Steve BROWN
How can the history and heritage of landscapes be more effectively managed? This presentation will discuss the development of a practical guide for managing cultural landscapes which has been prepared for NSW park managers. The focus of the presentation will be managing the heritage of pastoral landscapes within protected areas in western NSW.
The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) manages over 800 protected areas in NSW and the park system covers more than 8% of the state. Over 95% of the land managed by NPWS has at some point in its land use history been used for pastoralism. Pastoral heritage ‘sites’ are the largest historic heritage site type managed by the NPWS.
Research by the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (NSW), within which the NPWS is located, has provided a broad understanding of pastoral heritage. Pastoralism is recognised as a land use system (rather than a collection of items) that includes people’s memories and attachments to landscape, includes the ‘shared’ heritage of Aboriginal and settler Australian people working and living together and incorporates cultural modifications to ecosystems. Applying a cultural landscape approach to pastoral heritage supports the idea that all of the landscape is cultural.
The presentation will outline the process advocated in ‘Cultural Landscapes: a practical guide for park management’ with particular reference to the pastoral heritage of Culgoa National Park. The park, covering over 36,000 hectares and reserved in 1996, is located north of Bourke in north-western NSW and adjoins the NSW–Queensland border. Over 460 heritage items have been identified within the park and a ‘Cultural Landscape Atlas’ has been created that represents the spatial dimensions of this heritage.
[Note: It may be possible to provide copies of the Cultural Landscapes Guide on CD to all conference participants]