Sustaining Australia’s Cultural Landscapes

Abstract

Most officially recognized cultural landscapes in Australia are Indigenous places, where the distinction between culture and nature does not exist. Because European models do not fit the unique characteristics of the continent, Australia ICOMOS has developed its own charter for conserving culturally significant heritage places. The intangible heritage value of association is now making Australians aware of the deep entanglement¹ of culture with nature and the complex interdependence of human and environmental systems. This important perspective, and the broad reach of such a dynamic approach, has resulted in dilemmas for designating cultural landscapes and heritage conservation in large rural landscapes in Australia. In response, a new paradigm of landscape conservation has developed involving land repair. Large-scale landscape protection is a by-product of the huge increase in the number of public protected areas set aside for nature conservation and traditional Indigenous ownership. Multiple actors are involved in active care and repair of those landscapes; however, these actors may not always see themselves as a collective or see the land as a cultural landscape. Cultural landscape conservation faces challenges arising from demographic shifts and multiple environmental challenges, especially climate change. The hope is to integrate more carefully the Indigenous “caring for country” beliefs into landscape conservation, thus inspiring more holistic management of the interconnected layers of cultural landscapes, ultimately resulting in more sustainable places.