Burra Charter
The Burra Charter defines the basic principles and procedures to be followed in the conservation of Australian heritage places.
In 1979, the Australia ICOMOS Charter for the Conservation of Places of Cultural Significance was adopted at a meeting of at the historic mining town of Burra, South Australia. It was given the short title of The Burra Charter.
The Charter accepted the philosophy and concepts of the ICOMOS Venice Charter, but wrote them in a form which would be practical and useful in Australia. The Charter is periodically revised and updated, and the 2004 publication The Illustrated Burra Charter elaborates and explains the principles of the 1999 version in an easy to understand form. In 2013 the Charter was again revised and updated, and is available online .
The Burra Charter has been adopted by the Australian Heritage Council, the Heritage Council of New South Wales, the Queensland Heritage Council and the Heritage Council of Victoria. It is also recommended by the Heritage Council of Western Australia and the Tasmanian Heritage Council.
The Burra Charter is especially useful when places with a high level of significance are proposed to be conserved or changed in some way, such as when restoring a house museum or changing the use of an historic public building. It is not so useful for everyday cases such as historic home renovation, and is rarely applied in that situation in Australia.
Importance
The Burra Charter is recognised as having pioneered the understanding of cultural heritage as going beyond the mere preservation of the built environment.Contents
The Burra Charter begins with a series of definitions, such as :- Cultural significance means aesthetic, historic, scientific, social or spiritual value for past, present or future generations.
- Conservation means all the processes of looking after a place so as to retain its cultural significance.
- Preservation: Maintaining a place in its existing state and preventing further deterioration.
- Restoration:Returning a place to a known earlier state earlier state by removing accretions or by reassembling existing elements without the introduction of new material.
- Reconstruction: Returning a place to a known if there is sufficient evidence. and is distinguished from restoration by the introduction of new material.
- Conservation....requires a cautious approach of changing as much as necessary but as little as possible.
- New work should be readily identifiable as such, but must respect and have minimal impact on the cultural significance of the place.
- Designing a new addition in a modern manner desirable, but not an excuse to make the new work dominate, or draw attention away from the existing place.
Understand Significance
|
| Develop Policy |
| Manage in Accordance with Policy |