Page 5596 - Week 14 - Thursday, 30 November 2017

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(1) In relation to the recording of Aboriginal heritage under the Heritage Act, what process is followed once a person reports the discovery of an Aboriginal place or object to the Heritage Council.

(3) What is the average time taken from report to the recording of the place or object in ACT Heritage’s database.

(4) Is there currently a backlog in entering places and objects into ACT Heritage’s database; if so, what is the current size of the backlog.

(5) How is the database made available to private land owners, managers and the construction and development industry.

Mr Gentleman: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:

(1) ACT Heritage, as secretariat to the ACT Heritage Council (the Council), maintains records on all Aboriginal places and objects reported to the ACT Heritage Council under Section 51 of the Heritage Act 2004 (the Act). Once reported, Aboriginal places and objects are afforded statutory protection under Section 75 of the Act; and on this basis, records of reported sites are reviewed to inform Council advice on a range of conservation and development matters. Additionally, the information received on Aboriginal places and objects is stored within a library located onsite with ACT Heritage, block and section property files and the ACT Heritage database. All data sources are reviewed to inform Council advice and approvals on conservation and development matters.

(2) ACT Heritage does not maintain statistics on the number of reports received annually. Reports of Aboriginal places and objects discovered are presented to ACT Heritage in varying forms, including in hard copy reports, electronic reports, spreadsheets and email correspondence. This information is stored within a library located onsite with ACT Heritage, block and section property files and the ACT Heritage database. All data sources are reviewed to inform Council advice and approvals on conservation and development matters.

(3) The ACT Heritage database does not capture information on the timeframe between the date a place is reported and the date a place is entered to the database.

(4) There is a list of Aboriginal places and objects to be entered into the ACT Heritage database; however, for the reasons set out above, ACT Heritage is unable to easily provide information on the current size of that list. ACT Heritage maintains records of all Aboriginal places and objects reported, and these records are regularly accessed to inform Council advice and approvals on conservation and development matters.

(5) The database managed by ACT Heritage is not publicly available, as information on many Aboriginal places and objects in that database are declared as restricted under Part 9 of the Act; and as information on Aboriginal places and objects is generally considered by Representative Aboriginal Organisations and the Council to be sensitive. However, information on Aboriginal places and objects can be provided to

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