Towards a Resilient and Defensible Heritage Management Regime for Local Communities: Methodological Considerations and a Worked Example

The management of tangible cultural heritage assets in the framing of the authorised cultural heritage discourse entails the identification, documentation, and evaluation of sites for their cultural heritage significance and their subsequent recognition in government-authorised heritage lists. This inscription enables the imposition of administrative controls and protective instruments that inhibit development actions that may impact the integrity of the asset and enable management interventions to limit the detrimental effects of environmental decay. While the listing generates a static entity, the values that underlie the heritage assessment that led to the listing are mutable qualities, as are the cultural, social, and economic conditions in which the heritage is embedded. Given the mutability, often due to intergenerational change, there is a need to review the heritage lists so that they remain fit for purpose. This paper outlines a methodology to assess the universe of heritage assets in a heritage register to arrive at a resilient and, in particular, defensible heritage management regime. A case study, conducted in Albury, NSW (Australia), exemplifies the methodological approach.