Heritage

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Australia's World Heritage

Australia's places of outstanding universal value
 Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, July 2008
ISBN 0 642 21431 x

PDF file

About this publication

Across the length and breadth of our vast continent and offshore, the splendour of Australia's World Heritage places enriches our lives and illustrates the diversity of our country and its inhabitants.

On behalf of the global community, Australia cares for 17 such places and is committed to ensuring their safekeeping for future generations.

These special places include the mosaic ecosystems of the Kakadu landscape; the steep volcanic mountains that tower above the world's southern-most coral reefs at Lord Howe Island; the stark beauty of the Willandra Lakes which unveil the mystery of Australia's human settlement; and the echoes of the last ice age in the landscape of the Tasmanian Wilderness.

The richness of our World Heritage is not limited to our natural and Indigenous cultural icons, but also extends to one of the great enduring monuments of the International Exhibition movement in the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens and to the graceful urban sculpture that is our Sydney Opera House.

To Australians each of these properties is a source of national pride and inspiration and collectively they represent some of the most iconic elements of our historic, natural and Indigenous environments, the essence of our national identity.

But they are so unique and exceptional that they transcend our national boundaries and are considered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to be of outstanding universal value.

They are ours to respect and to cherish. And their disappearance would be an irreparable loss to humanity. Our World Heritage is the shared heritage of humankind.

Australia's sites join over 800 places from throughout the world that are recognised by the World Heritage Convention as reflecting the wealth and diversity of the earth's outstanding cultural and natural heritage. The Convention is an important global agreement to which Australia was one of the first signatories in 1974.

Australia takes its World Heritage responsibilities seriously and has long been recognised internationally for taking a leading role in promoting the World Heritage Convention. We have been awarded UNESCO's Picasso Gold Medal for World Heritage for management of the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and the equally prestigious Einstein Medal and Man and the Biosphere Programme/UNESCO Environmental Prize for management of the Great Barrier Reef.

Last year our positive role was rewarded by UNESCO with the offer of a place as the 21st member of the World Heritage Committee. During its four year term on the Committee (2007-2011), Australia will be working hard to protect and enhance the significant investment the global community makes to World Heritage, to enhance the integrity and effectiveness of the Convention and to improve, through partnerships with other nations, the under-representation of Pacific sites on the World Heritage List.

I am proud to present this publication to all Australians on behalf of the Australian Government. This publication is a glimpse into some of the most outstanding places on earth and an opportunity to understand and experience Australia's diverse heritage.

Signed

The Hon. Peter Garrett AM MP
Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts

Australia's World Heritage cover page

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