How we care for our World Heritage Sites
The Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority (the Authority) is responsible for the conservation, maintenance and interpretation of the Port Arthur, Coal Mines and Cascades Female Factory historic sites in Tasmania. These are three of the eleven sites that make up the UNESCO Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property inscribed in 2010.
The Authority works closely with the Commonwealth and the Tasmanian State governments to ensure our World Heritage properties are protected, conserved, and celebrated in line with our commitments and obligations under the World Heritage Convention 1972.
Purpose of the plan
The Heritage Management Plan is a statutory document that will guide our decision-making about the conservation, management, and interpretation of the three sites. It has the primary objective to protect, conserve, present, transmit and sustain the heritage values of the sites for current and future generations, and to meet our international, national, and state statutory requirements in doing so. It includes:
- An overview of the heritage values of the sites.
- A summary of the statutory requirements and leading practice guidelines that apply to the sites.
- Analysis of management opportunities and limits.
- Heritage conservation, management and interpretation policies and guidelines.
- An Action Plan to track, report and review its implementation.
Key Actions include but are not limited to:
- Engaging the Australian and Tasmanian Governments to ensure adequate funding to fulfil the conservation and transmission obligations for the three sites as part of the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage property
- Developing an interpretation strategy covering all three sites, including Tasmanian Aboriginal heritage and history
- Analyse climate change resilience requirements for all three sites to support conservation planning, monitoring, and reporting requirements
- Preparing updated site-specific conservation management plans that include detailed heritage attributes analysis and mapping and, local heritage values assessments prepared in consultation with the community.
