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We recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the sovereign Traditional Owners of Australia and thank them for their stewardship of this Country, its lands, waters and skies. We respectfully acknowledge their culture and customary practices, and pay respect to their Ancestors, Elders and future leaders.

For the first time, the State of the Environment report includes a strong Indigenous narrative across all 12 thematic chapters, a narrative crafted through recognising the leadership, collaboration and authorship of Indigenous Australians who continue their connection as Traditional Owners to their lands, waters and skies.

Click to view the State of the Environment report

 

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Authors and acknowledgements

Authors

Headshot of author Anne McConnell
Anne McConnell 
Anne McConnell is a heritage consultant with broad based interests and expertise in Australian archaeology, cultural heritage management and Quaternary geoscience. Anne has over 40 years working experience in the government and the private sectors. Anne works on both Indigenous and historic cultural heritage, covering diverse areas of heritage, and diverse contexts such as protected areas, production forestry, and urban, rural and remote areas, including Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic. Anne’s heritage work has included the development of state-wide management systems for forest heritage, and collaborative regional heritage assessment projects including the evolution and Indigenous history of use of freshwater lagoons in southeastern Australia and the identification of places of National Heritage significance in Australia’s arid zone. Anne also has had a long term interest in terrestrial protected area management, initially through membership of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Consultative Committee and National Parks and Wildlife Advisory Council. Anne is a long term member of Australia ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) and is currently the Convenor of the Australian ICOMOS Indigenous Heritage Reference Group.   
Headshot of author Terri Janke
Dr Terri Janke
Dr Terri Janke is a Meriam/Wuthathi woman and an international authority on Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP), known for innovating pathways between the non-Indigenous business sector and Indigenous people in business. As the owner of Terri Janke and Company, a unique legal and consulting firm, she manages her team to deliver excellent results to a diverse client base. Terri advises on legal matters including intellectual property, business law and heritage. She developed the True Tracks® ICIP Protocols, a framework for Indigenous engagement and has written leading ICIP Protocols for various sectors including the arts, museums, archives, film, research and environmental management.
Headshot of author Ian Cresswell
Dr Ian Cresswell
Dr Ian Cresswell has extensive experience working in environment and sustainable development in several different areas, including biodiversity, reserve planning, fisheries, wildlife regulation and protected areas. He has a long history of success in managing large-scale, science-based government programs in natural resource management, with a strong focus on management to balance environmental, economic and social outcomes. He provides high-level advice to government and industry on environmental and sustainability issues. Dr Cresswell has led major research programs at CSIRO in both terrestrial and marine domains, as well as holding senior roles in marine planning, sustainable fisheries and wildlife management, including as the Director of the Australian Biological Resources Study. 
Headshot of author Zena Cumpston
Zena Cumpston 
Zena Cumpston is a Barkandji woman with family connection to Broken Hill and Menindee in western New South Wales. She currently lives in Melbourne on the lands of the Wurundjeri people with her partner and two young boys. Zena works as a writer, curator, consultant and researcher and is passionate about truth-telling and undertaking projects that directly benefit her community and Country. In 2021 she curated the show Emu Sky for Science Gallery Melbourne, bringing together more than 30 Aboriginal community members from across southeastern Australia. Running until July 2022, Emu Sky explores Aboriginal knowledge through artworks, research and storytelling and is accompanied by an extensive education program. In 2022 her book 'Plants', co-authored with Professor Lesley Head and Associate Professor Michael-Shawn Fletcher, will be released as part of the 'First Knowledges' series.

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge and pay respect to:

  • former and current staff of Australia’s many heritage and protected area agencies, and those local government staff who work in the heritage area, for their passion for, and commitment to, the protection and better management of Australia’s heritage, which often takes them beyond the call of duty
  • Australia’s Indigenous peoples past and present, for maintaining – and reclaiming – connection to Country and cultural knowledge despite a 250-year history of dispossession, deliberate attempts to erase cultural knowledge and ongoing hardship, and for their ongoing care for and defence of Australia’s Indigenous heritage
  • the numerous members of the Australian community who, in a personal capacity, have worked largely unrewarded as heritage owners, volunteers and advocates for improved heritage reservation and protections.

In preparing this 2021 Heritage chapter, we were assisted at many different levels by many people. We thank all those people who have assisted and wish to acknowledge the assistance of the following:

  • The Heritage Branch and Parks Australia within the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE), and the various state and territory heritage and park management agencies for providing data; in particular, through the survey.
  • Local government councils (shires) throughout Australia that took the time and made the effort to provide critical and otherwise unobtainable local-level heritage data through the state of the environment (SoE) 2021 local government online survey; and the Australian Local Government Association for supplying local government contact details.
  • Those heritage experts who were specifically consulted, interviewed by the authors and/or who provided information or other material to the project: Dr Margaret Brocx, Ian Brown, Dr Steve Brown, Cheryl Cowell, Prof Hilary du Cros, Brad Duncan, Catherine Forbes, Katrina Graham, Darren Griffin, Dr Jane Harrington, Dr Kevin Keirnan, Dr Tracy Ireland, Susan Jackson-Stepowski, Glenys Jones, Dr David Gillieson, Prof Jamie Kirkpatrick, Dr Jane Lennon, Dr Brenda Lin, Dr Daniel Lunney, Justin McCarthy, Prof Jan McDonald, Dr Ingereth Macfarlane, Prof Richard Mackay, Jesse McNicoll, Duncan Marshall, Dr Jess Melbourne-Thomas, Dr Sarah Munks, Dr Lyndon Ormond Parker, Michael Queale, Dr Michael Pearson, Juliet Ramsay, Stuart Read, Regina Roach, George Rooks, Sue Sargent, Andy Spate, Corrinne Unger, Caitlin Vertigan, Andy Viduka, Liz Vines, Prof. Di Walker, Dr Jennie Whinam, Dr Sue White, Helen Wilson.
  • Particular thanks are due to Prof Richard Mackay for his generosity in providing advice, background information and other insights based on his experience preparing the 2011 and 2016 SoE Heritage theme reports.
  • Those heritage experts in the various heritage fields who contributed their knowledge and experience through the SoE 2021 heritage expert survey and the workshops.
  • DAWE SoE team and Heritage Strategies Branch, for advice, comment and assistance in many aspects of the project, in particular Roger Morrison, Robert Markham, Phillip Rofe, Tammy Malone, Liz Davies, Andy Viduka and Mitch Ryan.
  • The SoE 2021 author team for their varied assistance, in particular, Graeme Clark, Sarah Hill and Rowan Trebilco.
  • Special thanks are due to a small number of other people who assisted, including Michael-Shawn Fletcher for starting the Heritage theme journey as the Indigenous co-author and contributing a well-thought-out scoping plan; and Ella Horton for assistance with developing the SoE 2021 heritage expert survey as an online survey and also with the analysis.

We also wish to acknowledge the recent passing of two giants of Australian heritage management – David Yencken (1931–2019) and Graham Worboys (1950–2020). Graham’s long-term engagement in protected area management at the national and international level, including as educator and advocate, led to many improvements in the management of Australia protected areas. And it is due to David’s visionary thinking and passion for heritage conservation that a national framework and various mechanisms to support that vision came into being, including the concept and reality of the National Estate, the Australian Heritage Commission, and several professional supporting bodies such as Australia ICOMOS.

We hope that the SoE 2021 Heritage report goes some way to assisting in the ongoing achievement of that which David and Graham both worked tirelessly towards – an understood, celebrated and well-managed Australian heritage.