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Department of the Environment and Heritage Annual Report 2003-04

Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2004
ISSN 1441 9335

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Operation of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (continued)
Australian Heritage Commission final report 1 July to 31 December 2003 (continued)

Overview of outputs

Corporate objectives

The commission's vision was that heritage in Australia, in all its diversity, will be valued and conserved by communities and their governments. The commission's mission was to take a leading role in identifying, conserving and promoting those parts of Australia's natural and cultural environment that have special value for current and future generations. The commission's Strategic Plan framework consisted of four key result areas:

Chapters 3 to 6 provide a performance report for each of these key result areas for the period 1 July to 31 December 2003.

Performance information

Performance criteria and levels of achievement for 2003-04 are set out below. The Commission had one Output - Heritage. Three groups of performance indicators (quality, quantity and price) have been used.

Performance indicator: Quality

The Minister and executive are satisfied with the quality and timeliness of the implementation and advice provided under the Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975.

Effectiveness indicator Performance achieved
Places nominated or identified as being of prima facie National Estate significance are assessed against criteria and, if accepted, are entered in the Register of the National Estate. A high standard of performance relating to managing the Register of the National Estate was achieved as follows:
  • the Register of the National Estate was increased by 40 places;
  • ten places were considered by the Commission for entry in the Register of the National Estate; and
  • two objections were resolved to the satisfaction of the commission.
The Australian Heritage Commission provided 230 pieces of advice on conserving and managing the National Estate. These were prepared to a high standard and consisted of 183 pieces of advice to Australian Government agencies and 47 pieces of advice to others.
Public interest and involvement in the identification and conservation of the National Estate is enhanced through Australian Heritage Commission activities, as assessed by:
  • feedback from Australian Government, state, territory and local government bodies academic institutions, National Trusts and professional and community organisations;
  • extent of media coverage and support for heritage conservation; and
  • level of sponsorship and support provided by private and public sector sources for national heritage activities.
 Australian Heritage Commission activities engaged and involved the public in identification and conservation of the National Estate as follows:
  • information sharing through memoranda of understanding with state and territory heritage agencies;
  • community networks such as the National Indigenous Cultural Heritage Officers' Network;
  • extensive media coverage for major milestones in the evolution of the new heritage system including more than 400 media items for the Prime Minister's December launch of the new system;
  • joint projects with other agencies including Australian Heritage Commission participation in a biological field survey of the northern Tanami Desert with the Central Land Council, senior Walpiri Traditional Owners, staff of the Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory and other botanists and zoologists;
  • successful completion of the first Leave No Trace Masters courses at Margaret River, Western Australia and the Blue Mountains in New South Wales; and
  • successful completion of first online Protecting Heritage Places course for Open Learning Australia.
Australia is recognised by international agencies for work done in identifying and conserving places of heritage significance. The Australian Heritage Commission has undertaken work with international agencies in identifying and conserving places of heritage significance as follows:
  • work undertaken through the memorandum of understanding with the Chinese State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Department and the Australian Heritage Commission to implement conservation principles for cultural heritage management in China.
The services of the Australian Heritage Commission are accessible to the public including through the Internet. The commission gave more than 70 presentations and briefing sessions on the new heritage system to a range of stakeholders including government and non-government agencies, industry groups and community bodies - presentations on heritage and tourism opportunities were also made in all states and territories to tourism, heritage and environment agencies.

Papers on natural and cultural heritage tourism were presented at the Interpretation Australia Conference, Planning Institute of Australia conference, Ecotourism Australia conference and at an Indigenous Tourism Leaders Group meeting.

Workshops to develop the publication Steps to Sustainable Tourism were held at the University of Western Sydney and with the Tourism Taskforce and the Australian Heritage Commission also gave heritage management planning workshops at the University of Canberra and the Australian National University.

The commission collaborated with PictureAustralia to provide access to online pictorial collections and the Australian Heritage Commission's Photographic Library received an average of 1421 visits per month.

The Protecting Heritage Places online course was made available nationally online through the Open Learning Network and the first group of students successfully completed the pilot course.

Linking a Nation - Australia's transport and communications 1788-1970, the first e-publication in the research series Australia: our national stories was published on the Internet.

The Register of the National Estate information is available electronically with up-to-date licences, up-to-date records for place locations, spatial data for all the Register of the National Estate places, and photos for 96 per cent of register places - satisfaction by users was gauged by feedback from the individuals using the email address.

All state and territory heritage registers are available through the Australian Heritage Places Inventory.

All current publications and reports produced by the Australian Heritage Commission are available on the web site.
The decision-making processes of the Australian Heritage Commission allow for consultation with conservation organisations, community groups and the general public where relevant. Statutory and non-statutory consultation and liaison in line with the Australian Heritage Commission's Liaison Policy, undertaken prior to consideration of the places for entry in the Register of the National Estate was carried out rigorously.
Performance indicator: Quantity

There is effective outreach to key stakeholders as measured by:

Effectiveness indicator Performance achieved
The services of the Australian Heritage Commission are accessible to the public including through the Internet. The number of unique visitor hits on the Australian Heritage Commission heritage web site increased by 50 per cent with a 27 per cent increase in the number of hits.

Unique visitor hits on the Australian Heritage Directory web site increased from an average of 5068 visitors per month to 5126 visitors per month (from 1 July to 31 December 2003).

Ongoing distribution of heritage publications including Successful tourism at heritage places, Ask First and Protecting Natural Heritage.

The Australian Heritage Commission distributed almost 500 copies of the book Twentieth Century Heritage: Marking the recent past to a wide range of organisations, institutions and individuals.

The Australian Heritage Commission provided considerable written heritage advice to local government agencies and the public on non-Commonwealth heritage places such as proposed demolitions and redevelopment.

 

Performance indicator: Price

Price of the Australian Heritage Commission output was $5.041 million. Total appropriation revenue from the Government contributing to price of departmental output was $3.749 million. Revenue from other sources contributed $1.292 million.

Performance achieved:

Total amount for the Australian Heritage Commission sub-outcome was $4.645 million.

Contribution to outcomes of the Department of the Environment and Heritage

The commission's work contributed to the Department's planned Outcome 1:
The environment, especially those aspects that are matters of national environmental significance, is protected and conserved.

Reflecting its statutory responsibility, the Australian Heritage Commission worked towards achieving the following sub-outcome:
Australia's natural and cultural heritage places are valued and conserved.

The commission's charter was to ensure that Australia's natural and cultural heritage places are valued and conserved. The Australian Heritage Commission had a statutory responsibility to identify and conserve the National Estate, and to maintain the Register of the National Estate as a list of Australian places with significant heritage value. The commission provided advice and disseminated information on places in the Register of the National Estate and maintained links with other heritage organisations and stakeholder groups.

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