Heritage Victoria

Last updated

A Heritage Victoria blue plaque on the Ballarat Town Hall Blue plaque Ballarat Town Hall.jpg
A Heritage Victoria blue plaque on the Ballarat Town Hall

Heritage Victoria is a branch of the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning. It is the regulator responsible for administering the Heritage Act 2017. [1] The Heritage Act provides for the protection and conservation of the cultural heritage of Victoria and establishes the Victorian Heritage Register and Heritage Inventory. [2] The Register is a list of places and objects which are of significance to the State of Victoria. The Inventory is a list of known historical archaeological sites. Both statutory lists can be searched via the Victorian Heritage Database. [3]

Contents

Functions

Heritage Victoria is responsible for the most important historic heritage sites in Victoria. This includes state significant heritage places, historical archaeological sites, and shipwrecks.

Heritage Victoria's role includes:

History

Protection of heritage buildings

Statutory protection of Victoria's historic buildings commenced in 1974 with the passing of the Historic Buildings Act 1974 (Vic). This was the first law in Australia to recognise and protect privately owned heritage buildings.

The Historic Buildings Act established the Historic Buildings Preservation Council as a statutory authority to administer the Act. In 1974 the Historic Buildings Register commenced when 370 buildings were gazetted, most of which were recommended by the National Trust of Australia. All were in private ownership or owned by local government. [11]

The Government Buildings Register was established in 1982 under the Government Buildings Advisory Council Act 1972 (Vic). This was a register of around 472 historic State government buildings.

In 1995 with the commencement of the Heritage Act 1995, the Historic Buildings Register and the Government Buildings Register were migrated to the Victorian Heritage Register, and the former registers were dissolved.

Protection of historic archaeological sites

Historical archaeology has been protected in Victoria since 1972, when the Archaeological and Aboriginal Relics Preservation Act 1972 commenced. The Victoria Archaeological Survey administered the Act until the early 1990s. The Heritage Act 1995 saw the responsibility for historical archaeology transferred to Heritage Victoria.

Plaques

Heritage Victoria marks some places on the Register with a Blue plaque. [12]

Controversy

Heritage Victoria has been criticized in the past either for excessive restrictions on what private owners can do with registered places, [13]

While it has directly saved many buildings of heritage significance from demolition, it has also been criticised for failing to properly protect Victoria's Heritage. Several noteworthy buildings have been denied nominations to the Victorian Heritage Register and subsequently been demolished. Other listed buildings have been questioned for their heritage significance.

Though it claims that it would do so only under "exceptional circumstances" [14] it has also been criticised for approving demolition of buildings that it had listed including: 1980 demolition of Australia's former tallest building Melbourne's earliest remaining skyscraper the Australian Building, [15] in 1982 it failed to protect Robbs Building one of Melbourne's finest Renaissance Revival office buildings after the approved demolition and construction of a (since demolished) podium for the Rialto Towers despite strong community opposition, [16] [17] 2008 partial demolition of Melbourne Docklands' No 2 Goods Shed which resulted in what was once Australia's longest building being cut in half, [18] 2010 partial demolition of Melbourne's Windsor Hotel last of the major historic 19th century hotels in Australia still operating for a hi-rise tower (though the develompent did not proceed), [19] 2015 complete demolition of the Princess Mary Club Melbourne's most significant hostel for young women for a new office tower, [20] 2018 complete demolition of Morwell Power Station the centrepiece of the state's postwar strategy to revitalise the Latrobe Valley, [21] [22] and 2022 complete demolition of Melbourne Docklands' Central Pier the remains of the century old Victoria Dock the maritime centrepiece which transformaed the city into a large international port. [23]

However it has on numerous occasions demanded urgent repair orders and the reconstruction of illegally demolished buildings. It has also won awards for some of its work, such as the mobile phone App for identifying and learning about heritage places. [24] It also maintains a publicly searchable on-line database of places, [3] and database of historical objects and archaeological finds. [25]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City of Banyule</span> Local government area in Victoria, Australia

The City of Banyule is a local government area in Victoria, Australia in the north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It was created under the Local Government Act 1989 and established in 1994 as an amalgamation of former councils. It has an area of 63 square kilometres (24.3 sq mi) and lies between 7 and 21 km from central Melbourne. In 1994 it had a population of 116,000. In June 2018 Banyule had a population of 130,237. The Yarra River runs along the City's southern border while its western border is defined by Darebin Creek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Docklands, Victoria</span> Suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Docklands, also known as Melbourne Docklands, is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km (1.2 mi) west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne local government area. Docklands recorded a population of 15,495 at the 2021 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queen Victoria Village</span>

Queen Victoria Village, generally known as QV Melbourne or just QV, is a precinct in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia. Covering the city block bounded by Lonsdale, Little Lonsdale, Swanston, and Russell Streets, and located directly opposite the State Library of Victoria and Melbourne Central, QV comprises a large shopping centre, a central plaza, an underground food court, Melbourne central city's first full-size supermarket and apartment buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Street, Melbourne</span> Road in Melbourne, Victoria

Elizabeth Street is one of the main streets in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia, part of the Hoddle Grid laid out in 1837. It is presumed to have been named in honour of governor Richard Bourke's wife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spencer Street</span> Street in Melbourne, Victoria

Spencer Street is a major street and thoroughfare in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia. The street was gazetted in 1837 as the westernmost boundary of the Hoddle Grid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">La Trobe Street</span> Street in Melbourne, Victoria

La Trobe Street is a major street and thoroughfare in the Melbourne central business district, Victoria, Australia. It runs roughly east–west and forms the northern boundary of the central business district. The street was laid out as an extension of the original Hoddle Grid in 1839 and was named after Charles La Trobe. La Trobe Street extends from Victoria Street in the east to Harbour Esplanade in the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victorian Heritage Register</span> Heritage register of places in Victoria, Australia

The Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) lists places deemed to be of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 2017. The Minister for Planning is the responsible Minister. Heritage Victoria was established as the State Government listing and permit authority in 1995, replacing the original authority, the Historic Buildings Preservation Council, established in 1974. Listing on the Victorian Heritage Register is separate from listing by a local Council or Shire, known as a Heritage Overlay. Heritage Victoria is currently part of the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning of the Government of Victoria, Australia. Heritage Victoria reports to the Heritage Council who approve recommendations to the Register and hear appeals when a registration is disputed. The council also hears appeals by an owner to a permit issued by Heritage Victoria. As of 2021, there are over 2,400 places and objects listed on the VHR.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria Street, Melbourne</span> Road in Melbourne, Victoria

Victoria Street is one of the major thoroughfares of inner Melbourne, running east–west for over six kilometres between Munster Terrace in North Melbourne and the Yarra River. The road is known as Victoria Parade for over one-and-a-half kilometres of its length, distinguishable with a wide reservation and tramway down the middle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Street, Melbourne</span> Street in Melbourne

King Street is a main road in the Melbourne central business district, Australia. It is considered a key hub of Melbourne's nightlife and is home to many pubs, nightclubs, restaurants, and adult entertainment venues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bank Place</span> Street in Melbourne, Victoria

Bank Place is a street in the Melbourne central business district, Australia. It is a laneway running roughly north-south between Collins Street and Little Collins Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">140 William Street, Melbourne</span> Building in Melbourne, Australia

140 William Street is a 41-storey 152m tall steel, concrete and glass building located in the western end of the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Constructed between 1969 and 1972, BHP House was designed by the architectural practice Yuncken Freeman alongside engineers Irwinconsult, with heavy influence of contemporary skyscrapers in Chicago, Illinois. The local architects sought technical advice from Bangladeshi-American structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan, of renowned American architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, spending ten weeks at its Chicago office in 1968. At the time, BHP House was known to be the tallest steel-framed building and the first office building in Australia to use a “total energy concept” – the generation of its own electricity using BHP natural gas. The name BHP House came from the building being the national headquarters of BHP. BHP House has been included in the Victorian Heritage Register for significance to the State of Victoria for following three reasons:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queens Bridge (Melbourne)</span> Bridge in Melbourne, Australia

The Queen's Bridge is a historic road bridge over the Yarra River in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The bridge was built in 1889 and has five wrought iron plate girder spans and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The bridge was built by contractor David Munro and replaced a timber footbridge built in 1860.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shamrock Hotel, Bendigo</span> Building in Bendigo, Vic

The Shamrock Hotel, currently trading as Hotel Shamrock, is a grand 19th-century hotel in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia, situated on Pall Mall, the city's main street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architecture of Melbourne</span>

The architecture of Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria and second most populous city in Australia, is characterised by a wide variety of styles in various structures dating from the early years of European settlement to the present day. The city is particularly noted for its mix of Victorian architecture and contemporary buildings, with 74 skyscrapers in the city centre, the most of any city in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Carlton Inn was a former pub in Carlton, Melbourne, in the Australian state of Victoria. Built c. 1856, it was controversially illegally demolished without planning or heritage approval on the weekend of 15–16 October 2016. Before demolition, it was one of the oldest buildings in the Carlton area. In its last years, it was known as the Corkman Irish Pub.

Oakden, Addison and Kemp was an Australian architectural firm in Melbourne, Victoria. While it was short lived, existing from only 1887 to 1892, they designed a number of outstanding projects, and all three members designed many more notable projects in earlier and later partnerships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harbour Esplanade</span> Street in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Harbour Esplanade is a waterfront street and thoroughfare in Docklands, an inner suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It runs roughly north-south from Navigation Drive in the south to Docklands Drive in the north. The road also forms the eastern boundary of the Victoria Harbour inlet and is adjacent to Victoria Dock.

Heidelberg Historical Society is a museum and research organisation devoted to the local and community history of Heidelberg and surrounding areas in the north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rialto building group, Melbourne</span> Group of historic buildings in Australia

The Rialto, Winfield and Olderfleet building group, in Collins Street, Melbourne, is a group of five historic buildings all built within a few years of each other in 1888-1891. They are all a similar height, width and level of detail, making up one of the most notable historic streetscapes in Melbourne, and a particularly notable Victorian streetscape in the international context. All the buildings were subject to preservation battles in the 1970s and early 1980s, ultimately saving the front portions of four of them, and the whole of one of them, the Rialto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. B. Fox's Villa</span>

W. B. Fox's Villa is a historic farmhouse built in 1867 in Clifton Hill, Victoria, Australia. It was also known as The House of the Gentle Bunyip, an intentional Christian community established by Athol Gill. In the 1990s, the building had fallen into disrepair and was planned to be demolished. Clifton Hill residents picketed the site for over 400 days, ultimately preventing its demolition. In 2008, the building was subsequently re-purposed as supported accommodation for people with schizophrenia. W.B. Fox's Villa is included in the statement of significance for the Clifton Hill West Precinct area in the Victorian Heritage Database.

References

  1. ↑ "Heritage Act 2017".
  2. ↑ "Heritage listings". 23 February 2021.
  3. 1 2 "VHD". vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  4. ↑ Part 3, Division 3 Heritage Act 2017
  5. ↑ Part 5 Heritage Act 2017
  6. ↑ Part 6, Division 1 Heritage Act 2017
  7. ↑ Part 6, Division 2 Heritage Act 2017
  8. ↑ Part 4 Heritage Act 2017
  9. ↑ Part 8, Part 10 Heritage Act 2017
  10. ↑ Part 9 Heritage Act 2017
  11. ↑ "Victoria Government Gazette". vic.gov.au. p. 3647. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  12. ↑ Blue Plaques, Department of Planning and Community Development, Victoria, archived from the original on 25 February 2011, retrieved 14 February 2011
  13. ↑ "Heritage hurdle stops $35m RVIB development". The Age. 22 May 2002. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  14. ↑ Heritage Victoria spurns ‘unacceptable’ Fed Square demolition plan, Apple store canned by Linda Cheng for ArchitectureAU 5 Apr 2019
  15. ↑ Latreille, Anne (3 March 1981). "The ups and downs in the world of lifts". The Age .
  16. ↑ Lesh, James. (2016). 'Why not call ourselves Mutilated Melbourne?' A history of urban heritage at the Rialto Towers. 28. 22–35.
  17. ↑ The Age Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 19 December 1978 Page 15
  18. ↑ "Goods shed to become green offices for bureaucrats" – Australian Financial Review, May 1, 2008
  19. ↑ Dowling, Jason (13 June 2010). "Heritage Victoria under fire". The Age. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  20. ↑ Heritage Victoria grants permission for demolition of Princess Mary Club Melbourne Heritage Action. 18 November 2015
  21. ↑ Asbestos riddled Morwell Power Station to be demolished despite heritage listing by Nicole Asher for ABC Gippsland 6 Jun 2018
  22. ↑ Documents raise questions over Heritage Victoria's approval of Morwell Power Station demolition By Nino Bucci for ABC News 29 Jan 2019
  23. ↑ Demolition of Central Pier moves ahead by Brendan Rees and Sean Car from Docklands News 31 August 2022
  24. ↑ "Vic-Heritage iOS app". BETTER FUTURE. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  25. ↑ Heritage Victoria's archaeological collection
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.