Assessing & Listing Places

• Introduction
• State Heritage
  • Nominating State Heritage Places
  • Listing State Heritage Places
• Local Heritage
• SA Heritage Register
• SA Heritage Register Database

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The former Morphett's Enginehouse in the Burra mine area was built in 1858. This Enginehouse was reconstructed in 1986, and is protected through heritage legislation for its association with copper mining in the colonial era.

Introduction

Places of heritage significance are assessed and listed in different ways, resulting in various levels of heritage listing (e.g. World, National, State, Local). In South Australia, the State Government manages the assessment and listing of State Heritage Places and Areas, while local government manages local heritage. All of these places are then recorded in the South Australian Heritage Register, a database maintained by the State Government.

State Heritage

Nominating State Heritage Places

Individuals or organisations can nominate a place for entry as a place of State significance in the South Australian Heritage Register. The nomination form (50Kb PDF) is available on-line or by contacting the Heritage Branch of the Department for Environment and Heritage (DEH).

DEH also assesses the heritage resources of South Australia through a systematic program of heritage surveys undertaken by consultants. The Heritage Branch has a large collection of Heritage Surveys (50Kb PDF) which are available for inspection but not for loan.

Listing State Heritage Places

In response to nominations from the public and heritage surveys, and acting on advice from the Heritage Branch, State Heritage Places are entered in the Register by the Register Committee of the South Australian Heritage Council. The Council and the Committee are bodies established under the provisions of the Heritage Places Act 1993. Places are first provisionally entered, to allow a period for any representations, and subsequently either confirmed or removed. To be entered in the Register a State Heritage Place must satisfy one or more of the following criteria, which can be found in Section 16 of the Act.

1. It demonstrates important aspects of the evolution or pattern of the State's history.
2. It has rare, uncommon or endangered qualities that are of cultural significance.
3. It may yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the State's history, including its natural history.
4. It is an outstanding representative of a particular class of places of cultural significance.
5. It demonstrates a high degree of creative, aesthetic or technical accomplishment or is an outstanding representative of particular construction techniques or design characteristics.
6. It has strong cultural or spiritual associations for the community or a group within it.
7. It has a special association with the life or work of a person or organisation or an event of historical importance.

The Minister for Environment and Conservation can require a place to be removed from provisional entry if its confirmation is judged to be 'contrary to the public interest', but once a place has been confirmed only the Heritage Council can remove it.

For details about the listing process see Information Leaflet 1.7 Entering a Place in the South Australian Heritage Register.

Local Heritage

The Department for Environment and Heritage (DEH) is not responsible for the listing of places or areas of local heritage significance. The listing of local heritage places and areas is managed by local Councils and Planning SA under the provisions of the Development Act 1993. However, the identification of local heritage places is supported through DEH's heritage survey program. Local heritage places that have been protected under the Development Act are listed in the Council's Development Plan and are also recorded in the SA Heritage Register. A complete listing of those local heritage places is available on-line on Planning SA's web site.

To find out more about the criteria and general process for listing local places see Local Heritage page.

To find out more about the role of local government with regard to heritage see Support for Local Government.

SA Heritage Register

The South Australian (formerly 'State') Heritage Register is a list of places of heritage value to the State. It includes places and related objects of State significance that meet one or more of the criteria specified in Section 16 of the Heritage Places Act 1993 and records other categories of heritage places in South Australia (including local, national and world heritage places) which are protected under other legislation.

Specifically, Section 14 of the Heritage Places Act 1993 requires that the Register also includes:

• local heritage places designated by a Development Plan
• local heritage zones and policy areas designated by a Development Plan
• places within the State entered in any register of places of natural or historic significance kept under the law of the Commonwealth [ie the Register of the National Estate, the Commonwealth Heritage List and, National Heritage List and declared World Heritage Properties and
• State Heritage Areas
• Heritage Agreements made under the Heritage Places Act.

As at 1 June 2008 there were 2207 confirmed State Heritage Places entered in the Register. In addition, seventeen State Heritage Areas have been designated, thirteen under the now repealed South Australian Heritage Act 1978 and four under the Development Act 1993.

An overview of State Heritage Places within South Australia's parks system (derived from the SA Heritage Register) is available on the Heritage page via the Management tab on the Parks Section of the DEH web site.

The planning processes for both State and local heritage places are detailed in the Planning Bulletin: Heritage published by Planning SA. Note however that the Bulletin has not been updated to reflect amendments made to the Heritage Act 1993 in 2005 (including its change of name to the Heritage Places Act 1993).

To find out how to nominate State Heritage Places for the Register see Nominating State Heritage Places.
To find out about places entered in the Register see South Australian Heritage Register Database.

SA Heritage Register Database

The SA Heritage Register is maintained as a computerised database. Printouts are available for public inspection at the Heritage Branch, 1 Richmond Road, Keswick, South Australia during normal office hours. Copies of relevant entries are also routinely provided to local councils. Selected information on State Heritage Places is available on-line.

The Australian Heritage Places Inventory (AHPI) is a national database and currently includes the following fields on South Australian State Heritage Places:

• SA Heritage Register file number
• Name of the place
• Address
• Local government area.

For some places a statement of heritage significance is also included. In the near future the AHPI coverage will be expanded to include local heritage places.

The process of uploading data to the AHPI is automated and occurs fortnightly. Note that the default settings of the AHPI search page are to search all Registers and all States, so you need to scroll down and set the State and Source fields to meet your requirements.

Planning SA's South Australian Heritage Places Database was released over the Internet on 11 February 2008 and the mapping component for State Heritage Places added on 13 March.  It provides:

• a single access point for data on State Heritage Places, Local Heritage Places and Contributory Items, including mapping capability for all three
• links to Commonwealth websites to give access to South Australian places on the World, National and Commonwealth Heritage Lists
• a link to the State Heritage Areas of SA website for background information on the Areas
• easy searching for information by suburb, Council area, ID numbers and dates of listing (Local Heritage Places and Contributory Items)
• for export into MS Excel formats or, in the case of Development Plan lists, into MS Word.

Please consult the website's 'How to Search the Database' page for details. The data is updated overnight on working days.