Strategic Plan Context and Relationships
Introduction
The functions of the Heritage Council of Victoria are enshrined in the Victorian Heritage Act 1995 and provide the Council with the power to protect Victoria’s significant cultural heritage in a number of diverse ways. This includes providing advice to government, raising public awareness of the State’s heritage, and undertaking strategic research, as well as fulfilling statutory decision making and appeal body responsibilities.This inaugural Strategic Plan sets out the Council’s priorities over the next four years, allowing it to enact its statutory responsibilities in ways that best meet the needs of Victoria’s cultural heritage. The Plan will inform the Council’s annual business planning, and provides a blueprint for its longer term program planning, including advocating for increased resources to support heritage management across Victoria.
Who We Are
The Heritage Council of Victoria is an independent statutory authority established as the Victorian Government’s primary decision-making body on the identification of places and objects of (non-Indigenous) cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria. The Council plays a critical role in leading best-practice heritage protection and management through working with partners in government, industry and the wider community. It lists places and objects in the Victorian Heritage Register, advises government and non-government agencies, and hears appeals on registration matters, and permits and conditions issued by the Heritage Victoria Executive Director. Made up of ten Members and ten Alternate Members, Heritage Council draws on a wide range of professional disciplines and organisations.
Members of the Council are drawn from diverse professions including archaeology, architecture, history, engineering, building construction, planning law, property management, and town planning.
Most of the Heritage Council’s work is supported by the Executive Director and the staff of Heritage Victoria. However, the Council has developed protocols which ensure that it maintains a clear separation and independence from the Executive Director and Heritage Victoria for its independent statutory roles in registrations and permit appeals.
Context
Victoria is experiencing a period of exceptional growth, with concentration of pressure in metropolitan Melbourne and the State’s regional centres. An increase in population places demands on the existing environment and can increase the risks to heritage places – particularly if there is insufficient vision and innovation to manage their protection, adaptation and ongoing utilisation. The Heritage Council has the view that good heritage management is a key to effective and vibrant place making; with benefits extending to community well-being and environmental sustainability.
The Victorian Government is responsible for the delivery of infrastructure and the management of growth in these high-pressure areas, and it is therefore crucial that the Heritage Council effectively engages with the State to ensure that the recognition and conservation of heritage is part of the overall measurement of success.
A key role of the Heritage Council is to promote to governments, industry and the public the economic, environmental and social benefits of heritage conservation, and the contribution that heritage makes to liveability. This includes building awareness for the role of heritage conservation in environmental management and sustainability. The Council also views its responsibility as advocating the role of heritage in defining cultural identity – whether it’s linked to place, object, tradition or memory – and promoting the function of heritage in longer term community building.
Role
The role of the Heritage Council is broad and diverse. The Heritage Council is empowered to:
- Advise the Minister on the state of Victoria’s heritage and any steps necessary to protect or conserve it
- Promote public understanding of heritage and develop and conduct community information and education programs
- Establish assessment criteria
- Add places and objects to the Victorian Heritage Register, and remove or amend the registration of places and objects
- Hear appeals against decisions of the Executive Director relating to heritage permits
- Advise State Government departments and agencies and municipal councils on the protection and conservation of places and objects and liaise with other bodies
- Advise the Minister on proposed amendments to planning schemes that may affect the protection or conservation of places and objects
- Undertake programs of research related to identification, conservation and interpretation
- Provide grants and loans from the Heritage Fund and recommend Land Tax Exemptions and other incentives; and
- Authorise the issuing of Show Cause Notices and Interim Protection Orders.
The Functions of the Heritage Council are set out in Section 8 of the Heritage Act 1995.
Stakeholders and Partners
The Heritage Council’s relationship with stakeholders and partners is critical to being able to undertake our business and deliver good heritage outcomes. Critical to the Council’s obligations and functions is collaboration with the Executive Director and Heritage Victoria.
The Executive Director is a statutory decision making position separate from the Heritage Council, also established under the Heritage Act 1995. The Executive Director maintains the Victorian Heritage Register and makes recommendations to the Heritage Council regarding places and objects nominated to the Register. The Heritage Council acts as the appeal body for the Executive Director’s permit decisions.
Heritage Victoria is a business unit of the Planning and Local Government Group of the Department of Planning and Community Development (DPCD). Heritage Victoria is the Victorian Government’s principal non-Indigenous cultural heritage agency whose role includes supporting the work of the Heritage Council and the Executive Director.
| Community and Owners/Managers |
Current and future Victorians and visitors |
Heritage owners and custodians |
Development industry and community planners | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Government/ Statutory Authorities |
Federal, Victorian and local government Victorian Minister for Planning Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council |
Aboriginal Affairs Victoria Office of the Victorian Government Architect Museum Victoria |
Tourism Victoria Heritage Chairs Officials of Australia and New Zealand (HCOANZ) |
Parks Victoria State Library of Victoria Arts Victoria |
| Non-Government Organisations |
Community Not-For-Profit groups |
Local heritage groups |
National Trust of Australia (Victoria) |
Royal Historical Society of Victoria Cultural, educational and media outlets |
| Professional/ Academic |
International Council on Monuments and Sites (Australia ICOMOS) |
Education Bodies (tertiary, secondary and primary) |
Professional bodies Heritage specialists, trades and suppliers |