CONTEXT
5. LANDSCAPE HERITAGE INTEGRITY The integrity of the landscape pivots on the resolution of
Land Rights and co-management issues in the 'TIP'.
Cooktown has high integrity at present but is at risk if there is a sudden increase in tourist pressure.
• To identify co-management strategies for cultural heritage landscapes.
• To develop management guidelines for the Cooktown and Palmer River environs.
Table 2.8
MANAGEMENT PROPOSALS FOR CAPE YORK PENINSULA
DESIRED KEY HERITAGE OUTCOMES
Overarching conventions, strategies, policies and instruments
currently in place
ACTIONS
to facilitate Desired Key Heritage Outcomes
Responsibility for the management of heritage landscapes as environmental land systems:
Maintaining the integrity of the natural systems which includes working with Aboriginal communities on a co- management basis.
Assistance to Aboriginal communities for management of Marine National Park
Global
• 1992 Rio Earth Summit with further signing by Australia of a Statement of Commitment 1997 with particular reference to Agenda 21.
National
• 1997 COAG Agreement
• ACF(1998) Wilderness &
Indigenous Cultural Landscapes in Australia Policy
State
• CYPLUS Stage 2.
• Nature Conservation Act 1992
• IPA(Qld) Act 1997 " Explanation of terms used in ecological sustainability, Clause 1.3.6 for section 1.3.3
Local
• Planning Scheme for Shire of Torrens.
• Cook Shire Planning Scheme
• Prepare Local Agenda 21 strategy for implementation through IPA.
• Predefine Aboriginal marine park as area of national significance to trigger Commonwealth assessment and approval under COAG.
• Review to ensure cultural landscape interpretation accords with this study.
• Review strategy for management of natural resources under Category A.
• Explore potential for co-management policies.
• Review effectiveness of Nature Conservation Act for CYP.
• Review for desired environmental outcomes.
• Implement IPA for Shire of Torrens.
• Recommend Cultural Landscape Heritage Appraisal be done.
Commitment to the concept of living and working heritage:
Maintaining the cultural heritage embedded in the landscape for ATSI people.
Maintaining and developing co-
management strategies for pastoral landscapes.
Maintaining mining landscapes which reflect heritage and contemporary environmentally sustainable activities
National
• ACF (1998) Wilderness &
Indigenous Cultural Landscapes State
• CYPLUS Stage 2
• Qld Integrated Planning Act 1997, (IPA)
• DNR /SPP 1/92 'Development and Conservation of Agricultural Land'.
• Native Title (Qld) Act
• Land Act 1994.
• Palmer River Goldfields Resources Reserve Plan of Management.
Local
• Cooktown Shire Council Planning Scheme.
• Aurukun Shire Council Planning Scheme.
• Review in terms of "Living Heritage."
• Review re limitations for 'only traditional indigenous use'.
• Review 'Management of Cultural
Resources' to include 'mining landscapes'
• Review re " Valuable Features".
• Develop strategies for co-management with particular reference to pyro- management.
• Apply for funding for 'Reading the Land' project.
• Review re co-management strategies.
• Recommend Plan of Management be extended to cover 'Cultural Landscapes'.
• Include the management of the Palmer River mining landscape in IPA, 'Valuable Features'.
• Include mining landscapes as IPA, 'Valuable Features'.
Recognition of multiple, coexisting and occasionally contested heritage values.
Global
• The Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage (World Heritage Convention) 1972.
National
• Review in terms of multiple values.
• Review in terms of multiple values.
Identification and recognition the multiple and layered values in the landscape.
Acknowledgement of the conflicting values embedded in the landscape.
State
• Native Title (Qld) Act 1993
• Qld Integrated Planning Act (1997)
"State, regional and local dimensions of planning scheme matters, Clause 2.1.4 (1), Core matters for planning schemes, Section 4.(1) (.c), subsection (3) In subsection (1) (.c) - "valuable features"
• CYPLUS Stage 2 Local
• Cooktown Heritage Study
• Planning Scheme for Torres Shire Council
• Planning Scheme for Aurukun Shire Council
• Request Cultural Heritage Branch, EPA, undertake cultural landscape listing program for all Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal landscapes of significance.
• Support CYPLUS Stage 2 Conservation of Cultural Resources strategies
• Review Advisory Services to accommodate conflicting values in interpretations of landscape significance.
• Develop more appropriate Community Participation strategies that go beyond 'heritage streetscapes' and include multiple and layered values.
• Implement IPA including Cultural
Landscape review with a focus on layered values. .
Respect for specific community values Identification and management of the Chinese heritage in the Palmer River region.
Identification of migrant landscapes in the area.
Value given to the different ATSI community groups in the 'Tip' and
Cooktown environs
Global
• IUCN Zaire Resolution on the Protection of Traditional Ways of Life 1975.
National
• Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975
State
• Queensland Heritage Act 1992.
Local
• Review obligations for Cape York Peninsula cultural landscapes.
• Devise means to enable indigenous people's lands to be brought into
conservation areas without the loss of use and tenure rights ;
• Recognize the rights of people to live on traditional lands;
• Establish protected areas in consultation with traditional owners,
• Ensure no indigenous people are displaced by the creation of a protected area.
• Recommend identification and nomination of Palmer River Goldfields as site of significance for the Chinese community.
• Review listings to ensure sites of significance for migrant communities are included
Deference to the heritage integrity, both cultural and physical, innate in the land systems of Queensland Identification of co- management
strategies for cultural heritage landscapes.
Development of management guidelines for the Cooktown and Palmer River environs.
Global
• World Heritage Convention.
• National
• Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975.
State
• CYPLUS Stage 2
• Queensland Integrated Planning Act 1997.
Local
• Cooktown Shire Council Planning Scheme.
• Nominate 'Tip' cultural landscapes for World Heritage Area status
• Develop a number of National Strategies to implement the objectives of the international treaties referred to above.
• Revise 'Management of Cultural Resources' into similarly categories as 'Management of Natural Resources'.
• Implement recommendation that Indigenous and non-indigenous cultural resource values be incorporated into Cape York Plans of Management, with particular strategies for co-management.
• Implement IPA in 3 shires with particular reference to co-management strategies.
• Implement a strategic infill planning policy (DCP) so that even development occurs to sustain current spatial qualities of Cooktown.
Summary of Findings
Cape York peninsula has two significant valuable landscapes, the 'Tip' and Cooktown and its environs including Palmer River. The 'Tip,' as a valuable landscape, is a highly significant natural landscape. It also sustains continuous cultural connections for Aboriginal communities in the area.
Evidence of various land uses over time convey the interaction between the white occupiers and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander inhabitants, from the early resistance battles, to the impact of the Missions and Reserves, culminating in the significance of the Mabo and Wik Court decisions as part of Australia's recent heritage. There is also 20th century mining heritage. The valuable landscapes of Cooktown and Palmer River goldfields are not an integrated land system, instead this precinct is determined by the track from the coastal landing point in 1873, the present Cooktown, and the former goldfields in the upper catchment of the west flowing Palmer River. Included in the heritage significance of Cooktown as a former boomtown and the associated goldfields at Palmer River is the important Chinese gold mining history.
Cape York Peninsula as a cultural landscape is considered to have high integrity because of its remoteness where the landscape character of grasslands, rivers and coast have been subjected to minor changes while still fulfilling major cultural meanings for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups.
The major evidence of change as a result of human use has been the changing landuse from hunter-gatherer to pastoral and mining.
It is, nevertheless, a highly contested landscape and the resolution of these contests in terms of land management and changing landscape meanings may have impact.
The valuable landscapes, the 'Tip' and the Cooktown/Palmer River Goldfields, have high heritage integrity as they have not been subject to recent major changes.
Cooktown is vulnerable to any sudden increase in tourist pressure or infrastructure developments. The Palmer goldfields require further study despite the fact that many sites have been listed on the Local Government Inventory.
REFERENCES
Armstrong, Denbeigh (1999) 'Caring for country: recognition of ATSI interests in managing Australia's tropical
environments' unpublished report for Environmental studies, University of Tasmania.
Armstrong, Helen (editor) (2001), Interpreting Cultural Landscapes: Theoretical Framework, Report 1, Investigating the Cultural Landscapes of Queensland:
CONTESTED TERRAINS Series, Brisbane: Cultural Landscape Research Unit, QUT.
Armstrong, H, O'Hare, D. & Sim, J. (editors) (2001), Contests and Management Issues, Report 3, Investigating the Cultural Landscapes of Queensland:
CONTESTED TERRAINS Series, Brisbane: Cultural Landscape Research Unit, QUT.
Blake, Thom (1996), "Queensland Cultural Heritage Context Study," A Report for the Cultural Heritage Branch, Department of Environment.
Blake, Thom (1998) 'Preliminary Themes for Contested Terrains study' in Discussion Paper 1 unpublished report for Contested Terrains study, QUT.
Bolton, G.C. (1972), A Thousand Miles Away.
Canberra: ANU Press.
Cilento, Sir Raphael and Clem Lack (1959), Triumph in the Tropics: An Historical Sketch of Queensland. Brisbane: Smith and Paterson.
Cofinas, Maria, and Bolton, M.P. (1995) 'Environmental regions of Cape York Peninsula'. CYPLUS, Office of the Co- ordinator General of Queensland, DEST, Canberra.
Cooktown Heritage Study (1997) prepared for Cooktown Shire Council.
Council for Reconciliation (1994) Understanding Country: the Importance of Land and Sea in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander societies. Canberra: AGPS.
CYPLUS: Cape York Peninsula Land Use Strategy (1995) Stage 1 Overview Reports. Environment Science and Services (NQ)
CYPLUS: Cape York Peninsula Land Use Strategy (1995) Land Use Strategy Models. Focus Pty Ltd & Kim Campbell Town planning Pty Ltd.
CYPLUS: Cape York Peninsula Land Use Study (1995) An assessment of the conservation and natural heritage significance of Cape York Peninsula. AHC and Environment Science and Services (NQ).
Fitzgerald, R 1982 A History of Queensland from the Dreaming to 1915, St Lucia: UQP.
[Preliminary Historical Notes were prepared by Jean Sim from this source].
Roberts Chris (1998) 'Aboriginal Burning, Coexistence and Regional Agreements'.
Unpublished Proceedings of Fire and weather Conference. Mt Isa. July 1998.
www.balkanu.com.au
Roberts, Chris and Tanna, A. (1998) 'Aboriginal maritime estates and their relevance in the context of Modern Management' paper given at Coast to Coast Conference Perth, May,1998. www.balkanu.com.au
Rose, DB (1996) Nourishing Terrains: Australian Aboriginal Views of Landscape and Wilderness Canberra: AHC publication.
Sim, Jeannie (editor) (2001), Thematic Study of the Cultural Landscape of Queensland, Report 2, Investigating the Cultural Landscapes of Queensland:
CONTESTED TERRAINS Series, Brisbane: Cultural Landscape Research Unit, QUT.
Wadley, David and W. Bill King (1993), Reef, Range and Red Dust: The Adventure Atlas of Queensland. Brisbane:
Department of Lands, Queensland Government.
www.balkanu.com.au (BALKANU Cape York Development Corporation).
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www.nff.org.au/nr98/nr120. Sept 1998 'High Court provides certainty for some.'
by Jan Seto
The structure of the following South Brisbane case study report is the same as the other case studies and comprises five major sections:
(1) DEFINING THE CASE STUDY AREA
(2) UNDERSTANDING THE CULTURAL CONTEXT OF THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE (including a chronology, a description of the current cultural landscapes and applying the Broad Cultural Landscape Categories)
(3) DETERMINING VALUABLE CULTURAL HERITAGE LANDSCAPES
(including multiple readings – Thematic Histories, Australian Heritage Commission, World Views, Queensland Heritage Act – Landscape Assessment, and a STATEMENT OF CULTURAL VALUES).
(4) UNDERSTANDING THE MANAGEMENT CONTEXT
(including the Issues of Concern, Searching for Management Pathways – Key Management Values, Management Considerations and Objectives, and finally, MANAGEMENT PROPOSALS).
(5) A SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
DEFINING THE CASE STUDY AREA
The study area is inclusive of the 19 National Parks, 31 State Forests (or parts thereof), 5 timber reserves and 1 Aboriginal and Islander Reserve known as the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Site. The World Heritage site was declared in 1988. Thus the World Heritage Site is an aggregate of dispersed, and often physically disconnected, parcels of land.
For the purposes of the Contested Terrains Case Study it was necessary to site this conglomerate of parks in an inclusive physical and cultural context, its "environs". "The Environs" chosen for this study are bounded to the south by the Hervey's Range Development Road. This road follows a westerly route from the coast just north of Townsville.
Figure 3.1
MAP OF WET TROPICS WORLD HERITAGE AREA
Figure 3.2
MAP OF WET TROPICS CASE STUDY AREA – Northern Wild
Rivers