Situating (in)significance

Figures & data

Table 1. Comparative summary of typical significance regimes operating across the fields of natural and cultural (Indigenous and historic) heritage in Australia. The table is a generalised summary and thus masks the mix of significance assessment approaches operating across different national, State/Territory and local heritage regimes. Adapted from Brown (2018).

	Natural heritage	Cultural heritage
		Indigenous	Historic
Components	Geodiversity; biodiversity &/or biocultural diversity	Sites; whole-of-landscape or ‘Country’	Places/landscapes, practices, collections
Value method	Comprehensive, adequate and representative (CAR) sample of 89, continent-wide, ecologically distinct bioregions	‘Blanket’ protection whereby all ‘sites’ are protected from harm, regardless of significance	Threshold-based values approach (i.e. significance assessment)
Management authorities	Protected area agencies; Indigenous communities	State/Territory heritage agencies; Aboriginal organisations	National/State/Territory Heritage Councils; local government
Extent	National Reserve System covers 137.5 million hectares, or 17.9% of Australia’s land area (at Jackson 2014; Jackson et al. 2016, 29). Includes 67 million hectares (at Jones 2017) reserved as Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs)	More than 400,000 ‘sites’ on State/Territory based heritage registers	Over 5,000 State/Territory listed items; more than 50,000 items on local government registers
Expertise	Ecology, Geology, Hydrology, Nature conservation, Planning	Indigenous people, Anthropology, Archaeology, History	Architecture, Archaeology, History, local communities

Brown, S. 2018. “The Nature of Attachment: An Australian Experience.” In Cultural and Spiritual Significance of Nature in Protected Areas: Governance, Management and Policy, edited by B. Verschuuren and S. Brown, 193–280. London: Routledge.

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