My book Values in Cities: Urban Heritage in Twentieth-Century Australia has now been released.
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Latest Posts
Battling Hideous Things: The National Trust of Australia in its first two decades
The establishment of the Australian National Trusts during the postwar period, the mid-1940s to mid-1960s, heralded an important milestone for conservation. These state-based bodies promoted historic sites, waged conservation campaigns, acquired properties, and classified buildings, structures, areas, and towns.
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Keynotes in Canberra and Rockhampton
James Lesh gave prominent talks in Canberra and Rockhampton last month. He shared his thought-leadership in cultural heritage, delivering deeply researched, evidence-led and practically focussed talks.
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A single sentence cannot get a house heritage protected, but that doesn’t mean Boroondara has done everything right by its local heritage
The rigour of local heritage has been brought into question. While it might make an irresistible newspaper headline, a single sentence cannot get a house heritage protected. No property in Boroondara has received permanent heritage protections from the new nomination process launched in May 2023. It’s still possible none ever will.
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Heritage Workshop on Developing a new Plan for Victoria
Public consultation for ‘Developing a new plan for Victoria’ is currently open. My submission on behalf of Heritage Workshop is published here.
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Media Roundup: Planning, Housing, Pubs and more
Over recent months, I’ve provided expert commentary to media outlets in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide on heritage topics including local heritage laws, housing and historic pubs. Perhaps the most unexpected media inquiry related to the conservation of concrete roadways in early twentieth century housing estates!
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Values-Based Heritage Conservation: Historical Origins and Future Directions
The Burra Charter and its values-based model is embraced within Australian heritage conservation. For policymaker Max Bourke, it forms ‘the ethical basis for a contemporary “philosophy” of Australian conservation practice [becoming] a sort of “bible”’.
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Lecture on Fed Square: Public Space, Community and Heritage in Melbourne
On 20 December 2017, the Victorian State Government and Apple Corporation announced plans for a flagship Apple store for Melbourne’s leading public space: Federation Square. The proposal involved the demolition of an original building on the civic square and its replacement by a generic complex. There was an immediate public backlash against the Apple proposal to enter this public space (which had been managed by a government-owned private company). A new advocacy group called Citizens for Melbourne established a campaign called ‘Our City, Our Square’. A key strand of the campaign involved nominating Federation Square for a state heritage listing,
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ABC Radio Interview on Abandoned Buildings and Heritage Places
Have a listen back to our ABC Radio conversation on Abandoned Buildings and Heritage Places in Melbourne and across Victoria. You’ll find an interview with me among the many speakers! Restore, rebuild or raze? Debate rages over the fate of our grand old buildings From the Murtoa Stick Shed in the Wimmera, to the historic Curtin Hotel in Carlton, Victoria’s architectural landscape is awash with heritage-listed buildings saved from demolition. But for every success there are stories of demise – as observed by comedian Barry Humphries in 1978 who asked, “why not call ourselves Mutilated Melbourne?” The question of whether Victoria’s
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Book Review: Cities in a Sunburnt Country: Water and the Making of Urban Australia
This book review is published in the Urban History Review/Revue d’histoire urbaine, Fall/automne 2023. Australia is the driest continent on Earth. Its regions fluctuate between punishing drought and intense rainfall. With their knowledge of Country, and their conservation cultures, First Peoples have had continual access to water for millennia. Water and weather shaped their everyday activities and cultural traditions. The British colonisation of Australia from 1788 onwards, and the development of its cities since the nineteenth century, has transformed how water is both understood and managed across the continent. The relationships between people, cities, and water, particularly the expanding provision
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