| NSW State Heritage Listing Project |  |
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Written in cooperation with the
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| CONTENTS | |||
| Help Us Recognise the Engineering & Industrial Heritage of NSW “Heritage consists of those
places and objects that we as a community have inherited from the past and want to hand on
to future generations. Our heritage gives us a sense of living history and provides a
physical link to the work and way of life of earlier generations. It enriches our
lives and helps us to understand who we are today. NSW’s heritage is diverse and
includes buildings, objects, monuments, Aboriginal places, gardens, bridges, landscapes,
archaeological sites, shipwrecks, relics, streets, towns, industrial structures and
conservation precincts.” (NSW Heritage office) However, the NSW Heritage
inventory through its legislated listing process is not balanced with those items and
sites that provide that link to our working lives through industrial sites, and
other places where our fore fathers spent a greater part of their lives. Engineering and
industry are the poor relation in the business of heritage and find little support when it
comes to conservation and subsequent listing. This may be due to the fact that it is
poorly recognised in the first place and the significance of our technical advances
through time are taken for granted. It may also be because we don’t feel that we
should preserve the places of our hard dirty toil and want to forget the sites such as the
Eveleigh railway workshops or any of the many coal gas works around NSW of which only four
remain, soon to be demolished. Or it maybe simply be because the works of our past
technology, such as wooden bridges, are a hindrance to our current life style and
technological development. To assist in correcting this imbalance, the NSW Heritage Office has formed a partnership with the Sydney Division Heritage Committee to assist in increasing the number of industrial and engineered works and sites on to the NSW Heritage register. For an item to be placed on the Register it must meet one or more of a number of criteria related to its heritage significance. These include importance in the State’s history, association with an important person, creative or technical achievement and association with a community or group.While the Engineering Heritage Committee is working with the Heritage Office to increase the representation of engineering and industrial items on the State Register, it needs the help of engineers in all areas of our profession to help identify the items, sites, works and buildings that should be considered to be added to our state heritage register. So if
you value your professional heritage and would like to see it conserved, we would be
appreciative if you would tell us about it - complete a form and send it to us. The form
can be downloaded here.
At this stage don't try to complete the form as if it were the formal heritage office nomination. We would first like to hear your opinions and suggestions before we finalise any formal nominations. We will collectively present all suggestions to the heritage office where each will be appraised prior to requests for formal nomination. Post, email or return your form to the Engineering Heritage Committee, care of the Sydney Division offices, Chatswood or as directed on the form. If you are still unsure of what we mean by Engineering Heritage look at our web page "What is Engineering Heritage" for a definition and examples.
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| Some Examples to Consider | |||
Gasworks, Bathurst, NSW, 1887 First municipally owned works in Australia |
Cockatoo Island - Sydney Harbour |
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| Gas was the energy of the last century and there were numerous plants around NSW producing this essential commodity. Today there is only four plants left standing, Bathurst being one of them. |
Galston Gorge Timber Truss Bridge |
Cockatoo Island was considered one of Sydney's large industrial complexes. After closing it became derelict, but today through the work of the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, the island and much of its heritage is being restored for use by the public. | |
Parramatta Dam |
Timber Bridges through out NSW are deteriorating due to a lack of appropriate maintenance. Their condition and replacement is now becoming an electoral issue which will result in the demolition of many of these bridges. |
Hydraulic Accumulator |
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| Parramatta Dam. A small masonry dam near Parramatta which is significant both in a historic and technical sense. | And most of all we need some contemporary heritage included on the register. Those items such as electrical, computer and communications equipment which has come and gone in our own life times, not waiting for the 'older than 50 year' criteria. | Before Sydney was powered by electricity, many of the machines throughout Sydney's industry was powered by pressurised water supplied from a few pumping stations. Today this system is only a memory, but many relicts of this once wide spread source of power are still scattered across the city. | |
Contacting Us Email: "sydheritage@engineersaustralia.org.au" Post: Sydney
Division Engineering
Heritage Committee - Engineers Australia (Sydney) 8
Thomas Street |
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Page last updated 09 March, 2007 |
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