Area, Vic	The link between the eruption of the volcano and Budj bim is of outstanding heritage value as a demonstration of the process through which ancestral beings reveal themselves in the landscape.  This process of revelation has been documented in other parts of Australia where they involve Aboriginal people recognizing (or having revealed to them) the form of an ancestral being in a feature of the landscape (Merlan 1998).
There are two areas in Australia where Aboriginal people witnessed volcanism: the area of the younger volcanics of the Atherton Tablelands; and, the younger volcanics in Victoria, which includes Mt Eccles.  The Aboriginal stories about volcanism on the Atherton Tablelands are cast within the framework of transgressions and reprisals by ancestral beings.  They also provide a clear description of the volcanic activity (Dixon 1996; Toohey 2001).  While Aboriginal people also witnessed the eruption of Mt Eccles, their stories are very different to those on the Atherton Tablelands.  Mt Eccles is an ancestral creation being Budj bim and the scoria cones are described as tung att – teeth belong it (Clark 1990a; 1990b; Builth 2003).  It therefore demonstrates the process through which Aboriginal creation beings reveal themselves in the landscape.	

The following places are below the National Heritage threshold for criterion (i) for their Indigenous heritage significance.

(i) Indigenous tradition	Description of Value	
Lady Julia Percy Island – Deen Mar	The belief that spirits go to an island of the dead or cross some water after death is widespread throughout Australia (Montagu 1974).  Well known examples include Kangaroo Island where the spirits of Ngarrindjeri people go when they die and Badu, an island in the vicinity of the Torres Straits, where spirits of dead members of the jiridja moiety of the Yolgu go (Berndt and Berndt 1982: 479-486; www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/orig/ngurunderi/ng9htm.htm). Kangaroo Island is also associated with the story of the Ngarrindjeri creation hero Ngurunderi.
 
While Deen Mara is highly significant to Gunditjmara as a place where their spirits go when they die, islands of the dead are not unusual in Aboriginal tradition elsewhere in Australia and there is insufficient evidence that the place is of outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (i) as part of Aboriginal tradition.	

4. GLOSSARY OF ASSESSMENT TERMS

The following general explanations of terms are provided. The more detailed explanations are included within the document are cross-referenced. A term used in the EPBC Regulations is presumed to have the same meaning as it has in the EPBC Act. In the absence of a definition, this will be the ordinary meaning of the word in its context in the EPBC Act. If a term is not used in the EPBC Act then standard dictionary definition of the word, in the context of its use in the EPBC Regulations, will be relied upon.

ANHAT		The Australian Natural Heritage Assessment Tool (ANHAT) is a decision support tool that enables users (not available to the general public at this stage) to identify areas of Australia that best represent an array of environmental and species-based heritage values that the user defines. As a structured tool for analysis, it enables users to quickly design and execute queries using a very wide range of data sources, producing a ranked table and/or map of places that possess the selected traits, based on a comparison of 1:100 000 map sheets (roughly 50km squares). Relating a range of environmental data to a digital map of Australia allows identification of biodiversity ‘hotspots’ and major trends and patterns in the evolution and distribution of species across Australia. ANHAT includes 136 environmental variables, all terrestrial vertebrates, over half of the vascular plants in Australia and wide range of invertebrates such as butterflies, beetles and snails, based on approximately 25 million survey records. The system currently includes analysis for a total of 21,000 species.
	
Authenticity		Genuine or undisputed origin
	
Community or Cultural Group		A community or cultural group may be any group of people whose members share a locality, government, cultural background or common interest. They can be regional, metropolitan or national groups, but should be a recognised and sizeable community (being a community that extends influence beyond the location to the region or nation). They do not include expert groups or professional associations/societies.
	
Condition 		Refers to the current state of the place relative to the values for which the place has been nominated. It reflects the cumulative effects of management and major environmental events.
	
Criteria 
		See National Heritage List Criteria EPBC Regulations Schedule 1 Part 10 Division 2 s10.01A
	
Heritage value
		Heritage values of a place include the place's natural and cultural environment, having aesthetic, historic, scientific or social significance, or other significance for current and future generations of Australians.
	
Indigenous heritage value		Indigenous heritage value of a place means a heritage value of the place that is of significance to indigenous persons in accordance with their practices, observances, customs, traditions, beliefs or history.
	
Integrity (cultural)		Integrity is the condition of the place such that its key heritage values remain intact.
	
Integrity (natural)		Integrity is the condition of the place is such that its key heritage values remain intact - but clearly it also requires the natural one too - 'Integrity is an indicator of the likely long term viability or sustainability, reflecting the degree to which the place has been affected by the condition, the ability of the place to restore itself (or be restored) and the time frame likely for any restorative processes.
	
National Environmental Significance		The EPBC Act at Part 3 identifies for protection seven matters of national environmental significance:
•	World Heritage properties 
•	National heritage places 
•	Wetlands of international importance (Ramsar wetlands) 
•	Threatened species and ecological communities 
•	Migratory species 
•	Commonwealth marine areas 
•	Nuclear actions (including uranium mining) 
	
National Heritage Values		National Heritage values means:
	(1)	A place has a National Heritage value if and only if the place meets one of the criteria (the National Heritage Criteria) prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this section. The National Heritage value of the place is the place’s heritage value that causes the place to meet the criterion.
	(2)	The National Heritage values of a National Heritage place are the National Heritage values of the place included in the National Heritage List for the place.
	(3)	The regulations must prescribe criteria for the following:
	(a)	natural heritage values of places;
	(b)	indigenous heritage values of places;
	(c)	historic heritage values of places.
The regulations may prescribe criteria for other heritage values of places.
	(4)	To avoid doubt, a criterion prescribed by the regulations may relate to one or more of the following:
	(a)	natural heritage values of places;
	(b)	indigenous heritage values of places;
	(c)	historic heritage values of places;
	(d)	other heritage values of places.
	
Places of national significance		Those places of the highest (comparative) level of significance, which we as a nation want to keep, that is, recognised as being important to the Australian community (or important for specific community or professional groups that are represented across Australia).
	
Statement of Significance		The Statement of Significance is a concise and interesting description of the values of the place. The statement is written for a general audience and does not involve citation of sources used. 
	
Thresholds
		Thresholds are a measure of value, above which a place meets the criteria and is eligible for entry in the National Heritage List, below which it does not. In order to be assessed as significant for the National Heritage List, a place must meet the threshold for at least one value, having attributes to a high degree and recognition to the nation.
	
Values		See Heritage value

5. Frequently asked questions

Who can nominate places for the National Heritage List?
Anyone may nominate a place for the National Heritage List. While nominations can be submitted at any time there is an annual fixed period when nominations are considered. Nomination kits are available from the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts:

The Nominations Manager
Heritage Division
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
GPO Box 787
CANBERRA ACT 2601
Tel: (02) 6274 1217
Web: www.environment.gov.au/heritage

Can confidential information be protected?
Yes. Where the Minister considers the heritage values of a place could be significantly damaged by the disclosure of some information, the Minister may decide to only make available a general description of the place, its location or its National Heritage values. It may, for example, be inappropriate for cultural reasons to disclose certain information about a site.

What does listing mean?
National Heritage listing is helping us build a living and accessible record of our evolving landscapes and the critical moments that truly define us a nation.

Listed places receive national attention and can benefit from increased domestic and international tourism.

They may also be eligible for Australian Government funding, and inclusion in a national network of place managers working together to promote and conserve our heritage.

National Heritage places are matters of national environmental significance protected by the EPBC Act. The EPBC Act prohibits certain action that will or is likely to have a significant impact on the National Heritage values of a National Heritage place. Actions which are prohibited by the Act can only be taken with the approval of the Minster for the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts under the EPBC Act Following environmental assessment (or if some other provision of the Act allows the action to be taken). Substantial penalties apply for taking such an action without approval, and include fines of up to $5.5 million or up to seven years imprisonment. 

Where is the National Heritage List?
The National Heritage List is compiled and maintained by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts in an electronic database.

Where can I get further information about the National Heritage List?
Heritage Division
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
GPO Box 787
Canberra ACT 2601
Tel: (02) 6274 1111
Fax: (02) 6274 2095
Email: heritage@environment.gov.au
Web: www.environment.gov.au/heritage

Where can I get further information about the EPBC Act?
Community Information Unit
Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
Free call: 1800 803 772
Email: ciu@environment.gov.au
Web: www.environment.gov.au/epbc