Our Heritage
Conserving our heritage is an important part of valuing and preserving our traditions and culture.
What is cultural heritage?
One way to describe heritage is that it is our inheritance from past generations. Heritage is about identity. The past contributes to our sense of who we are today and is an important factor in determining our future aspirations.
Heritage includes such things as buildings, places, monuments and artifacts as well as social values and practices like traditions, customs, and spiritual beliefs.
The different types of heritage we manage include:
Outlet tower, Maroondah Reservoir
Historic (Built) heritage
Places and objects built in the years of Melbourne's European settlement including buildings, monuments, gardens, industrial sites, designed landscapes and archaeological sites.
Scar tree
Indigenous heritage
Places that were occupied by Aboriginal communities in the past and those that are part of Aboriginal peoples' spiritual links to the land or which tell the story of indigenous peoples throughout history. Indigenous heritage also includes culturally and spiritually significant places for past and present Aboriginal communities, including stories and traditions.
St. Johns Church – Picture courtesy of Aboriginal Affairs Victoria
Contact heritage
Sites and places where Aboriginal culture has encountered another culture, such as European people, and the impacts and influences on these sites and places.
Natural heritage
Sites and places of environmental importance. Although outside the scope of our Cultural Heritage Strategy, we have long considered the protection of natural values in all our works and have mechanisms in place to ensure protection of the environment.
Cultural Heritage Strategy
Our Cultural Heritage Strategy (PDF, 3.9mb):
- Sets our heritage management direction
- Provides a clear basis for determining whether heritage values might be affected by any project or works
- Explains how we will manage all cultural heritage matters in a consistent way
- Provides a framework for working in partnership with our key stakeholders in Heritage Victoria, Aboriginal Affairs Victoria, the respective Indigenous communities across Victoria, other agencies and the broader community, ensuring a coordinated approach to heritage management.
Downloads
You will need Adobe Acrobat to access the above PDF documents. 