Mining Heritage of the Australian Alps - Australian Alps National Parks

• The protection and management of historic places should be considered as part of
the plan of management process for all categories of reserve;
• As historic places occur within all Service areas they are also protected by the
Service's other corporate obligations, such as requirement to comply with
government directives regarding asset management &c.
As well as general 'historic places', the Act provides for definition of Historic Sites as places that can
be gazetted for their national importance as historic places or monuments. Kiandra would be an
example of such an Historic Site within the study area.
The 1995 Land Management Regulation establishes that historic heritage can include:
"…. any deposit, object or material evidence relating to the settlement or occupation
of New South Wales or a part of New South Wales (not being Aboriginal settlement
or occupation) where the deposit, object or material evidence is more than 25 years
old" (at date of interference &c).
Parks Victoria:
Parks Victoria has management responsibility for the natural & cultural heritage that exists within
Victoria's Parks system. Within their stated Purpose, they acknowledge that a prime function is to
conserve, protect and enhance environmental and cultural assets.
Their estate covers approximately 16% of Victoria, managed under the Parks Victoria Act 1998, and a
Management Services Agreement with the Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources &
Environment, the Minister for Environment & Conservation, and Melbourne Parks & Waterways.
Parks Victoria manage a large number of important conserved & interpreted historic mining sites in
the State, but only one within the Alps National Parks (Greens Creek Battery).
5.2.3 MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS
The hand of man is visible throughout the Alps, in former and current grazing areas, historical logging
& sawmilling operations, former townsites, roads, tracks, hydroelectric power infrastructure, skifield
developments, mining sites/areas, etc. Mining had a major impact on the Alps, not so much because
of the actual area mined, but because of the intensiveness of the historic operations. Mining brought
large numbers of people into the Alps at a time when they were sparsely settled or unexplored, and
provided considerable impetus to infrastructure development (roads etc), regional supply & service
industries (farming, sawmilling etc), and the fledgling towns of the region.
The sites, mining areas and landscapes left by the miners are scattered throughout the Alps National
Parks. Many are interesting places of high cultural significance, and all of them bear witness to a way
of life that has disappeared.
The management of mining cultural heritage places in the Alps is not an onerous task. These places,
within their environment, lend themselves to management as ruins, and protection for the vast
majority is more a matter of ensuring that they are not unwittingly exposed to non-environmental
damaging influences, than costly interventions in their actual materials (fabric).
Management of the vast majority of mining sites/areas as ruins, however, does not sanction wholesale
decision making. That is, sites and landscapes should be assessed individually for values that may
require special management, and only in the absence of such values should a decision to manage as a
ruin be made.
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