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Protection and promotion is the name of the game!
Welcome – Wominjeka
Thanks for coming back for another issue of the Heritage Council's quarterly newsletter. If you're a new subscriber, thanks for signing up!
A reminder that you can find some more information on who we are and what we do as the Heritage Council of Victoria on our website.
📷: HIN LIM AIPP 2021 | Hin Lim Photography | Palais Theatre (H0947)
Contents:
- Announcements
- If this place could talk...
- If you missed it...
- Can you guess what/where this is?
- Happy Birthday!
- Updates from Heritage Victoria
- Upcoming
- Professional heritage courses
1. Announcements
WELCOME TO THE COUNCIL
The Heritage Council of Victoria would like to welcome the newly appointed Chair, Professor Philip Goad and Members Dr Helen Doyle and Simon Molesworth AO, QC.
2021 HOUSES AWARDS
The Heritage Council is a proud supporting partner of the annual Houses Awards.
Congratulations to the joint winners of the 2021 Houses Awards 'House in a Heritage Context' category:
AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS AWARDS 2021
The Heritage Council is proud to support the annual Australian Institute of Architects Awards.
Congratulations to the winner of the 2021 John George Knight Award for Heritage Architecture:
STRATEGIC PLAN 2021–25
The Heritage Council of Victoria recently released its new Strategic Plan 2021–25.
Every five years a Strategic Plan is developed by the Heritage Council to guide the recognition, protection, and celebration of Victoria’s cultural heritage. Each plan outlines the Heritage Council’s vision and strategies for the coming period.
This new Plan includes a strong commitment to encouraging collaboration to support better outcomes for heritage places and new focus areas relating to climate change and technology.
OPEN FOR PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS
The World Heritage Environs Area draft World Heritage Strategy Plan for the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens has been prepared by the Executive Director, Heritage Victoria and is now open for public submissions to the Heritage Council by 24 September 2021.
The Strategy Plan sets out strategies for the appropriate use of the World Heritage Environs Area of the REB & CG –an area around the REB & CG that acts as a ‘buffer zone’ to protect the world heritage values of the site.
Did you know this year's Heritage Address was delivered by the Heritage Council Archaeology Member, Meg Goulding and Jeremy Smith, Heritage Victoria's Principal Archaeologist?
If you are interested in learning about artefacts recently discovered during archeological digs across Melbourne, you can still watch the Heritage Address online through Open House's website.
📷: HIN LIM AIPP 2021 | Hin Lim Photography
2. If this place could talk...
The Former Customs House – Melbourne (H1047)
On the 8 June 1835, John Batman landed on the banks of the Yarra River. He later wrote in his journal “about six miles up. Found the river all good water and very deep. This will be the place for a village" (The History of the City of Melbourne, 1997 p.8). The place he landed was the site where the Former Customs House, Melbourne now stands.
The location of the Former Customs House reflects the early development of Melbourne's port facilities. In the 19th century, shipping docked much further up the river, as evidenced by the remnant store facilities at Banana Alley just to the east of the Customs House (VHD). Two previous customs buildings stood on the site prior to the current building which was completed in 1876 and designed by immigrant architect Peter Kerr. Given its purpose and location, the Former Customs House has not only borne witness to the evolution of Melbourne and the state of Victoria, but the place itself has featured in many immigrant stories throughout Victoria’s history, and not always positively.
📷: HIN LIM AIPP 2021 | Hin Lim Photography
📷: Queens wharf, Yarra River, 1864, Charles Troedel, State Library Victoria
The heart of Melbourne's trade:
The 1850s gold rush brought a dramatic increase in trade and immigrants to Victoria. “Duties were levied on all the imported luxuries brought into the wealthy colony, while a tax was levied on the export of gold. Customs revenue in 1850 totalled 84,000. In 1854 the customs officers collected the same amount in a month…Until income tax was introduced in 1915, custom duties made up to four fifths of government revenue" (Customs House - Immigration Museum).
The Former Customs House has a ‘Long Room’, which was the centre of all trading and income for the government for 100 years. This room reflects the wealth of the Government at the time in its size and grandeur. Custom tariffs protected Victorian industries which powered the colony’s growth, meaning the Customs House became a symbol of legitimacy and structure for Victoria’s development and transition from an illegal settlement.
📷: The Long Room of the New Custom House, 1876, State Library of Victoria
The unfavourable beginnings of border security:
Melbourne customs officers policed the smuggling of goods such as opium, prohibited literature and fauna. Both native and non-native Australian fauna was often purchased and smuggled through Melbourne Port for the collections of foreign parties or wealthy immigrants.
In addition to policing contraband goods, the Former Customs House controlled immigration into Victoria. Restrictions on immigration began during the Gold Rush, with a landing tax imposed on all Chinese arrivals which became a complete ban on all Chinese immigrants in the 1880s and then restrictions on all non-white immigrants in 1901 (The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 | naa.gov.au). The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 made it illegal to discriminate against migrants on the basis of race (The Immigration Restriction Act 1901 | naa.gov.au). Despite the extreme prejudice many immigrants would have faced when moving to Australia, Melbourne became a city known for its multiculturalism, and according to the 2016 Cencus, 49% of Australians had either been born overseas or one or both parents had been born overseas (2016 Census: Multicultural (abs.gov.au).
📷: State Library of Victoria, The wharf, Melbourne, from the Customs House, James Graham Boyd, fl. 1845-1854, artist. [ca. 1850] H5504
Catching a murderer:
The Former Customs House was once the scene for a serious man hunt in 1930. Detectives were advised to watch the Customs House for a suspect who had disappeared after committing a murder on an orchard in Queensland. It was expected that the suspect would travel to Victoria to avoid recognition, and apply for a passport in an attempt to flee the country. On 10 May, the suspect was identified and arrested on site at the Customs House after a man hunt which had lasted 3 months (10 May 1930, Barrier Miner, Broken Hill, QUEENSLAND MURDER CASE, Trove).
📷: Customs House, Melbourne ca. 1896 State Library of Victoria H11726 a14218
Transitions of space:
The customs offices were moved in 1965 and the building was then used for some Commonwealth Parliament offices. However, after 6 years of being empty, the Immigration Museum was opened in the Former Customs House in 1998. The museum explores the stories of Victorian immigrants from the 1800s through to the present day.
📷: HIN LIM AIPP 2021 | Hin Lim Photography
Did you know there are 8 assessment criteria used to determine the importance of a place or object to the history and development of Victoria.
3. In case you missed it...
At home with heritage: a considered approach to renovating your house
Are you thinking of renovating a heritage home but don’t know where to start?
The Heritage Council of Victoria has published a free guide and 12 case studies which demonstrate how good design and cultural heritage awareness can support the heritage values of a place while also providing a contemporary liveable home. The guide and accompanying case studies highlight the opportunities and challenges that may be encountered and provide inspiration for what might be possible.
The Victorian Heritage Database
Heritage Council of Victoria have made some changes to increase the user-friendliness of the Victorian Heritage Database website. Who to contact about a heritage record and whether places are protected by the Heritage Overaly or by the Victorian Heritage Register have been made more obvious by the use of colour and a 'who to contact' button. Other new features include downloadable reports and time-range searching with search tips to help.
Heritage and Climate Change
In 2019, the Heritage Council of Victoria, in partnership with Heritage Victoria, started a project to understand how Victoria’s cultural heritage places and objects will be impacted by climate change so that policy and guidance can be created where it will be of most benefit.
This project will tie into the wider Victorian Government drive to develop robust approaches to adaptation as a critical step in building resilience in communities and securing a healthy and prosperous future for all Victorians.
The first phase of the ‘Heritage and Climate Change’ project has delivered a set of six provisional principles to guide policy, strategy development and decision making in the management of Victorian cultural heritage places and objects protected under the Heritage Act.
These principles will be tested as part of the second phase of the project, which will be completed – and communicated – in the second half of 2022.
4. Can you guess what/where this is?
Can you guess which Victorian Heritage Register place this close up belongs to? Here are some clues:
The cost of erection was £46, 233.
When the place was constructed, the flooring contained the largest area of mosaics laid down in Australia.
Its physical shape is that of a letter in the alphabet.
The answer will be in the next edition of the newsletter.
📷: Hin Lim Photography 2019
5. Happy Birthday!
'Heavy Harry' - H Class Locomotive H220 (H2163)
📷: Doug Colquhoun, 'Overhead', Wodonga circa 1953, www.victorianrailways.net/
This year we celebrate 80 years of what was the largest and heaviest steam locomotive in the Victorian Railways fleet, 'Heavy Harry'.
H Class Locomotive H220 (H2163), 'Heavy Harry', is significant to Victoria for incorporating several innovations, one of which was the all steel boiler that operated at the highest pressure of any locomotive working in Australia at the time.
Three locomotives in this class were planned to be built to run the Overland to Adelaide, but due to weight restrictions on the Parwan River bridge and wartime resource restrictions, only 'Heavy Harry' was constructed.
'Heavy Harry' was withdrawn from service in 1958 as steam power was replaced by diesel electric motive power in the Victorian rail system.
On 'Heavy Harry's' last ever journey in May 1958, the consist included 20 or 30 livestock wagons bound for Newmarket Station. The train was so long that by the time the van at the rear of the train was beside the platform for unloading, the locomotive was already beyond the next station, Kensington, up the line!
Final trip details courtesy of Newport Railway Museum, ARHS Victorian Division News Letter November 2018. 📷Above: 'Into the Night', Violet Town, www.victorianrailways.net/
6. Updates from Heritage Victoria
Heritage Victoria, in the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, administers the Heritage Act 2017. Heritage Victoria makes recommendations to the Heritage Council in relation to places and objects nominated to the Victorian Heritage Register, assesses permit applications to make changes to heritage places and objects, and manages the enforcement and compliance provisions of the Heritage Act 2017. It is also responsible for the operation of the Living Heritage Program, and managing historical archaeological sites across Victoria and maritime heritage in State and Commonwealth waters.
General News
Grant Announcements
The Living Heritage Program has funded 150 conservation projects since the Program’s inception in 2016. Among them is a $55,000 grant to conserve the mysterious ship mural at Ararat Gaol. This mural is one of Victoria’s most significant outdoor murals, but we know very little about how it got there or why. You can read more on this story here.
The Program is open to owners and managers of publicly accessible places and objects included in the Victorian Heritage Register. Grants are available to fund urgent conservation works.
📷: Friends of J Ward Executive Geoff White with ‘Ship B’, supplied by Geoff White, Friends of J Ward (2021)
Spotlight on the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens at UNESCO’s World Heritage forum
On Wednesday 16 June 2021, officers from Heritage Victoria presented to an international forum as part of UNESCO’s Celebrations of the 10th Anniversary of the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape in World Heritage Cities.
Heritage Victoria was invited by UNESCO to present a case study on the community consultation that was undertaken in June-July 2020 for the World Heritage Management Plan of the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens.
VHR property updates
Permits - New guidance
A heritage permit is a legal document that allows certain work to be done to a state listed heritage place or object. To assist permit applicants, Heritage Victoria has released updated guidance on Heritage Impact Statements and Reasonable or Economic Use provisions of the Heritage Act 2017. This new guidance provides greater clarity for permit applicants and consultants.
📷: HIN LIM AIPP 2021 | Hin Lim Photography | The Polly Woodside (H2116)
7. Upcoming
- Bendigo Open House: 23 - 24 October
- Closing date for The Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens World Environs Area - Draft World Heritage Strategy Plan: 24 September 2021
- Doll House – Miniature World of Wonder: Como House, until the end of August 2021.
8. Professional heritage courses
- UniMelb Statutory Heritage (September 2021)
- UniMelb New Tools for Documenting Heritage Fabric (November 2021)
📷: HIN LIM AIPP 2021 | Hin Lim Photography | Num Pon Soon Building (H0485)
As a peak heritage body, we acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the Country that we call Victoria, as the original custodians of Victoria’s land and waters, and acknowledge the importance and significance of Aboriginal cultural heritage in Victoria. We honour Elders past and present whose knowledge and wisdom has ensured the continuation of Aboriginal culture and traditional practices.
Note: The statutory scope of the Heritage Act 2017 covers places and objects of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, but does not apply to a place or object that is of cultural heritage significance solely on the ground of its association with Aboriginal tradition. In this newsletter, the terms ‘cultural heritage’ and ‘heritage’ are used generically and interchangeably to refer to the ‘heritage’ to which the Heritage Act 2017 applies, recognising that heritage places and objects may have multiple attributes and values.
To find out more information about Aboriginal Cultural Heritage and Traditional Owner responsibilities, see the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council.
📷: HIN LIM AIPP 2021 | Hin Lim Photography | "Aqua Profunda" Sign Fitzroy Pool (H1687)
