Heritage tells us about much more than the last 200 years. The evidence of a very rich indigenous culture which is more than 40,000 years old is all around us.

We need to increase our understanding of the history of the last 40,000 years and we need to ensure that the State Heritage Register is expanded so that it truly reflects the story of the past.

It will be my priority to add Aboriginal heritage places to the State Heritage Register.

In particular I will be working with the Aboriginal community to encourage more nominations of sites of Aboriginal significance.

Listings of Aboriginal places will increase our understanding of indigenous heritage. It will be an opportunity to recognise the cultural heritage of the first Australians.

In encouraging all Australians to recognise our unique indigenous heritage, we also encourage them to look at the injustices and wrongs of the past and focus on a better future.

We become a more mature nation in understanding our past.

Across NSW, there are many ethnic communities that have made a rich contribution to our history and character.

Some 27% of Australians have at least one parent born overseas. Some 23% of Australians were themselves born overseas, and 16% speak a language other than English at home.

The Chinese, the Greek, the Italian, the Arabic, the Vietnamese and many other communities have all played a role in determining the character, and landscape of the society we live in today.

I am setting the recognition, the exploration, the celebration of our multicultural heritage as another key priority.

We will be calling on community groups to suggest how we can work towards a better understanding of the importance of multicultural heritage in NSW.

The local communities are the best starting point; they know the history, they know the stories.

I want the State Heritage Register to reflect our exciting cultural diversity.

Thanks largely to the efforts of the Chinese community, the Yiu Ming Temple in Alexandria, Market Gardens in La Perouse and the Wing Hing Long Store in Tingha were added to the Register in 1999.

So we will be giving priority to listing more places of particular importance to ethnic communities on the State Heritage Register.

Rural and regional heritage will also be a focus in the years ahead.

From a broader point of view, the Government is working to revitalise rural and regional NSW.

And heritage has a major role to play in this revitalisation.

VHeritage projects generate employment and attract tourism and new businesses into the district.

There are many towns in rural NSW where heritage tourism is the main source of income.

This includes the well-known towns of Bellingen, Berrima, Carcoar, Gulgong, Hill End, Morpeth and Sofala.

But there are also many less well-known towns where heritage building stock represents the major resource which will enable more rural communities to build a sustainable future.

Barraba is one such example.

The Shire of Barraba, like many rural communities, has experienced a population decline.

During the last few years, the Council has funded a main street heritage program and promoted the area's cultural and wildlife heritage. As a result, visitor numbers have increased significantly and the local economy has grown.

On a larger scale, places like Broken Hill have planned a future based on heritage tourism.

The biggest heritage project in Broken Hill is the Line of Lode open air museum.

The Line of Lode is 7.5 kilometres long and consists of underground mines, buildings, equipment, a tailings dump, mullock heaps and open cuts.

The Heritage Branch has worked with the Broken Hill community to progress this initiative and provided funding for the "British Flats" which will be used as visitor accommodation.

NSW has the largest state heritage funding program in the country and more than sixty percent of heritage funding is distributed to the regions.

Local heritage funds are being used to conserve and enhance the main streets in many country areas.

Towns that have benefited from this program include Bathurst, Bellingen, Boorowa, Bourke, Coolah, Maclean, Gulgong, Goulburn, Lockhart, Mudgee, Tenterfield and Wentworth.

All of these projects have generated job opportunities in these towns.

Major funding initiatives to date include:

• $200,000 for the conservation of the Tocal homestead in the Hunter Valley;
• $200,000 to support the reinstatement of verandahs on the main street of Broken Hill;
• $120,000 to carry out conservation and presentation work for the Lucknow gold mining village site located near Orange;
• $100,000 to the Parkes Shire Council to purchase and reinstate the Carrington Hotel in the main street of Peak Hill (this building had been fire damaged); and
• $100,000 to assist the conservation of a former convent building in Young which is now a wonderful example of adaptive re-use of a heritage building.