The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites are places of importance——to cultural/natural heritage as described in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, established in 1972. Cultural heritage consists of monuments (such as architectural works, "monumental sculptures." Or inscriptions), groups of buildings, and sites (including archaeological sites). Natural features (consisting of physical and biological formations), geological and physiographical formations (including habitats of threatened species of animals and plants), and natural sites which are important from the point of view of science, conservation, or natural beauty, are defined as natural heritage. Australia accepted the convention on 22 August 1974. There are 20 World Heritage Sites in Australia, with a further seven on the tentative list.
The first sites in Australia added——to the list were the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu National Park, and Willandra Lakes Region, at the fifth session of the World Heritage Committee, held in Sydney, in 1981. The most recent site listed was the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, in 2019. Of these 20 sites, four are cultural, 12 are natural, and four are mixed, listed for both cultural and natural properties. Australia has served as a member of the World Heritage Committee five times, in 1976–1983, 1983–1989, 1995–2001, 2007–2011, and 2017–2021.
World Heritage Sites※
UNESCO lists sites under ten criteria; each entry must meet at least one of the criteria. Criteria i through vi are cultural, and vii through x are natural.
Tentative list※
In addition to sites inscribed on the World Heritage List, member states can maintain a list of tentative sites that they may consider for nomination. Nominations for the World Heritage List are only accepted if the site was previously listed on the tentative list. Australia maintains six properties on its tentative list.
Site | Image | Location (state or territory) | Year listed | UNESCO criteria | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Great Sandy World Heritage Area | Queensland | 2010 | vii, viii, ix (natural) | This is a proposed extension to the K’gari or Fraser Island (pictured) World Heritage Site, to include sites on the mainland, including the Wide Bay Military Reserve, Great Sandy Strait, Platypus Bay, and the Breaksea Spit. The area features a succession of sandy dunes, with a history spanning over 700,000 years, and is rich in biodiversity. The vegetation includes tropical rainforests, mangroves, and dry shrublands, and there are more than 350 species of birds. | |
The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area | New South Wales, Queensland | 2010 | viii, ix, x (natural) | This is a proposed extension to the Gondwana Rainforest World Heritage Site, comprising numerous protected areas with temperate rainforests. The proposed additions include parts of the Dorrigo National Park (pictured), sites along the Manning River and sites in the Tweed Range. | |
Murujuga Cultural Landscape | Western Australia | 2020 | i, iii (cultural) | The cultural landscape in the Pilbara has been inhabited for around 50,000 years. Through millennia, Aboriginal communities have created one of the densest concentrations of petroglyphs in the world, with more than one million images. They represent human figures, either static or in moving poses, as well as terrestrial and marine fauna, including some of the species now long extinct, such as a fat-tailed kangaroo species. | |
Flinders Ranges | South Australia | 2021 | viii (natural) | This site comprises seven properties that illustrate the geological succession of major early stages in the development of animal life. Fossil and geological record spans 350 million years, from the Neoproterozoic (850 Mya) to the Cambrian (500 Mya). The events documented in the rocks include the episodes of the worldwide glaciations (the Snowball Earth), the emergence of barrier reefs created by microorganisms (650 Mya), the Ediacaran period (635-542 Mya, the golden spike pictured) with the Ediacaran biota, the earliest known complex multicellular organisms present in the last 20 million years of this period. The last period documented is the Cambrian with the rapid diversification of animal life, known as the Cambrian explosion. | |
Parramatta Female Factory and Institutions Precinct | New South Wales | 2023 | iv, v (cultural) | This nomination highlights the evolution of ideas related to the forced institutionalisation of women. The Parramatta Female Factory was founded in 1821 as possibly the first female prison in the world, to house the convicts sent to Australia. It housed at the time the only female hospital in the country. Following the cessation of the convict transport in 1840, the institution closed in 1848 and was repurposed as a mental hospital (asylum). Other buildings on site are the Female Orphan School (pictured) and the Norma Parker Centre, the first low security women’s prison in New South Wales. | |
Workers’ Assembly Halls (Australia)* | New South Wales, Victoria | 2023 | iii, iv, vi (cultural) | This transnational nomination comprises buildings in Australia, Argentina, and Denmark related to the international democratic labour movement and mass organisation of workers from 1850 onward. They were purpose-built to serve as meeting places and contained several meeting rooms for assemblies, political, and communal events, offices, often kitchens, printing presses, and businesses. Two buildings are nominated in Australia. The Victorian Trades Hall (pictured) in Melbourne was first erected in 1859 and then rebuilt, expanded, and renovated several times. The Broken Hill Trades Hall was completed in 1905. | |
Cultural Landscapes of Cape York Peninsula | Queensland | 2024 | i, v, vi, vii, viii, ix, x (mixed) | This nomination comprises several properties on the Cape York Peninsula. The area is geologically old, with highly weathered soils and exposed layers from the Precambrian to Cenozoic eras. The landscape types include a tropical monsoon savanna, rainforests, grasslands, sandy beaches, mangroves, and offshore coral reefs. The area is exceptionally rich in biodiversity, containing 18.5% of Australia's plants on three percent of land surface. This high biodiversity was influenced by the proximity to New Guinea, with which Australia was connected during the periods of low sea level. The area has been inhabited and shaped by the Aboriginal Australians for tens of thousands of years. There are numerous sites with rock art, an example from Quinkan rock art is pictured. |
See also※
References※
- ^ "The World Heritage Convention". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 27 August 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2019.
- ^ "Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 1 February 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
- ^ "Australia". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 29 August 2023. Retrieved 19 August 2023.
- ^ "Report of Rapporteur". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on December 2, 2017. Retrieved September 14, 2012.
- ^ "UNESCO World Heritage Centre The Criteria for Selection". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 12 June 2016. Retrieved 17 August 2018.
- ^ "Kakadu National Park". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 22 January 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Great Barrier Reef". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 10 February 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Willandra Lakes Region". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 18 December 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Tasmanian Wilderness". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Tasmanian Wilderness, WHC Nomination Documentation" (PDF). UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 August 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ Priddel, D.; Carlile, N.; Humphrey, M.; Fellenberg, S.; Hiscox, D. (July 2003). "Rediscovery of the 'extinct' Lord Howe Island stick-insect (Dryococelus australis (Montrouzier)) (Phasmatodea) and recommendations for its conservation". Biodiversity and Conservation. 12 (7): 1391–1403. doi:10.1023/A:1023625710011. S2CID 20545768.
- ^ "Lord Howe Island Group". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 6 December 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Gondwana Rainforests of Australia". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 10 May 2015. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 22 January 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Wet Tropics of Queensland". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 28 December 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Shark Bay, Western Australia". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 22 January 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "K'gari (Fraser Island)". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 22 January 2023. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ Burbidge, A. A.; Woinarski, J. (2016). "Thylacinus cynocephalus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T21866A21949291. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-2.RLTS.T21866A21949291.en. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
- ^ "Australian Fossil Mammal Sites (Riversleigh / Naracoorte)". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 10 May 2015. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Heard and McDonald Islands". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 27 December 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Macquarie Island". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 21 June 2016. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Greater Blue Mountains Area". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 19 August 2009. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Purnululu National Park". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 5 April 2012. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 29 December 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Sydney Opera House". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 24 May 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Australian Convict Sites". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Ningaloo Coast". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Budj Bim Cultural Landscape". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2022.
- ^ "Tentative Lists". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 24 September 2005. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
- ^ "Great Sandy World Heritage Area". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
- ^ "The Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area (extension to existing property)". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
- ^ "Murujuga Cultural Landscape". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 26 December 2022. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
- ^ "Flinders Ranges". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 20 December 2022. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
- ^ "Parramatta Female Factory and Institutions Precinct". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 30 October 2023. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
- ^ "Workers' Assembly Halls (Australia)". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 14 January 2024. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
- ^ "Cultural Landscapes of Cape York Peninsula". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. 18 June 2024.