Tasmania has some of Australia's oldest and most well-known heritage places and buildings — including quaint cottages and a giant sculpture of a penguin.
The three-metre-tall Big Penguin sculpture in the north-west Tasmanian town of Penguin is a step closer to being included on the Tasmanian Heritage Register, after residents of the coastal town applied to the Tasmanian Heritage Council.
However, it's not all good news.
Their push to have 12 penguin-themed rubbish bins included as well has been knocked back.
"We lament the … bins didn't make the cut, despite their historical value," Penguin resident Ross Hartley said.
"They reflect the importance to Penguin of its historical origins and community sense of place and townscape."
The bins have been in the town for more than 40 years, but there is a question mark over their future, with the council planning to roll out new bin infrastructure.
They would have been Australia's first heritage-listed rubbish bins, and director of Heritage Tasmania Andrew Roberts said it was a unique application.
"We don't have too many quirky ones like that come along," he said.
"There had been a few versions of the bins over the last 40 years, so they weren't original in the design.
"That's where they suffered."
What's the purpose of the Heritage Register?
Mr Roberts described the Tasmanian Heritage Register as an inventory of places identified as important to Tasmania and Tasmanians.
"It's really important because it gives protection to these places, most usefully where the significance of the heritage is not apparent to everybody," he said.
"It helps build appreciation and understanding of heritage across the state."
Places entered on the register are protected through the Heritage Act.
"Once it is on the list, it has the protection of the Act, which means any work that is done on that property, they need to get the approval of the Heritage Council," Mr Roberts said.
"If you put a development application for a property that is state heritage listed, that automatically triggers a notification to us and then we assess the works."
Mr Roberts said the Tasmanian Heritage Register was part of a tiered system of managing historic heritage, with lists also for local, national and world heritage.
What's already heritage listed?
According to Mr Roberts, there are around 5,000 entries on the Tasmanian Heritage Register.
"It sort of goes up and down according to the administration we do; sometimes we combine a whole bunch of listings," he said.
He said the boat sheds at Hobart's Cornelian Bay were an example of that, first being listed individually, then as one entity.
Places needed to be geographically definable and Mr Roberts said that included some of the state's shipwrecks.
"The register doesn't include moveable heritage that doesn't have a site, so if someone wanted to list a bus or a ship by itself, that's not our jurisdiction," he said.
Hobart's Treasury Building, the Port Arthur site, Cascade Brewery, the Willow Court asylum complex and Brickendon Estate are all on the state heritage register.
The Heritage Council is currently assessing an application to list the Supreme Court complex in Hobart's Salamanca Place, which was built in the late 1970s.
What's the process?
Getting included on the register is a lengthy process, which can often take longer than a year, according to Mr Roberts.
"That's intended, because it's state significance and is a fairly high bar," he said.
"Any individual or body can make a nomination for a listing, ideally doing as much research as they can to support their application."
He said there were only around 10 to 15 new inclusions each year — some were "pretty straightforward", while others required a lot of research and consultation.
"We do a triage of it to see whether it has any chance of likely to get up in the long run and if there is a chance, it's kept going in the process, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will get listed, it just means it's possible," he said.
"It then goes on a priority assessment list and if it gets activated on that, then it goes into a provisional listing where we publicise it.
"If it clears all that then it goes through and is signed off by the Heritage Council for a full listing."
Entries can also be removed from the register if they no longer meet the criteria.
For a place to be entered in the Register, the place must meet at least one of the following criteria:
- Important to the course or pattern of Tasmania's history
- Possesses uncommon or rare aspects of Tasmania's history
- Potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Tasmania's history
- Demonstrates the principal characteristics of a class of place in Tasmania's history
- Demonstrates a high degree of creative or technical achievement
- Strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social or spiritual reasons
- Special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Tasmania's history
- Exhibits particular aesthetic characteristic
As for the penguin bins, the Central Coast Council is planning to roll out new bins — and will discuss with the community how the current bins might be repurposed in coming months.
Mr Hartley said the community would keep advocating for the bins to stay where they are.
"What happens to the bins now is very much in council's court but the community is certainly wanting them to stay," he said.
