PHA (Vic & Tas) submission to Heritage Victoria's 'Future directions of the Victorian Heritage Register'

PHA (Vic & Tas) has welcomed the opportunity to provide feedback to Heritage Victoria on the current Victorian Heritage Register (VHR), via their survey ‘Future directions of the Victorian Heritage Register’ and to submit proposals for an updated, accurate and more socially and culturally inclusive heritage database.

Our submission (which can be read in full here) highlights our concerns with the VHR as it currently stands, and ways we believe it can be improved, including comments on:  the Framework of Historic Themes; the limitations of time and budgetary constraints which undermine good scholarship; the need for qualified historians and heritage professionals to be employed in writing citations and statements; the site management role of the Register and consequent planning or legal disputes which may arise from inadequate or inaccurate historical information.

We also encourage members to provide their own feedback. Submissions close on the 17 December 2023.

Thanks to Sonia Jennings, Lucy Bracey and Kimberley Meagher (National Advocacy Sub Committee) and members Dr James Lesh and Dr Sue Silberberg for their work preparing this submission.