*Pic: Image from Heritage Tasmania, here

Heritage Listing in this state does need an overhaul but Heritage Tasmania must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater just to please a few bureaucrats.

They do need to ensure greater clarity, consistency and certainty for property owners, developers and local government but what weighting will be given to the keeping of built heritage to please these various masters.

Now that the sitting Liberal government has appointed a developer as chairwoman of the Tasmanian Heritage Council, they are becoming bolder in ‘thumbing their noses’ at proper due process in the safeguarding of all of Tasmania’s unique heritage.

Heritage should be developed as a major tourist attraction. Instead, they are paying lip service to it. It seems to me Liberals would rather hand out public land to favoured mates to pillage and rape the island with modern developments … rather than build on an asset we already have. Who says we want their limited and self-serving vision for the future. It is all deplorable and sickening.

Simon Currant’s proposed Mt Read Huon Pine Experience is a travesty on an ecologically gargantuan scale. It is so stupid. In my view it is greedy. NSW has the Wollemi Pine, one of the oldest and rarest tree species on earth. The exact location of the Pines is a closely kept secret because of the pristine and fragile nature of the wild habitat. Only selected researchers are permitted to visit the area on rare occasions.

The majority of Heritage ‘removals’ will be in Launceston and the north. This island is so Hobart-centric. Hobart matters have always been considered as more important and in recent times, Heritage Tasmania has busied itself with Hobart area listings. Heritage Tasmania has been honoured with the heavy burden of protecting the entire state’s built heritage. The criteria for these removals must be transparent and valid, not politically self-serving.

Heritage Tasmania and its figurehead , The Tasmanian Heritage Council, have for at least a decade tried to remove listings from the Heritage Register so their statistics would look good in their annual report. For sites to even be listed for consideration, means that there was validation in the meeting of criteria for them to be initially listed in the first instance.

A few years ago, their ploy was to issue sitting council members with the huge list of sites awaiting processing. Councillors were to grade each proposed entry as ‘A’ (top priority), B (get around to them but worthy) and ‘Z’ (remove from the list). If a proposed site ended up with 3 Zs from 3 councillors then it was to be removed from the list – permanently. Interestingly, Launceston’s Cataract Gorge hadn’t been fully listed at that stage and it received 3 Zs. The majority of Zs were given to sites in the north. This plan ultimately came to nothing, much to the chagrin of some.

Part of the problem is the process that Heritage Tasmania adopts to process these proposed entries. Alternative streamlined suggestions have been made by interested parties, but were all rejected out-of-hand by the controlling hierarchy. The ultimate goal is not to have properly listed worthy local heritage but to remove as many as possible, if not all, to make the figures look good. The fact that this island has such a high number of outstanding heritage properties (state and local) which we are very lucky to be caretakers of, is not celebrated … but seen as an encumbrance.

Under the leadership of Ms Brett Torossi, the Heritage Council is methodically working its way through the entries on the register and is identifying entries that are candidates for removal. (Press Release)

Ominous. Yes, folks, local heritage listings and whatever protection is afforded them by this classification are going to be removed or so watered down as to be ineffectual. Open slather for the destruction of Launceston streetscapes, in particular. Justification for removal will be illuminating. A site has to only qualify under one criterion to be accepted for listing. At this rate Heritage Tasmania and by extension, the Heritage Council, will only be responsible for State Heritage listed buildings and approvals for changes and demolition of buildings. How large a workforce will be required then?

Instead of embracing this uniqueness, it is seen as a negative. The List, the List!! Over 2000 to be dealt with – too many to process. Listing around 50 a year does not cut the mustard in the Annual Report. We must please our masters! Hence media releases to pave the way (and no comments invited by The Mercury: http://www.themercury.com.au/news/politics/heritage-list-removals-near/story-fnpp9w4j-1227325736783 ). The Examiner did not even report it.

Questions:

• What proper academic qualifications does Ms Torossi hold to be appointed as Chairwoman of the Tasmanian Council? Will proposed developments on heritage sites be a conflict of interest? At least the last chairperson was an historian … but she was a Labor appointment, so had to go.

This is from Heritage Tasmania’s website:

Ms Brett Torossi
Chairperson
Brett is a passionate Tasmanian, with a keen interest in Tasmania, its heritage, identity, brand and future.
She is an acclaimed businesswoman, tourism operator and property developer, and has had extensive leadership and management experience on private, public and voluntary boards. Brett is a Trustee of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG), a member of the Board of Tourism Tasmania, a Board member of the Tasmanian Development Board, a Board member of Creative Partnerships Australia, a Board member of the Australian Festival of Voices and until taking on this position was a Commissioner on the Tasmanian Planning Commission (TPC).
She has extensive experience in the areas of planning, historic cultural heritage, tourism, governance and the private sector, and was awarded ‘Tasmanian Tourism Champion’ 2014.
Appointed to: 15 January 2018

I mean, other than being a serial government board appointee and developer. After her term is up, perhaps Simon Currant can have a term, and then after him, perhaps Miles Hampton.

Experience in historic cultural heritage? Please! Engineering a big modern box to sit on top of a heritage building is experience!

Her proposed Avalon Ocean Pavilion will involve her being given public land that is contained within the Mayfield Conservation Coastal Reserve that has ‘no Management Plan and is therefore guided by the general provision of coastal reserves that allow for sensitive and appropriate tourism related activities’. (EOI Press Release)

• In these times of economic restraint, why has the number of board members on the Heritage Council been increased? And weighted with government representatives.

• Why is there a representative / or the Director himself of the Director of National Parks and Wildlife sitting on the Board? Having ‘your boss’ or his representative sitting on the Board is surely a conflict of interest on this purportedly independent body?

Transparency and accountability, Minister Groom. We, the people, appointed your political party to be the guardians and caretakers of our heritage, not to be the means of destruction of some of it that your bureaucrats now consider unnecessary, to suit various political agendas. Once our heritage is gone, it is gone forever.

And just a word to the wise. It is not a good look when the same acolyte groupies receive many on-going and continual governmental appointments for the term of their working lives AND receive annual ‘prestigious’ tourism awards year after year, after year.

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 ………………. “.

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.

• Tom Bailey, in Comments: I must be prophetic. On Monday 18th May there will be a Public Notice in The Examiner listing the 133 domestic places in Launceston to be removed from the State List. Out of 386 places, 133 are to removed.

• John Biggs, in Comments: Thank you Tom for bringing this to light. Launceston is an absolute gem of Victorian architecture — so many knowledgeable visitors have remarked on this wonderful old houses on and around Windmill Hill and Trevallyn: built when Launceston was thriving and continuing unharmed when it wasn’t, unlike Hobart that has lost many heritage buildings. I hate this North South competition though: there’s so much in N, S E and W that needs preserving. It is incredibly arrogant to destroy the best — and the typical — of the past on the assumption that we moderners know better. The present Liberal govt is expert at the “we know best” game, which surprises me with Hodgman as leader, who is not such a bad bloke, but he allows these vandals and philistines and up themselves wankers to ride roughshod over him. Don’t let them Will, show some respect for the past and for your responsibilities as Premier.