The Formal Recognition of Scent as a Cultural Value in Australasian Heritage Registers

Cultural heritage arises from the interactions of people and the connected environment, manifesting in both tangible and intangible forms. Standard management aims to identify and register heritage assets, with subsequent conservation preserving identified values. Australian and New Zealand/Aotearoa heritage-specific legislation enshrines distinct ascribed values, formed in response to charters presenting heritage philosophies. Recent shifts towards greater acceptance of intangible heritage and emerging scholarly attention towards sensorial aspects (smells and sounds) demonstrate trajectories of change and a broader understanding of heritage theory. How this is exemplified in real-world management is rarely discussed. Taking Australasia as an example, this paper aims to survey values as enshrined in heritage legislation, examine aesthetic value definitions, and investigate recognition of olfactory sensorial aspects in heritage registers. We find that despite aesthetic, historic, and scientific values being commonly presented in the legislation, aesthetic olfactory attributes are largely absent, being recorded in only 0.18% across all heritage entries. Of these, a quarter were attributed significance or value, with the majority of entries being associated with offensive smell mitigation. We find this incongruent with recent scholarly work, and discuss potential reasons thereof, finding there is significant room to develop identification/assessment of olfactory aesthetic heritage.