Page 1196 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 24 April 1990
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Cunningham, who also owned Tuggeranong homestead. Part of a boundary marker erected between the two properties still stands today. Originally it comprised a ditch and a bank, a hawthorn hedge and that part that remains extant today, a dry stone wall. Bearing in mind that Anzac Day is being commemorated tomorrow, it seems apt to note that the official historian, C.W. Bean, wrote four volumes of the history of Australia's involvement in World War I at the Tuggeranong homestead.
Mr Deputy Speaker, our natural heritage is also very important. In the ACT we have got substantial and important national parks which join with parks in New South Wales to provide a significant national resource. As ACT residents, we also value the public open space available on the surrounding hills and the more formal parks and open spaces which are so much a part of Canberra's planning history.
The recently released draft Planning and Heritage Bills demonstrate the Government's commitment to maintaining its heritage. The package of legislation that we are bringing forward recognises and reinforces the obvious connections between heritage protection, conservation and land use planning.
The Heritage Bill recognises the importance not only of identifying and recording our heritage but also of providing clear and effective protection for it. Our legislation will provide effective heritage identification and protection which will be linked into planning, land use and leasing decisions. It will also provide a mechanism for resolving conflicts between heritage and other issues such as population growth, development opportunities and other environmental considerations.
The Heritage Bill provides for the establishment of a statutory heritage council with a range of expertise. Its role will be to identify and document what is important in our heritage and to look at the best means of conserving heritage values. Where land and buildings are identified as having heritage significance they will be included on a heritage places register. This will form part of the Territory plan.
Mr Wood commented about our Civic centre buildings. He may well be right, and few may be judged worthy of identification as heritage buildings in the future. But perhaps we, members of this Assembly, can now do better, perhaps following the 10 commandments of Prince Charles.
The provisions of the Heritage Bill provide not only for the protection of heritage places but also for heritage artefacts and objects, a much neglected and potentially fragile component of this community's heritage. Heritage is essentially about what we, as a community, value in the environment around us, what we care about and what we want to pass down to our children. The responsibility for
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