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This is my final message to our readers as Chair of the Heritage Council. I have been very privileged to have occupied this position for the past five years. There is so much that has happened and plenty of indications that the good work will continue.
As I leave the Heritage Council, we embark on a very important part of our strategic plan. Over the next three years the Council and the Heritage Office will be working together to produce a comprehensive and well-considered State Heritage Register. An authoritative register is the cornerstone of good heritage management.
The project will be undertaken on a regional basis, starting this year with a pilot project in the Central West. We will be asking the community to help us identify those places of State significance that need to be added to the Register to reflect our complex and varied history.
I think that if there is one key message from my time with the Heritage Council it is this: if heritage is the evidence of the past, then that past is the history of all of us who now share this land. Aboriginal grinding grooves and rock art are as much a part of our collective past as the colonial buildings of Macquarie Street and the remnant 20th century power stations dotted around the countryside.
This is a valuable thing to know. For it means that all of us have a collective responsibility to appreciate and understand the depth and breadth of our heritage and to pass it on in good condition to our children and grand-children.
Aboriginal heritage is the responsibility of all of us because it helps us to understand how this land was shaped by the original inhabitants. Similarly, the colonial heritage of the first period of British settlement provides the template for the later additions to the built environment by migrants from around the world.
I thank the many communities around the State that have given me such a warm welcome over the past five years. There has been much to see and much to admire. Keep up the good work. Our heritage can only survive with a community to support it, value it and nurture it.
From the Minister
In her travels throughout NSW, Hazel has been a great champion for the significance of rural and regional heritage.
We saw the importance the community attaches to major heritage items when archaeological ruins were uncovered in Port Macquarie earlier in the year.
In June I visited Port Macquarie and was pleased to announce that the Carr Government would provide up to $1M to stabilise, protect and allow public viewing of this historic site.
The Heritage Office is now working with the developer and it is intended to establish a heritage agreement.
The remains of the Port Macquarie site date back to 1821, and provide intact evidence of the seat of government in the first of five penal colonies set up beyond Sydney on the east coast of Australia.
About 90% of the foundations remain, making it one of the most intact sites of this period located in Australia.
I've frequently spoken about the importance of rural and regional heritage and was delighted to be able to provide this extra-ordinary one-off funding.
It represents the biggest single commitment to a major heritage item in regional NSW, and the community has warmly supported the Government's decision.
A message from Hazel Hawke
Chair of the Heritage Council
So now it is time to say goodbye.
Mrs Hazel Hawke with Professor John Niland, UNSW Vice-Chancellor, at the launch of a new project that will focus on the contribution of the Greek community to the heritage of NSW.
Photograph courtesy of the University of NSW
Andrew Refshauge MP
Deputy Premier
Minister for Urban Affairs and Planning
Minister for Aboriginal Affairs
Minister for Housing
I want to begin by acknowledging the outstanding work done by Hazel Hawke as the Chair of the Heritage Council. She has done much to heighten the community's awareness of heritage and shown a great commitment to indigenous heritage.
