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Local government in Australia is responsible for the massive heritage listing of 147,000 properties nationwide – 28,500 properties in NSW alone. There remains however, some genuine dispute about the precise local government heritage list numbers.
The NSW Local Government and Shires Association [NSWLG&SA] have member Councils who maintain the NSW local government heritage listing records as Schedules to their Local Environment Plans [LEP's]. LEP's can however be grossly out of date.
The NSWLG&SA has publicly claimed the total figure for NSW Council heritage listings is “more than 31,000 [“Owners Carrying the Cost of Heritage Listing” SMH 21 February 2006].
SoHONSW considers this likely to be closer to the correct figure for early 2006, as the source is likely to be drawn directly from statistics provided to the NSWLG&SA by their constituent member Councils, but even the Council maintained figures are under-reported. For example, multiple separate items or properties can be heritage listed as a single item such as a row of terrace houses or a row of shops, which then appear as one item in that Council's LEP heritage Schedule. SoHONSW has for example, found rows of 12 separate proeperties, on separate Deposit Plans, with different owners, listed as one item in a NSW Council's LEP.
SoHONSW considers this an example of lazy and frankly dodgy heritage listing practices by NSW local Councils. These Councils are also largely to blame for the lack of accurate Council-only heritage listing data, which in turn obscures a property's correct heritage status and can actively mislead prospective purchasers.
The Federal Government's Productivity Commission 2006 Report into Conservation of Australia's Historic Heritage used Table 1 [below] also contains national and state-wide heritage listing figures, however it also needs to be used with caution because:
- it is based on data collected prior to the PC reports' publication in 2006, so was already out of date at the time of publication and therefore is even more so now;
- Tasmania did not disaggregate Council heritage listings from state heritage listings;
- Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory have no local government heritage listings; and
- Western Australia includes what is euphemistically called "non-government" heritage listing, which is likely to mean purported, non-statutory heritage classifications by eg., the National Trust, which have no legal status whatsover, but are indicative of the pervasive approach in WA where the clear conflict of interest between the two systems is so spectacularly unrecognised, that they report lawful, statutory statistics as including non-statutory ie., not lawfully listed items.
The Expert Panel Reviewing the NSW Heritage Act Report, which was compiled in 2007, stated there were over 21,000 items heritage listed by NSW Councils and 1500 by NSW [p42]. SoHONSW considers the latter figure to be correct or very close to correct. However, the footnote accompanying those figures cites their source as the NSW Heritage Office [now Heritage Branch of the NSW Department of Planning].
SoHONSW considers the Council only heritage listing figures drawn from that source to be the least accurate of all sources, as the updating of the Heritage Office Council heritage listing database is subject to even more lapses or errors, as they compile them if and when NSW Councils remember to send in their updated LEP heritage schedules. Which we already know are grossly out of date and subject to underreporting problems, such as those identified above.
Irrespective of the actual figures cited and their methodological or other shortcomings, it remains clear that in Australia, the overwhelming preponderence of heritage listings occur at the local government level - which also happens to be the lowest, least competent tier of government, more easily influenced by non-statutory considerations such as local sentiment and/or Councillors keeping a weather eye on their re-election prospects, and certainly in NSW, it is the most likely to be sacked for maladministration and/or corruption during their Council term.
This, in conjunction with the damning findings of the PC Report [see below] makes reforming local Councils heritage powers in NSW SoHONSW's most urgent priority.
The 2006 PC Report was scathing about the incompetence they found with respect to local government use of their heritage listing powers, to the point where they were:
- over-listing ie., heritage listing items 'just in case' and not because they meet genuine heritage listing criteria, which were also messily and inconsistently applied;
- listing on the basis of 'local sentiment' or in response to orchestrated pressure from well funded heritage lobby groups - not on heritage facts or the application of sound, professionally credible heritage assessment tools; and
- rorting and seriously abusing their heritage listing powers, which is one of the few remaining discretionary powers left to NSW Councils: the others having been systematically removed due to entrenched maladministration and corruption. Common abuses of Councils discretionary heritage powers include the creation of heritage zones, precincts, streetscapes or areas, for abusive, non-heritage purposes such as to cover vast swathes of the local government area. Normally such facetious or bogus listings are used as a back door method to halt state government imposed density requirements or to halt otherwise lawful Development Applications. Such exploitation of a local Councl's heritage powers is ultra vires ie., outside their lawful power and constitutes a solid case for either dimissing that Council or at a minimum, removing all their heritage powers and instituting an independent review of existing heritage items to establish their authenticity.
Table 1 Historic heritage places on statutory lists/registers, at 30 June 2005
Number
|
Jurisdiction
|
World and national heritage lists |
Government-owned heritage lists |
State and Territory heritage registers |
Local government
lists |
|
Commonwealth |
16 |
292a |
.. |
.. |
|
New South Wales |
.. |
6 522b |
1 500 |
26 000 |
|
Victoria |
.. |
nsl |
1 992 |
100 000c |
|
Queensland |
.. |
nsl |
1 440 |
na |
|
Western Australia |
.. |
nsl |
1 113 |
16 807f |
|
South Australia |
.. |
nsld< | | 
