7Th Conservation Plan

THE SEVENTH EDITION CONSERVATION PLAN JAMES SEMPLE KERR AUSTRALIA ICOMOS THE SEVENTH EDITION CONSERVATION PLAN A GUIDE TO THE PREPARATION OF CONSERVATION PLANS FOR PLACES OF EUROPEAN CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE JAMES SEMPLE KERR 2013 – ii – Acknowledgments The guide was first prepared for seminars sponsored in 1981 by the Historic Houses Trust of NSW, the Australian Heritage Commission and the Commonwealth Department of Housing and Construction. The various editions evolved with the help of comments from the people listed below. Richard Allom George Farrant Richard Mackay Andrew Andersons Don Godden Eric Martin Rosemary Annable Bronwyn Hanna Richard Morrison Max Bourke Dinah Holman Michael Pearson Graham Brooks Peter James Juliet Ramsay Sheridan Burke Richard Johnson Sharon Sullivan Lorraine Cairns Chris Johnston Wendy Thorp Ken Charlton Joan Kerr Meredith Walker Kate Clark Tamsin Kerr Anne Warr Alan Croker Miles Lewis Peter Watts Geoff Dawson Susan Macdonald Dennis Watkins Joan Domicelj Barry McGregor Greg Young Photographs other than those taken by the author were reproduced by permission of National Library of Australia (fig.9 on page 9, and fig.20 on page 53), John Fairfax and Sons (fig.10 on page 12) and the Museum of Applied Arts and Science (fig.23 on page 52). Cover photograph: Mr Solomon Wiseman’s house ‘Cobham’ at Wiseman’s Ferry about 1830, artist unknown. National Trust of Australia (NSW) collection. Originally published by J.S. Kerr on behalf of The National Trust of Australia (NSW) and available from the Trust at Observatory Hill, Sydney, NSW 2000. This version placed on the Australia ICOMOS Inc. website with the agreement of James Semple Kerr. It may be downloaded free of charge. First edition January 1982 Second impression April 1982 Third impression May 1983 Second (revised) edition August 1985 Canadian facsimile 1989 Third (enlarged) edition December 1990 Second impression August 1991 Third impression November 1994 Fourth (ANZ) edition December 1996 Fifth (ANZUK) edition May 2000 Sixth (further revised) edition June 2004 Seventh (partly revised) edition January 2013 ISBN 1 86364 026 6 © James Semple Kerr Typeset in Garamond by Lynda Howlett, www.lyndahowlett.com. – iii – CONTENTS 1.0 Preface to the seventh edition iv ‘Conservation Plan’ or ‘Conservation Management Plan’? 36 2.0 Introduction iv Consultation and conflict resolution 36 Contents (moveable items) 37 3.0 The conservation plan 1 Copyright of published reports 38 3.1 What is a conservation plan? 1 Cultural landscapes 39 3.2 Success in preparation 1 Curtilage 40 3.3 Use of conservation charters and guides 1 Development 40 3.4 Objectives and resources 2 Exemptions arising from conservation plans 40 3.5 Drafting with implementation in mind 3 Fabric 40 3.6 Sequence of work 3 Façades 40 Funds for conservation plans 41 4.0 Stage I: Understanding the place 4 Gardens, trees and designed landscapes 41 4.1 What is cultural significance? 4 Heritage 42 4.2 Gathering evidence 4 Heritage impact statements 42 4.3 Documentary evidence and its sources 4 Indexes 43 4.4 Physical evidence 7 Interpretation 43 4.5 Co-ordination and analysis of evidence 8 Legal sustainability of conservation plans 44 4.6 Criteria for assessing cultural Maintenance 44 significance 11 Preservation 44 4.7 Assessors 17 Publication 45 4.8 Assessment of cultural significance 18 Public availability 46 Reconstruction 47 5.0 Stage II: Conservation policy 22 Recycling 47 5.1 Information needed for policy development 22 Restoration 47 5.2 Developing a conservation policy 24 Revision of conservation plans 48 Sense of place 48 5.3 Stating conservation policy 24 Setting 49 5.4 Flexibility of policy section 27 Summaries and executive summaries 50 5.5 Maintenance and supervision 28 Vulnerability 51 5.6 Use of the conservation plan 29 Appendices 6.0 Glossary 30 1. Sydney Observatory 52 Adaptation 30 2. Goulburn Correctional Centre 53 Affection for place 30 3. Anderson Stuart’s Medical School 54 Agreement with consultants 30 4. Parramatta Correctional Centre 56 Assessment of conservation plans 31 5. Yungaba Immigration Barrack 61 6. Sydney Opera House 62 Authenticity, intactness and integrity 32 7. Letter of Agreement 63 Boundary 32 8. Basis of statement of heritage impact 65 The Brief and the commissioning process 32 9. Sydney Opera House approach to summary 66 Confidentiality 33 Conflict of interest and professional ethics 33 Postscript: Australia’s new heritage system 70 Conservation 34 Bibliography 71 Conservation charters 34 Venice Charter 34 Brief description of published Burra Charter 34 reports by J.S. Kerr 74 ICOMOS New Zealand Charter 36 Index 76 – iv – 1.0 PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION This is the thirty-first anniversary of the publication of Dr James Semple Kerr’s The Conservation Plan by the National Trust of Australia (NSW). During those years it has evolved and expanded through six editions and twelve impressions. This document is well used by heritage and other practitioners in Australia and has found world wide application. Now in 2013, Australia ICOMOS is delighted to provide a version that can be downloaded from our website without fee and we are very grateful to Dr Kerr for foregoing royalties and making this work readi- ly available. Bronwyn Hanna facilitated the project and costs have been shared by the Royal Australian Historical Society (NSW) using funds from the NSW Heritage Council and Australia ICOMOS. Elizabeth Vines OAM, FRAIA, M.ICOMOS, President, Australia ICOMOS Inc. 14 December 2012. 2.0 INTRODUCTION For over 300 years there has been an erratically increasing controversy over development and conservation in the English-speaking world. Since the 1970s battles between developers and conservationists have been particularly bitter and often unnecessary. This guide proposes a less confrontational concept. Conservation and develop ment are not mutually exclusive objectives; they should, and can, be part of a single planning process. Conservation projects need provision for development just as surely as competent development requires an adequate approach to determining conservation policy. Developments do not take place in a vacuum but at an existing place, in existing surroundings. This seemingly obvious fact has to be under- stood and accepted before decisions on the relationship of conservation and development can be made. The precise balance is important. What is kept gives the inhabitants a sense of continuity, of identity and of stability. It provides a very nec- essary reassurance. What is newly-created may ensure survival, give vitality or perform a function which could not otherwise be met. Today’s creation may become tomorrow’s heritage; it may also be the bomb that blows a neighbourhood apart. The processes involved in conservation and development are as much social, political and economic as they are technical. Tension between those bent upon retaining the old and those building the new is not necessarily bad. It is a useful testing process of all four aspects and can establish a society’s priorities—provided that the basic information nec- essary for decision-making has been made available to all parties and that a method of making those decisions has been agreed. This guide is therefore about gathering, analysing and assessing information that bears upon policy decisions and on the processes of making those decisions. It offers a common ground for debate, a method and a common language to help resolve differences and achieve a balance between the old and the new. The result of these processes is a conservation plan. James Semple Kerr 6 July 1985 – 1– 3.0 THE CONSERVATION PLAN 3.1 What is a conservation plan? At its simplest, a conservation plan is a document which sets out what is significant in a place and, consequently, what policies are appropriate to enable that significance to be retained in its future use and development. For most places it deals with the management of change. Its scope may vary from a do-it-yourself plan for a modest cottage to plans for sites of the complexity of the Port Arthur Penal Establish ment in Tasmania or the North Head Quarantine Station in Sydney. ‘Conservation plan’ has become a convenient generic term covering a variety of productions. The type of place, needs of owners, range of problems encountered and skills available all mean that the scope and approach must be flexible if the contents are to be both useful and succinct. The structure of such plans should therefore be tailored to resolve relevant issues in the most direct way. Government House, Sydney, for example, required attention to management, public access and interpretation—issues which are negligible in a private res- idence faced with fabric failure and a need to improve facilities. The increasingly common use of ‘standard’ or ‘model’ conservation plan briefs should therefore be treated with caution and regarded only as a starting point and check list. The actual structure and scope of the plan has to evolve to suit the particular place and its problems. 3.2 Success in preparation Apart from the technical requirements outlined in parts 4.0 and 5.0, success in preparing the more complex conservation plans depends on: • recognising limitations in time and expertise and hence when to employ specialists; • precise briefing and progressive supervision of all persons work- ing on the project; • careful estimation of resources required, efficient co-ordination and elimination of inessentials; • ability and willingness to analyse, to assess and to evolve policies—not just to collate material. Where consultants are employed, choosing the right consultant is obviously important. They must be competent, efficient and have relevant training and experience. Appropriate skills are discussed on pages 17 to 18. When negotiating with a firm, it is important to establish who will be responsible for the project as relevant expertise often resides in mobile individuals rather than in the firm.

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