Commonwealth Heritage List criteria

Heritage criteria, thresholds, and statutory listings are devices for identifying and protecting places we wish to keep. They are the primary means by which the heritage values of such places are articulated, and for guiding the management of these places.

The Commonwealth Heritage list is a list of the historic, cultural and natural heritage places on Commonwealth land or in Commonwealth waters, or owned or managed by the Commonwealth Government. When the Australian Heritage Council (the Council) assesses whether a Commonwealth place has significant heritage values it is required to advise the Minister for the Environment and Energy if the place meets one or more of the nine Commonwealth Heritage List criteria.

Commonwealth Heritage List criteria

The Commonwealth Heritage criteria against which the heritage values of a place are tested include:

  1. The place has significant heritage value because of the place’s importance in the course, or pattern, of Australia’s natural or cultural history
  2. The place has significant heritage value because of the place’s possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia’s natural or cultural history
  3. The place has significant heritage value because of the place’s potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Australia’s natural or cultural history
  4. The place has significant heritage value because of the place’s importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of:
    1. a class of Australia’s natural or cultural places; or
    2. a class of Australia’s natural or cultural environments
  5. The place has significant heritage values because of the place’s importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics values by a community or cultural group
  6. The place has significant heritage value because of the place’s importance in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period
  7. The place has significant heritage value because of the place’s strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons
  8. The place has significant heritage value because of the place’s special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Australia’s natural or cultural history
  9. The place has significant heritage value because of the place’s importance as part of Indigenous tradition.

Under the heritage system, the Commonwealth Heritage List and the National Heritage List have similar criteria. The key difference is the level or ‘threshold’ of significance required to be reached to meet the criteria. Heritage experts are able to ‘test’ a place for heritage value against these criteria.

Thresholds

As well as assessing a place against criteria for its heritage value, the Council applies a ‘significance threshold’ test. This test helps the Council to judge the level of significance of a place’s heritage value by asking ‘just how important are these values?’

To reach the threshold for the National Heritage List, a place must have ‘outstanding’ heritage value to the nation. To be entered in the Commonwealth Heritage List, a place must have ‘significant’ heritage value.