South Australian Heritage Register

Inventory data updated fortnightly.

The South Australian Heritage Register is a list of places of heritage significance to the State. The Register lists the full range of South Australian heritage places within one database, including World Heritage, Australian Government listings, State Heritage Places, State Heritage Areas, local heritage places, Historic (Conservation) Zones and Historic Policy Areas.

At present the AHPI includes only State Heritage Places (ie those protected under the Heritage Places Act 1993) and State Heritage Areas designated prior to 1994. All other categories listed in the Register are protected by separate pieces of legislation and are recorded in the Register for convenience only. The coverage of the AHPI will be expanded to cover the other categories in due course.

To be entered in the Register as a State Heritage Place a place must satisfy one or more of the criteria in Section 16 of the Heritage Places Act 1993. The decision to enter a State Heritage Place in the Register is made by the South Australian Heritage Council, a seven to nine member body established under the provisions of the Act. Advice to the Council is provided by the Heritage Branch, whose staff maintain the Register on the Council's behalf. State Heritage Places comprise confirmed places and provisionally entered places (ie. places which are awaiting confirmation). Occasionally provisionally entered places are removed rather than confirmed.

State Heritage Areas (as opposed to individual places)

Under the now repealed South Australian Heritage Act 1978 State Heritage Areas were created by designation by the Heritage Minister and subsequent gazettal in the South Australian Government Gazette, but places within them were not necessarily individually entered in the SA Heritage Register. To verify whether a place is within an Area please contact the Register Clerks at the Heritage Branch. Note that places within State Heritage Areas have the same controls as individually registered places.

Since the proclamation of the Heritage Act 1993 on 15 January 1994, State Heritage Areas have been created through the Plan Amendment Report (PAR) process under the Development Act 1993. As at 30 November 2005 only four Areas at Penola, Colonel Light Gardens, Mount Gambier and Mount Torrens have been declared through a PAR. Areas designated under the former Act were Arckaringa Hills, Belair National Park, Beltana, Burra, Gawler (Church Hill), Goolwa, Hahndorf, Innamincka/Cooper Creek, Mintaro, Moonta Mines, Mount Schank, Mount Gambier Volcanic Complex and Port Adelaide.

This Electronic Version

The AHPI includes only limited information on State Heritage Places extracted from the South Australian Heritage Database and the data is updated fortnightly. The features which create the heritage significance of a place should be ascertained from the staff of the Heritage Branch. Note also that a heritage interest over a land title, along with other constraints and encumbrances, is recorded in the South Australian Government's LOTS (Land Ownership and Tenure System) database, which can be accessed via the PropertyAssist website (http://www.propertyassist.sa.gov.au).

On the Property Assist Home page click on Public User and follow the instructions in property searching. Once a result has been obtained look for Conditions under Constraints Details for confirmation of a place’s status as a State Heritage Place. Payment can be made using Bankcard, Mastercard or Visa. As at 1 December 2005 the cost of an enquiry was $11.80.

Explanation of the fields

The name field is dynamic. The intention is to identify places by their current name, with the use(s) relating to a place's heritage value (if different) being specified thus: 'Dwelling (former Devonshire Hotel)'. As the Heritage Branch is not routinely notified of changes in use, the current name of a place is not necessarily up to date.

For complexes of buildings the intention is to specify the places of heritage significance in the name, but note that such listings are not necessarily comprehensive, and anyone wishing to have full knowledge of what is significant on a site should contact the Heritage Branch. Some places, such as pastoral complexes, do not lend themselves to brief descriptions and may remain as 'Homestead Complex'.

At present the design of the SA Heritage Database requires that the Town/Suburb field must be linked to a postcode, and hence some country places are listed as being 'near' or 'via' places that they are remote from. A new Locality field based on the South Australian Gazetteer will eliminate this problem in due course.

In the meantime, when searching for a place you can double check a name or address search by also searching under Town/Suburb and local government area (including 'Unincorporated'), but please note that the design of the AHPI does not allow for the entry of more than one LGA for places that straddle council boundaries. There may also occasionally be discrepancies in street numbers, most notably with multiple numbers and in the City of Adelaide. If users are in any doubt they should contact the Heritage Branch or enquire on the PropertyAssist website to ascertain if a place is definitely a State Heritage Place.

Development Control

Development of both State Heritage Places and places within State Heritage Areas is subject to the provisions of the Development Act 1993 and the Regulations made under that Act. The development implications for both provisionally entered and confirmed places are identical.

Local Heritage

Registering places of local heritage value and the creation of Historic (Conservation) Zones and Historic Policy Areas is not a responsibility of the SA Heritage Council. Those tasks are managed by local councils and Planning SA under the provisions of the Development Act 1993 and the Regulations made under that Act.

Contact Details

The South Australian Heritage Register is maintained on a computerised database and is available for public inspection at the Heritage Branch, 1 Richmond Rd, Keswick, during normal office hours. All enquiries should be directed to the Register Clerks. Lists of relevant State Heritage Places have been supplied to all local councils and revised lists are distributed to relevant councils whenever new State Heritage Places are entered in the Register. General information relating to the administration of State heritage legislation is also available on the Internet at http://www.heritage.sa.gov.au. The Heritage Branch, Department for Environment and Heritage, GPO Box 1047, Adelaide 5001, tel: 61 8 8124 4960, FAX 61 8 8124 4980.

Copyright © 2005

Apart from fair dealing permitted by the Copyright Act, 1968, the Government of South Australia grants a licence to use its copyright material for private and non-commercial purposes only. For reproduction or use of the Government's copyright material beyond this limited licence, permission must be sought from the relevant agency of the Government, in this case the Heritage Branch. That permission, if given, will be subject to conditions that will include a requirement that the copyright owner's name and interest in the material be acknowledged when the material is reproduced or quoted, either in whole or in part. No permission to reproduce or use the Government's copyright material, other than that expressly stated above, is to be implied by the availability of that material in this electronic form.