Natural and Cultural Heritage Theme Report

Australia State of the Environment Report 2001 (Theme Report)
Lead Author: Jane Lennon, Jane Lennon and Associates Pty Ltd, Authors
Published by CSIRO on behalf of the Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2001
ISBN 0 643 06752 3

Glossary

This glossary builds upon that at the Australian Heritage Commission website at: http://www.ea.gov.au/heritage/information/glossary.html

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander places

see Indigenous places.

Adaptation

Modifying a place to suit proposed compatible uses.

Aesthetic value

This term includes aspects of sensory perception (sight, touch, sound, taste, smell) for which criteria can be stated. These criteria may include consideration of form, scale, colour, texture and material of the fabric or landscape, the smells and sounds associated with the place and its use.

Australian Heritage Places Inventory

Heritage places database, now publicly accessible on the Internet, see also Register of the National Estate, heritage registers.

Australian Natural Heritage Charter

A document which sets out principles, processes and standards for the conservation of natural heritage places. Also known as the 'Australian Natural Heritage Charter for the conservation of places of natural heritage significance: standards and principles'. It is administered by the Australian Committee for IUCN, see also Burra Charter.

Benchmark

Values (or ranges) of measurable parameters that have an agreed significance for scientists or managers, see also Targets.

Biodiversity

The variety of all life-forms: the different plants, animals and micro-organisms, the genes they contain and the ecosystems they form; often considered at three levels: genetic diversity, species diversity and ecosystem diversity, see also Geodiversity.

Biogeographic region

An extensive region distinguished from adjacent regions by its broad physical and biological characteristics.

Biological diversity

see Biodiversity.

Burra Charter

A document which sets out the principles, processes and standards for the conservation of the cultural environment. Also known as The Australia ICOMOS Charter for Places of Cultural Significance following the 1999 revision which was published by Australia ICOMOS Inc. in 2000, see also Australian Natural Heritage Charter.

Compatible use

A use which involves no change to the culturally significant fabric, changes which are substantially reversible, or changes which have minimal impact.

Comprehensiveness

Extent to which heritage registers or collections include all significant places or objects of a particular type.

Condition assessment

A record of the state of the critical aspects of the place at a given time. This should be suitable for developing options for future action and, as a record against which to judge change.

Condition indicator (otherwise referred to as an indicator of state)

An indicator that describes the quality of the environment and the quality and quantity of natural resources; highlights changes in environmental conditions over time.

Conservation

Conservation implies keeping in safety or preserving the existing state of a heritage resource from destruction or change, i.e., the action taken to prevent decay and to prolong life. Another definition of conservation is broader. This is the Burra Charter definition, which is 'all the processes of looking after a place so as to retain its cultural significance'.

The general concept of conservation implies various types of treatments aimed at safeguarding buildings, sites or historic towns; these include management, maintenance, repair, consolidation, reinforcement. Preventive Conservation consists of indirect action to retard deterioration and prevent damage by creating optimal conservation conditions as far as is compatible with its social use. Remedial (or Physical) Conservation consist mainly of direct action carried out on the cultural property with the aim of retarding further deterioration, see also Preservation.

Conservation advice

The Australian Heritage Commission has a statutory obligation to furnish advice on the protection of the National Estate. The advice is based on conservation principles which are aimed at protecting and maintaining National Estate places.

Conservation Plan

This documents the sequence of steps undertaken in the conservation process. It sets out what is significant in a place, and, consequently, what policies are appropriate to enable the significance to be retained in its future use and development.

Consultation

Consultation is a process of discussion between those proposing a course of action and those likely to be affected by those actions.

Continued use

The continued use of a place may not be consciously motivated by a desire to conserve cultural significance but may actually do this. Activities which fit this category would include making new deposits at living sites, and rearranging, or adding to stone arrangements.

Creole

A language developed when a new generation takes a pidgin for its first language, and extends and develops it so that it is capable of a full range of expression, sometimes spelt as "kriol", see also Pidgin.

Cultural centre

Place showcasing Indigenous culture, see also Keeping place.

Cultural landscape

The way in which perceptions, beliefs, stories, experiences and practices give shape, form and meaning to the landscape. Another definition is used internationally in relation to World Heritage properties. A cultural landscape embraces a diversity of manifestations of the interaction between humankind and its natural environment.
Cultural landscapes fall into three main categories:

the clearly defined landscape designed and created intentionally by humans,
the organically evolved landscape which reflect that process of evolution in their form and component features such as a relict (or fossil) landscape is one in which an evolutionary process came to an end at some time in the past or a continuing landscape is one which retains an active social role in contemporary society,
the associative cultural landscape justifiable by virtue of the powerful religious, artistic or cultural associations of the natural element, rather than material cultural evidence.

Cultural mapping

Identification and recording of the cultural resources and activities of a community or region.

Cultural tourism

Travel for essentially cultural motivations, which may include travel for specific purposes, for example, to attend festivals or to visit sites or monuments, or may be more broadly motivated by the desire to experience cultural diversity or to immerse oneself in the culture of a region.

Cultural Significance

Cultural significance means aesthetic, historic, scientific, social or spiritual value for past, present or future generations. Cultural significance is embodied in the place itself, its fabric, setting, use, associations, meanings, records, related places and related objects. Places may have a range of values for different individuals or groups.

Custodian

A custodian is someone who looks after a place and or the stories and ceremonies which might go with a place. In some parts of Australia, an 'Aboriginal custodian' is the person who has the responsibility to look after the stories and ceremonies which belong to a particular area of country. In other places custodians means people who look out for a place, on behalf of other people, and they may or may not also look after ceremony and stories.

Distributed National Collection

The aggregate of collections of objects located in major Commonwealth, State and Territory collecting institutions, as well as those held in community, regional and specialist museums, libraries, schools and private collections.

Documentation

is the written, visual, audio and electronic information about a place or an object.

Ecologically sustainable development

Using, conserving and enhancing the community's resources so that ecological processes, on which life depends, are maintained and the total quality of life - now and in the future - can be increased (for the ESD core objectives and guiding principles, see Council of Australian Governments (1992) National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development, AGPS, Canberra).

Ecotourism

Nature-based tourism which involves education and interpretation of the natural environment and is managed to be ecologically sustainable.

Environment

The Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 defines environment to include:

(a) ecosystems and their constituent parts, including people and communities; and

(b) natural and physical resources; and

(d) the social, economic and cultural aspects of a thing mentioned in paragraph (a), (b) or (c).

ESD

see Ecologically sustainable development.

Externalities (external costs)

Costs (or benefits) arising from the decisions of an individual which impact on people other than that individual; for example, the costs of damage to historic buildings that may arise down-wind as a result of air pollution emissions up-wind, see also Off-site impacts.

Fabric

The physical material of the place, including components, fixtures, contents, and objects; for example, the fabric of cultural places may be an artefact scatter or a hut.

Folklore

The expression in a variety of art forms of a body of custom and tradition built up by a community or ethnic group. It is the traditional, non-institutional part of culture.

Geodiversity

The range of earth features including geological, geomorphological, palaeontological, soil, hydrological and atmospheric features, systems and earth processes. Geodiversity is the inanimate equivalent to the living world of biodiversity and ecological processes, see also Biodiversity.

Globalisation

The economic and social process whereby local markets and cultures are increasingly dominated by global markets and culture.

Heritage

Those places, objects and Indigenous languages that have aesthetic, historic, scientific or social significance or other special value for future generations as well as for the community today.

Heritage objects

those objects are those which provide material evidence of Australia's natural and cultural environments or its historical and cultural life and biophysical evolution.

Heritage place

A site, area, region, building or other structure (together with associated contents and surroundings) that has heritage value.

Heritage protection

The means of taking care of natural and cultural heritage values of a place; includes legislation, policies and management frameworks.

Heritage registers

Registers of places maintained by State and Territory heritage agencies administering laws designed to protect Australia's natural and cultural heritage.

Heritage values

Natural and cultural heritage values are the qualities which make a specific and definable place or area important to the community. Heritage values are a cultural construct - people identify and value their existence - so different people may hold differing values, leading to dynamism and diversity in heritage issues and management. These values are often separated into natural, historic and Indigenous categories. However the three categories can overlap at a site and responsible management demands that, where they exist, these values be catered for simultaneously.

Cultural heritage is the term used to refer to qualities and attributes possessed by places and objects that have aesthetic, historic, scientific or social value for past, present or future generations, and it relates to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous (historic) heritage. These values may be seen in a place's physical features, but can also be associated with intangible qualities such as people's associations with or feelings for a place.

Natural heritage incorporates a spectrum of values, ranging from existence values at one end through to culturally-based values at the other. The fundamental concept of natural heritage which most clearly differentiates it from cultural heritage is that of dynamic ecological processes, including ongoing evolution and the ability of ecosystems to be self-perpetuating. It also includes geodiversity - the geological and physical processes that shape the land.

Historic places

Those sites, areas or regions of heritage significance demonstrating physical characteristics or other associations with important events, developments or cultural phases in Australia's history since the arrival of non-indigenous people; individual structures such as buildings, archaeological sites and cultural landscapes, see also Indigenous places, Natural places.

Historic value

This encompasses the history of aesthetics, science and society, and therefore could be used to encompass a range of values. A place may have historic value because it has influenced, or has been influenced by, an historic figure, event, phase, or activity. It may be the site of an important event. History can describe the 'story' of a place or its people and can apply to any period, though not usually the current period.

ICOMOS

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) is a professional non-government conservation organisation concerned with the care of places of cultural significance. ICOMOS (International) is affiliated to UNESCO, and advises on World Heritage matters. Australia ICOMOS has produced the Burra Charter and associated guidelines.

Identified place

The Australian Heritage Commission has formally considered the values of this place and decided that it should be publicly proposed for entry in the Register of the National Estate (i.e. that it should be entered in the Interim List of the Register). The place is awaiting publication in the Gazette and the press to give effect to this decision.

Indicative place

A place entered into the database and which is at some stage in the assessment process. The Australian Heritage Commission has not made a decision on whether the place should be formally entered in the Register of the National Estate.

Indicators

Parameters that represent key aspects of complex systems (eg. physical, chemical, biological, social, cultural, heritage or economic variables).

Indigenous heritage

The heritage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Indigenous peoples

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia.

Indigenous places

Sites, areas or regions of significance to Indigenous peoples including places with archaeological traces, ceremonial, story and other places with particular traditional or contemporary associations; places reflecting the historic interaction of Indigenous peoples with non-Indigenous peoples; may be single sites, site complexes or landscapes, see also Historic places, Natural places.

in situ

Location of biological, physical or material culture objects in their original physical and cultural context.

Interim List

The place has been publicly proposed for entry in the Register of the National Estate and the Australian Heritage Commission may be awaiting any objections, considering objections or seeking other data before making a decision on whether the place should be entered in the Register proper.

Interpretation

Interpretation is a means of communicating ideas and feelings which help people enrich their understanding and appreciation of their world and their role within it.

IUCN

International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (World Conservation Union) is an international body concerned with the conservation of natural environments. The Australian Committee for IUCN administers the Australian Natural Heritage Charter.

Keeping place

Special place or structure used by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to house important cultural items, for example ceremonial objects; it may also house significant materials returned to traditional owners from museum and other collections, including in some cases human remains, see also Cultural centre.

Landscape

A place containing cultural and natural features and values which extend over a large area. Sometimes used to refer to rural landscapes, but may also include extensive places within urban areas such as parks, gardens or streetscapes.

Language shift

Language shift is said to be occurring when a group moves from speaking their old language to speaking a new language. It is a symptom of language endangerment.

Laser levelling

Use of a rotating laser beam to control land levelling to achieve a land surface of uniform slope.

Maintenance

The continuous protective care of the fabric, contents or setting of a place. In technical terms maintenance consists of regular inspections of a monument or site and may involve small-scale treatments (e.g. surface cleaning, renewal of protective coatings). Preventative maintenance is a powerful tool to prevent decay and avoid large-scale conservation-restoration treatments. A suitable maintenance program implemented after the conservation treatment aims at preserving its improved conditions.

Management

Management of a place involves making conscious choices about what happens to the place and taking action to make those things happen. In the context of this document, it is undertaken in order to, amongst other things, ensure that the cultural significance of a place is retained. Management includes the widest possible range of actions and decisions, for example:

establishing the appropriate decision-making group and processes;
assessing significance;
deciding to open or not open a site to visitor management;
approving site works and physical conservation;
setting up decision-making structures to implement strategies;
arranging access rights or means to achieve access (such as transport); and
deciding to take no action.

Management Plan

A document which details how to look after the heritage and non-heritage features of a place. It may contain a conservation plan and/or its components. They go further than conservation plans in their consideration of the practical circumstances, including the economic and political context which affect the use of places.

Material culture

Objects of natural or cultural significance.

Material culture collections

Collections of objects of cultural significance housed in museums and other collecting institutions.

Materials conservation

The processes involved in the conservation and preservation of the physical material of objects and the physical fabric of structures or places.

Monitoring

Routine counting, testing or measuring of heritage factors to determine their status or condition.

Movable cultural heritage

Objects that are of importance to Australia, or to a particular part of Australia, for ethnological, archaeological, historical, literary, artistic, scientific or technological reasons.

Multiple use

Managing an area to achieve multiple goals or multiple outputs; for example timber production, water and recreational opportunities.

National Estate

The National Estate, as defined in the Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975, 'consists of those places, being components of the natural environment of Australia or the cultural environment of Australia, that have aesthetic, historic, scientific or social significance or other special value for future generations as well as for the present community'.

National Estate Grants Program

The Commonwealth Government's major program until 2000 to assist the identification, conservation and presentation of National Estate (heritage) places across Australia.

Natural Heritage Trust

The Natural Heritage Trust of Australia Act 1997 established the Natural Heritage Trust to stimulate activities in the national interest to achieve the conservation, sustainable use and repair of Australia's natural environment. The Trust focussed on five major areas: land; vegetation; rivers; biodiversity; and coasts and marine.

Natural places

Those sites, areas or regions for which the heritage significance is based on their natural biological and physical features; may also have cultural heritage values, see also Indigenous places, Historic places.

Natural significance

The importance of ecosystems, biodiversity and geodiversity for their existence or intrinsic value, or for present and future generations in terms of their scientific/research, social, aesthetic and life support value.

Nomination

A written suggestion for a place to be added to a register or other lists of heritage places.

Objectives

Broad policy goals, which are not precisely quantified (eg. sustainable resource management).

Off-site impacts

Consequences of an action or decision that occur beyond the area (for example, the farm or catchment or landscape) under consideration, see also Externalities.

Old-growth forests

Forests dominated by mature trees and with little or no evidence of any disturbance such as logging, road building or clearing.

Oral history

Information about the past that is transmitted by word of mouth rather than in written form, usually on tape, as the result of a planned interview.

Orphan country

Country originally owned by a particular Indigenous group whose Traditional owners have died or lost their traditional links by the processes of European settlement, or whose Traditional owners have since moved away or have been compulsorily relocated.

Performance indicators

Selected and/or aggregated indicators for evaluating specified outcomes and objectives.

Pidgin

A restricted form of language which has relatively limited vocabulary and grammatical devices and which is not anyone's first language; generally developed as a means of communication between peoples of different language backgrounds, see also Creole.

Place

May be a landscape, seascape, feature, area, site, building or other work, group of buildings, or other works or landscapes, together with associated contents and surrounds, see also Natural places, Historic places, Indigenous places, World Heritage.

Precautionary principle

Where there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent degradation.

Preservation

Maintaining the physical material of places or objects in their existing state and retarding deterioration. This is often used as a synonym of conservation; many people use the word in an all encompassing sense, including also issues related to the broader administrative, economic, legal, political and social context in which conservation takes place (e.g. legal protection, policies, public awareness), see also Conservation .

Pressure indicator

An indicator that describes both positive and negative pressures on the environment and heritage, including the quality and quantity of natural resources; such pressures can be caused by human inaction as well as action.

Protection

In legal terms, preservation is the action required to ensure the conditions for a monument, site or historic area survive. The term is also related to the physical protection of historic sites to ensure their security against theft or vandalism, as well as environmental attack and visual intrusions. Buffer zones also provide protection to historic areas. Legal protection, which is based on legislation and planning norms, aims to guarantee defence against any harmful treatment, provide guidelines for proper action, and institute corresponding punitive sanctions. Physical protection includes the addition of roofs, shelters, coverings, etc., or even removing an endangered object to safety.

Rangelands

Areas of native grasslands, shrublands and woodlands that cover a large proportion of the arid and semi-arid regions, of Australia and also include tropical savanna woodlands; regular cropping is not practised and the predominant agricultural use, if any, is grazing of sheep and cattle on native vegetation.

Reconstruction

This is returning a place as nearly as possible to a known earlier state and is distinguished by the introduction of material (new or old) into the fabric, see also Conservation, Preservation.

Register of the National Estate

The national inventory of places of natural, historic and Indigenous heritage significance, which have been assessed by the Australian Heritage Commission and deemed to be worth conserving for present and future generations. It serves to notify all Australians, and particularly planners and decision-makers, of places of national estate significance, see also National Estate, Australian Heritage Places Inventory, Heritage registers.

Registered place

A place that has been formally entered into the Register of the National Estate. Although some places may be legally registered because they are within a larger registered area they may not necessarily possess intrinsic significance.

Renewal

Any action which renews, or revitalises, the cultural significance of the place. Sometimes these actions may affect the fabric or the physical aspects of the place. Renewal may simply be 'continued use', which may or may not result in 'protective care'. Renewal or revitalisation can occur as a result of activities which do not alter the fabric; for example, by the telling of new stories, or by the use of the site for new ceremonies.

Representativeness

The extent to which every significant type of place or object is represented in heritage registers or collections.

Response indicator

An indicator that shows the extent to which society is responding to environment and heritage changes and concerns; includes changes in attitude and individual and collective actions aimed at mitigating, adapting to or reversing negative impacts on the environment and reversing environmental damage already caused; also includes actions to improve the preservation and conservation of the environment.

Restoration

The aim of restoration is not only to conserve the integrity of the resource, but also to reveal its cultural values and to improve the legibility of its original design. Restoration is a highly specialised operation based on a critical-historical process of evaluation, and must not be based on conjecture. The aim of modern restoration - to reveal the original state within the limits of still existing material - thus differs from the past aim of bringing back the original by rebuilding a lost form. Restoration means returning the existing fabric of a place or object to a known earlier state by removing accretions or by reassembling components without the introduction of new material, see also Preservation, Conservation.

Sense of place

'Sense of place' is a component of 'cultural identity'. Sense of place is an intensely personal response to the environment, social and natural, which the individual experiences in daily life, and at a broader level it can be the individual's perception of the whole region, state or nation.

Social value

This term embraces a range of qualities for a place such as spiritual, traditional, economic, political, or national qualities which are valued by the majority or minority group of that place. Social values include contemporary cultural values.

Stabilisation

Maintaining the fabric of a place in its existing state and retarding or slowing deterioration.

State of the Environment reporting

A process that provides a scientific assessment of environmental and heritage conditions, focusing on the impacts of human activities, their significance for environment and heritage and the societal responses to the identified trends.

Sustainable development

Use of an area within its capacity to sustain its cultural or natural significance, and ensure that the benefits of the use to present generations do not diminish the potential to meet the needs and aspirations of future generations. Means that the nation's heritage is respected and appreciated by Australians and international visitors and use of, and visits to, heritage places and objects contribute to the social and economic well-being of the nation and its constituents without detriment to the heritage resources; and the integrity of the heritage resources is never jeopardised.

Targets

Values (or ranges) of measurable parameters that decision-makers have agreed they will try to achieve, see also Benchmark.

Taxonomy

The categorisation and naming of animals and plants, animal and plant groups and the relationships between them; a group of organisms so named (for example, a species, a family, etc.) is called a taxon (plural taxa).

Trend

A general direction or tendency; an indication of change (or its absence) in a property or condition, for example in state of the environment reporting indicators.

Type Specimen

A specimen of a plant or animal species which is the designated representative of a taxon, see also Taxonomy.

Wilderness

Remote areas that are substantially undisturbed by colonial and modern technological society and that are large enough to enable the long-term protection and integrity of their natural systems and biodiversity.

World Heritage

Sites of outstanding universal natural or cultural significance which are included on the World Heritage List, see also Natural places, Historic places, Indigenous places.