C O N T E X T 8 7 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 4 1 Context THE INSTITUTE OF HISTORIC BUILDING CONSERVATION www.ihbc.org.uk Registered as a Charity Number 1061593. Company Limited by Guarantee. Registered in England Number 3333780. Registered Office: 3 Stafford Road,TunbridgeWells, Kent TN2 4QZ. IHBC Officers President: David Lovie email [email protected] Chairman: JohnYates email [email protected] Vice Chair: Dave Chetwyn email [email protected] Secretary: Richard Morrice email [email protected] Treasurer: Michael Knights email [email protected] Membership Secretary: Mike Lea email [email protected] Consultations Secretary: Dave Chetwyn email [email protected] Law & Practice Coordinator: Vacant email [email protected] Education Secretary: John Preston email [email protected] Publicity Secretary: Sarah Buckingham email [email protected] Director: Seán O’Reilly email [email protected] Branch Officers North: John Pendlebury Tel 0191 284 2119 NorthWest: Anthony Blacklay Tel 01270 610050 Yorkshire: Keith Knight Tel 01904 658482 West Midlands: Karen Holyoake Tel 01384 826891 East Midlands: Fiona Newton Tel 01507 601111 South: Gill Butter Tel 02380 285324 SouthWest: Colin Ellis Tel 01305 838334 East Anglia: Mike McConnell Tel 01284 735057 South East: Paul Barker Tel 01825 760705 London: David McDonald Tel 020 8881 6724 Scotland: Charles Strang Tel 01835 822560 Wales: Nathan Blanchard Tel 01824 708048 Northern Ireland: Sharon BrownTel 028 9754 3087 Republic of Ireland: Bernard Dee Tel +353 1 873 7226 Business Office Jubilee House, High Street, Tisbury, Wiltshire SP3 6HA England Tel 01747 873133 Fax 01747 871718 email [email protected] Cover: Priesthouse door surround following conservation works at the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel at Mullewa, Western Australia. It won the 2003 RAIA Lachlan Macquarie award, and an Award of Distinction at the Unesco 2004 Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards. John Taylor architect. Lessons from the other side of the world Editorial Patrick Miller (p22) explains how a ‘statement of significance’ can set out the aesthetic, archaeological, architectural, cultural, historical, scientific or social significance that justifies protection. Significant to whom? Leah McKenzie and Frances O’Neill (p37) note that the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens in Melbourne are important to the people of Victoria (as the place where the colony announced its importance in two international exhibitions), to the people of Australia (as the place where the first Federal Parliament was opened) and to the people of the world (as a monument to the technological movement of the 19th century). The Australian experience also highlights other aspects of heritage conservation, well beyond questions of significance. Susan Balderstone (p32) shows that recycling existing buildings is not only energy-efficient, but also contributes to social and economic sustainability. Megan McDougall (p39) describes how support for conservation depends on demonstrating benefits to a wide community. Australia has lessons to teach the UK about how to look beyond ancient buildings and great architects to new ways of understanding the meaning of places. But surely they don’t have any old buildings? Jo Day (p11) recalls getting that response when she told friends she was moving from England to work as a conservation officer in Australia. This issue of Context – which Jo Day has played a large part in putting together – reveals why, despite the relative youth of Australia’s buildings, the experience of heritage conservation in that continent has a great deal of interest for the UK. Yes, the historic places of Victoria – the state that our articles focus on particularly – do tend to be less than 150 years old. Conservationists there find themselves concerned with buildings and structures of, in Day’s words, ‘no apparent age or beauty’. Australians value them all the same, for their significance in terms of social and cultural development. Often it is not the individual building but the place that is particularly significant. The Australian concept of place is often complex.This is a continent that had been occupied for tens of thousands of years by aboriginal people with a well-developed sense of place, but whose rights were dismissed because they did not share the English concept of land ownership. Only in recent decades have serious efforts been made to reconcile two very different systems of expressing the value of place. Briefing 2 Letters 5 Periodically 6 Legal Briefing Charles Mynors and Alex Booth 8 The good, the bad and the just plain different Jo Day 11 Australian cultural heritage legislation Amanda Bacon 13 Local planning for heritage in Victoria Cathy Philo 15 The National Trust (but not as you know it) Jim Gard’ner 18 So why is this place so bloody important? Patrick Miller 22 Tracing the Cockatoo connections Noni Boyd 25 Conservation in the South Australian outback Duncan Ross-Watt 28 Enough energy to get half way to the moon Susan Balderstone 32 Victoria’s goldrush inheritance Jenny Climas and David Bannear 34 A return to the world stage Leah McKenzie and Frances O’Neill 37 Community benefits of heritage funding Megan McDougall 39 Melbourne conservation’s radical roots Renate Howe and David Nichols 41 Notes from the chair 43 Biography, Seán O’Reilly, the IHBC’s first director 44 Vox pop 44 Products and services 45
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