Antarctic and sub-Antarctic cultural heritage
Theme commentary
Dr Estelle Lazer
prepared for the 2006 Australian State of the Environment Committee, 2006
Resources to manage historic sites in the Australian Antarctic Territory
The EPBC Act obliges the Australian Antarctic Division to produce Conservation Management Plans and to report on their implementation.
The Australian Antarctic Division has developed an Antarctic Heritage Register. This is a publicly accessible GIS-linked database, which includes sites and all items of movable and fixed cultural heritage. It is currently being populated and will provide a useful tool for management of historic sites in the Australian Antarctic Territory. As well as providing a list of heritage assets and their status, it also enables the movement of artefacts to be tracked. Further, it has been designed to record deterioration over time so that it can be monitored and priorities can be established for conservation and restoration work.