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Home>Council Documents>Reports>Heritage Study
| About the Heritage Study | | Council is seeking community input into a new heritage study of the shire which will identify, evaluate and document places of post-contact cultural significance and make recommendations or their future conservation.
“Heritage includes more than places – it also comprises objects, collections, records and stories,” said Strathbogie Councillor Robyn Machin, who is a member of the study’s steering committee along with David Helms (Heritage Victoria), Anthony Hemingway (Consultant), Roger Beeston (Consultant), David Blore (Department of Planning and Community Development), and Phil Howard, Council’s Planning Coordinator.
“An important objective of heritage conservation is to provide present and future generations with a tangible link to the past that is not is not distorted in any particular way. The places we conserve should accurately portray and represent the history of the area,” Cr Machin said.
Council has received grant funding to assist in the study, provided by Heritage Victoria. An allocation of both cash and kind has been pledged by council to complete the study in conjunction with RBA Architects and Conservation Consultants. This architectural practice specialises in the assessment, repair and refurbishment of sites and buildings of cultural heritage significance. .
Instigation of the study is answering an objective highlighted in council’s planning scheme. Stage One of the study involves establishing a Thematic Environmental History, which sets out the key themes which influenced historical development of the municipality since first contact between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.
“This step explains how and why our shire looks like it does today. The process not only becomes a key ingredient in generating the heritage study, but also raises community awareness of the historical development and heritage of the municipality,” Cr Machin said.
Early work on the study has revealed the following themes apply to the Strathbogie Shire:
• Events and stories: Ned Kelly; Eliza Forlonge
• Early settlement
• Gold mining
• Farming
• Forestry and Timber
• Hill Country: huts, both former and existing
• Rivers and Lakes
Community participation in the process of creating the heritage study is vital, Cr Jackie Laughlin said.
“We are relying heavily on our residents and community groups like historical societies to identify places important to our past. Sometimes these places possess an historical significance that isn’t immediately obvious. For example, an innocuous building or place may in fact have strong association with a significant person in history or an important event.
“Working with historic records is one way to unearth these connections, anecdotal evidence is just as important to get the research heading in the right direction and ensure the study really does reflect the true historical development of our shire,” Cr Laughlin said.
The study is not confined to physical structures. Important places can be a site, area, landscape, building or other work, group of buildings or other works. These places might include components, contents, spaces and views. A place may include memorials, trees, gardens, parks, places of historical events, urban areas, towns, industrial places, archaeological sites and spiritual and religious places.
The study is not strictly confined to the 19th century, but this century as well.
“Another important ingredient during this information gathering phase of the study is to identify places of not just historical, but of cultural significance. Cultural Significance means aesthetic, historic, scientific, social or spiritual value for past, present or future generations,” Cr Machin said.
Community meetings will be arranged in the near future to involve members of the public interested to becoming involved in the study process.
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