Geoheritage and Geoconservation in Australia

Abstract

While Australia has a long history in conservation, less well known are Australia’s efforts to identify and conserve important sites of geoheritage significance. This paper provides a background to geoheritage and geoconservation in Australia and reviews the policies and legislation that underpin listing of sites of geoheritage significance in all Australian jurisdictions and shows that there are inconsistencies and inadequacies in the current set of processes to identify and protect such sites in Australia. The recent Australian Heritage Strategy provides an overarching framework by which Australia’s heritage places can be better identified and managed to ensure their long-term protection and proposes new ways to support and fund heritage places. However, it is yet to be implemented, and this paper outlines the need for a systematic inventory-based system of identifying representative geoheritage. To achieve the objectives of the Australian Heritage Strategy, a renewed focus on geoheritage and geoconservation is required. Finally, this paper also includes a brief description of the emerging field of building stone heritage.