State Heritage Convention

Professor David Dolan
Director, Research Institute for Cultural Heritage, Curtin University
"The State of Play: Heritage in Western Australia in July 2001"

The real issue for a WA state heritage is the opportunities and challenges in heritage for the new Labor government elected in February 2001. There is a lot more hard work to be done before we can hope to evolve a viable holistic approach to heritage, but that work should be encouraged. There are many areas where the new WA state government might profitably concentrate its attention immediately. The Minister for Heritage in the previous government did a fair job overall but his standing was damaged by the handling of a few high-profile matters. The enactment of new legislation to replace the 1990 Act must be a priority for the new government. The absurd system that allows a minister to determine whether or not to accept expert advice on what places are entered onto the state register, or if conservation orders are appropriate in particular situations, is a legacy of provincialism, and should be abandoned.

There have been signs of the new Heritage Minster Dr Judy Edwards moving in the right direction on a certain matters which had been left in the "too-hard basket", but there are quite a few items still sitting there. The issue of the appropriate adaptive re-use of industrial sites remains an obvious challenge. The people expect governments and their subsidiaries to be responsible property owners, and share pride in the national estate rather than regarding it as a liability. This requires leadership and a whole-of-government approach to valuing and prioritising heritage.