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Heritage Building Conservation

Amendments to the Queensland Heritage Act commence on 31 March 2008

The Queensland Heritage and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2007 and the Queensland Heritage and Other Legislation Amendment Regulation 2008 are set to commence on the 31 March 2008. This page provides information for Queensland Government agencies on how this legislation will change the management of State-owned heritage buildings.

Background

The Queensland Heritage Act 1992 (QH Act) provides for the conservation of Queensland’s cultural heritage. This is achieved by identifying heritage places in a register and regulating development in registered places through a development approval system. As the development components of the QH Act have been rolled into the Integrated Planning Act 1997 (IPA), the two Acts now have to be considered together.

New in 2008

Registers

Before the amendments, the QH Act had one register–the Queensland Heritage Register. This register of ‘Queensland heritage places’ continues unchanged, with the Queensland Heritage Council primarily responsible for decisions to change the register.

The amendments create a new order of registers called ‘local heritage registers’, which record places of local, rather than State cultural heritage significance in a local government area. The new registers will be operated by each local government in Queensland, except for 14 local governments listed in schedule 1 of the Queensland Heritage Regulation. The local governments in this list will continue to rely solely on their planning scheme to provide for the conservation of local heritage places in these areas (or part areas). In all other local government areas, the local government is required to identify local heritage places, add them to the local heritage register and to control development in local heritage registered places to conserve local heritage.

Development in Queensland heritage places

Development by the State in a Queensland heritage place remains ‘exempt development’ under IPA and [section 45] ‘Development by the State’ of the QH Act still applies. In outline, the process for ‘development by the State’ is:

Where a proposed development by the State will not have a detrimental impact on the cultural heritage significance of a Queensland heritage place, the development may be covered by an exemption certificate. This is intended to simplify approval for work of a minor or routine nature, but which still falls within the definition of ‘development’. Development for which an exemption certificate has been issued is ‘exempt development’ under IPA. An exemption certificate for a proposed development may already be published on the Environmental Protection Agency website as a ‘general exemption’, or may require an application to the Environmental Protection Agency. In both cases, the development must be carried out in accordance with any associated guideline or conditions, and must be completed within the currency of the certificate. Exemption certificates will be issued by the EPA where formerly they were issued by the Queensland Heritage Council.

New provisions pertain to emergency work in Queensland heritage places, making them more consistent with similar provisions in IPA. ‘Emergency building work’ is permitted for development for which there is no approval under [s 45], nor an exemption certificate, to be undertaken if there is an emergency endangering the life or health of a person or the structural safety of a building. If practicable, advice of a registered professional engineer must be obtained before starting the work, and all reasonable steps must be taken to ensure the work is reversible, or where the work is not reversible, to limit the impact of the work on the cultural heritage significance of the place. As soon as reasonably practicable after starting the emergency building work, an application must be made to obtain development approval.

Development in local heritage places

Changes to IPA will make all aspects of development on a local heritage place (other that development in an urban development area or in the South Bank development area) ‘assessable development’ and make the local government for the place the assessment manager. Before undertaking development in a local heritage place, the State must seek and obtain development approval from the local government for the place, except in the case of the 14 local governments listed in the Queensland Heritage Regulation, where the provisions of the planning scheme for the place are the only constraint.
The QH Act now provides for an IDAS code for development on a local heritage place, which is contained in schedule 2 of the Queensland Heritage Regulation. In assessing development in a local heritage place, a local government is required to consider the planning scheme for the area and the IDAS code, however in the case of any conflicting requirements, the code takes precedence.

The practical impact of the new provisions for local heritage places will depend on how quickly each local government completes a local heritage register.

Historical Archaeological Places

The QH Act protects historical archaeological evidence in Queensland. All finds must be notified to the chief executive (Director-General) of the Environmental Protection Agency as soon as practicable after discovery. To make information on historical archaeological places more accessible, the Queensland Heritage Register will now also list archaeological places. It should be noted that places that are exclusively of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander cultural heritage interest will continue to be protected by separate legislation.

Additional information

This summary omits some details in pursuit of brevity. More information is available from the following sources:
Department of Public Works:
Stephen Murray
Principal Heritage Architect
Technology & Development Division
T 3224 5791
Email stephen.murray@publicworks.qld.gov.au

Environmental Protection Agency
EPA website
Cultural Heritage Branch
An up-dated copy of the Queensland Heritage Act will be available online soon from the QPC at: http://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/OQPChome.htm
Section numbers in square brackets will change when the QH Act is reprinted with amendments and renumbered in April 2008.