*Pic: Invermay … “The suburb of Invermay takes a battering – three streets with almost intact streetscapes to be delisted. Why those streets?”
“Reviewing the Integrity of the Tasmanian Heritage Register” by delisting selective sections of selective streetscapes starting with Launceston …
Heritage Tasmania must be feeling the weight of their work and want to clear their books. After years of trying to do it surreptitiously, this department is now emboldened to come out and just do it.
Only places deemed to be of importance to the whole of Tasmania will now be listed. Removing places that are considered of lesser importance off the Register is one thing but casting them into oblivion is quite another.
No set protection is in place for places of Local significance. As Heritage Minister Matthew Groom said: “Streetscapes were usually managed through local government planning schemes”. Specifics, please?? And he said the government has “absolute confidence” in this process.
He might but many of us out in voterland don’t.
From the chairperson of the Tasmanian Heritage Council:
“The Tasmanian Heritage Council has the important role of managing the Tasmanian Heritage Register. We need to make sure the Register has integrity and credibility, and is focused on the places that are important to the whole of Tasmania for current and future generations to enjoy.
To help us achieve this, we are reviewing all entries on the Register to make sure the information held is correct and to confirm that all entries meet one or more criteria for entry, according to our legislation.
The review process has begun in the Launceston City Council municipality. Of the entries permanently registered in the municipality, the 133 entries listed below have been identified as not having enough evidence to meet one or more of the criteria and are not regarded as being important to the whole of Tasmania”.
Sounds all good and well, doesn’t it, even when you’ve managed to recover from the phrase ‘integrity and credibility’ when used in a political context.
Once the Removal List is analysed, some cracks appear and concerns arise.
This List is one-third of the total Launceston listings.
Streetscapes are not regarded by this department as being important to the whole of Tasmania. Due diligence was not done when the Act was being legislated as it does not specifically provide for a collection of heritage properties to be listed as a whole place of heritage significance.
I would argue that streetscapes in many Tasmanian cities and towns should and are regarded by many as being important to the whole of Tasmania for current and future generations to enjoy. Criterion “the place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of places in Tasmania’s history” implies streetscapes.
The suburb of Invermay takes a battering – three streets with almost intact streetscapes to be delisted. Why those streets? Why a few houses here and there in other streets? Selected shop frontages in the older parts of the CBD to be delisted. The accumulative effect is the beginning of the destruction of Launceston streetscapes.
On it’s website, Heritage Tasmania includes streetscapes as historic heritage and claim that the Burra Charter is a key document that underpins and supports their heritage legislation. The Burra Charter states that:
“Places of cultural significance enrich people’s lives, often providing a deep and inspirational sense of connection to community and landscape, to the past and to lived experiences. Places of cultural significance reflect the diversity of our communities, telling us about who we are and the past that has formed us and the Australian landscape. They are irreplaceable and precious.”
Streetscapes are considered so irreplaceable and precious by Heritage Tasmania that there is no place for them on the Register or in legislation, even if by definition of one of their own criteria, they can be said to qualify. The danger is when these individual places are off the Register – and there are some places that clearly do not belong there but these are a handful – that there is no real protection for them.
Their collective fates are handed over to city councils to make the fateful decisions under new planning schemes whenever that happens. The decision to demolish or not demolish – depends on your friends, I suppose. Whatever happened to the precinct plans that Heritage Tasmania was working on?
These places were deemed worthy of consideration in the first place because they met one or more of the criteria to be proposed for assessment and now are said to no longer meet the same one or more criteria under the same Act. The public would be better appeased if Heritage Tasmania had noted which criterion no longer applies with each address.
Then there is St Georges Square – a picturesque green block at the top of High Street – on this Removal List. Alarm bells start to go off here. Why remove a park? Am I too cynical if I wonder if this little piece of park is earmarked for development?
A galling aspect of all this is that these beautiful intact streetscapes bring tourism to Launceston. What we have is unique. We have one government department, Tourism Tasmania, supposedly promoting tourism for our island state, and then we have another government department, Heritage Tasmania, deliberately dismantling it.
The fate of this island depends as ever on the whims and personal agendas of our politicians whose catchcry is ‘Development at any cost’. We should be building on the unique asset we already have, not destroying it piecemeal. Napier in New Zealand got it right, so should we.
Heritage Tasmania coming to a town near you soon.
Check them out here:
http://www.heritage.tas.gov.au/thr_review_public_notices.html
For over 30 years, Tom Bailey worked in Federal and State Government departments. He is a 7th generation Tasmanian who has over the years invested in tourism and business ventures around the state. In his later years, Tom takes a very strong interest in staying alive long enough to see any representatives from Tourism Tasmania or TICT walk through his door asking what they can do to help his businesses.
EARLIER on Tasmanian Times …
• The deplorable and sickening rape of heritage EXTRACT: Leo Schofield’s criticisms of Tasmania could be coming true: “Their greatest assets are the natural and the built environment, and both of these are in the process of destruction ………………. “.
