What is the Heritage Management Plan?
PAHSMA’s principal objective is to protect, conserve, present, transmit and sustain the heritage values of our sites for current and future generations. The Heritage Management Plan is a statutory document that will guide our decision making about the conservation and management of the three sites we manage.
What obligations come with World Heritage listing?
World Heritage properties are of international importance and should always be considered as sensitive and valued. Article 4 of the World Heritage Convention requires the use of the best possible resources to conserve and transmit the sites’ Outstanding Universal Values (OUV), and to enable the sites to have a function in the life of the community.
Protection of the OUV is the overriding obligation taken on by Australia as signatory to the World Heritage Convention. Decisions about any proposed actions on our sites will be taken to ensure the protection and conservation of the sites’ OUV.
What does World Heritage listing mean for engagement with the sites?
Our sites offer unique experiences and insights into Australian history and culture that can be leveraged to both protect the Outstanding Universal Values and increase our revenue to in turn conserve the sites and interpret them for visitors.
What does the Heritage Management Plan mean for Tasmania?
Our sustained conservation and transmission of the Sites’ world, national, state and local heritage values ensures that they will continue to be available as essential places contributing to Tasmania’s culture and economy.
What does the Heritage Management Plan say and do regarding Aboriginal history and heritage?
The OUV for the World Heritage Property recognises the impact of colonisation and dispossession on Aboriginal Australians resulting from the establishment of the sites. Truthfully telling this history and exploring the Tasmanian Aboriginal heritage values of the Sites embedded within cultural landscapes will be realised in collaboration with Tasmanian Aboriginal people.
Does the Heritage Management Plan meet international and national best practice standards for conservation?
Our conservation and operation of the Sites as premier World Heritage places and tourism destinations will align with the World and National Heritage Management principles, the World Heritage Operational Guidelines and the Australian ICOMOS Burra Charter.
Does the Heritage Management Plan ensure PAHSMA are appropriately staffed for the role?
Conservation, transmission, and education about the heritage values of the Sites is, and continues to be, undertaken by people skilled and experienced in the conserving of, and communicating about, heritage places.
How does the Heritage Management Plan recognise and engage with communities?
The HMP embeds consultation and engagement in our management of the three properties. We value our relationships with the communities in which our sites are located, with the traditional owners of our sites, and with the descendants of both incarcerated people and the people who worked and lived at our sites. We aim to engage a broad and diverse audience and visitor cohort to sustain and transmit the values of Port Arthur, the Coal Mines and the Cascades Female Factory.
What is PAHSMA’s aspiration for itself as manager of World Heritage sites?
We will continue to be a leader in our responsible custodianship of the sites for current and future generations, and will conserve, resource, and manage the sites sustainably to ensure they continue delivering public benefit for future generations.
How do the three sites relate to other places of convict heritage in Australia?
We recognise that these Sites are part of the 11 that comprise the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property, which is a complete representation of convict sites that together express the OUV. Each Site is essential to understanding the OUV, collectively enabling a full understanding of forced migration of convicts and penology during the 18th and 19th centuries. Impacts to one or part of a Site threatens the OUV.
Does the Heritage Management Plan address risks from climate change, over-tourism and increasing cost of operations?
We actively manage the Sites to prevent damage or loss of OUV, including the threats from climate change.
How will PAHSMA manage change within the sites?
The Heritage Management Plan embeds impact assessment processes into planning and decision making.
