Updating Aboriginal Heritage Records Across the Victorian High Country for Bushfire Management
The Gippsland Fire Management division of the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning was responsible for planned burning, fire access and bushfire preparedness across public land in eastern Victoria.
Fuel reduction and fire access works are time critical, weather dependent and spread across a vast estate. Many of the Aboriginal places recorded in that landscape were registered decades ago, with location accuracy and condition information that no longer met current standards. Planning works around records of uncertain quality creates real risk of inadvertent harm, and equally, of avoiding ground unnecessarily.
Australian Cultural Heritage Management was engaged to provide cultural heritage management advice, field assessment and site recording services to the bushfire management team. The work involved revisiting and assessing more than 200 Aboriginal places, predominantly in the Victorian high country, re-recording and updating Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Register records, and applying for Cultural Heritage Permits and preparing Cultural Heritage Management Plans where these were required.
The division was left with a current, accurate and spatially reliable picture of Aboriginal cultural heritage across its area of responsibility, capable of informing operational planning season after season.
Client
Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (Gippsland Fire Management)
Location
Gippsland, Victoria
Sectors
Public Sector
Services
Results Delivered
Supporting Bushfire Preparedness With Aboriginal Site Recording and Register Updates
Australian Cultural Heritage Management provided cultural heritage management advice, field assessment and site recording services to the Gippsland Fire Management division of DELWP, revisiting and assessing more than 200 Aboriginal places across the Victorian high country and updating Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Register records accordingly. The result was a current, spatially reliable evidence base capable of informing operational fire planning season after season.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Register and why does it need updating?
The Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Register is the statutory record of Aboriginal places and objects across Victoria, and it underpins all cultural heritage sensitivity mapping in the state. Many entries were recorded decades ago, before modern GPS, with location and condition information that no longer meets current standards. Australian Cultural Heritage Management re-recorded and updated more than 200 Aboriginal places across the Victorian high country for the Gippsland Fire Management division of DELWP.
Does planned burning and bushfire management require cultural heritage assessment?
Yes. Fuel reduction burning, fire access track construction and containment line works can all disturb ground or expose Aboriginal places to fire impact, and assessment allows operations to be planned so that known places are identified and managed. Australian Cultural Heritage Management provided cultural heritage management advice, field assessment and site recording services to support DELWP’s bushfire management program across the Victorian high country. See our archaeological assessment services.
What is a Cultural Heritage Permit and when is it used instead of a CHMP?
A Cultural Heritage Permit authorises an activity that will or may harm Aboriginal cultural heritage where a full Cultural Heritage Management Plan is not required, and it is commonly used for works on public land such as fire access tracks or vegetation management. Australian Cultural Heritage Management applied for Cultural Heritage Permits and prepared Cultural Heritage Management Plans where required as part of the Gippsland bushfire management program.
How can a large public land estate build a reliable cultural heritage picture?
Estate-wide programs that combine desktop review, targeted field assessment and systematic register updating give land managers a landscape-scale, spatially reliable understanding of cultural heritage, far more efficient than assessing each works package individually as it arises. Australian Cultural Heritage Management delivered exactly this kind of program for DELWP, revisiting and re-recording places across the Victorian high country.
