Our long association with Airservices Australia has afforded us some incredibly interesting work, visiting and assessing aviation installations all over the country. Since 2007, we have been supporting the Commonwealth agency in meeting its many and diverse obligations under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) — providing heritage advice, strategies, assessments and reports.

Airservices Australia (ASA) is a government-owned Commonwealth entity that provides telecommunications, aeronautical data, air navigation, and aviation rescue and firefighting services to the aviation industry. It owns and manages more than 1,000 buildings and places across Australia. A number of these have been assessed as having (or potentially having) Commonwealth Heritage values.

[ Air traffic control towers at Bankstown, Hobart and Launceston, Hobart photo © Civil Aviation Historical Society, other photos : Lovell Chen ]

Our first project for ASA was a national assessment of air traffic control towers (2007-9), the outcome of which was the inclusion of six towers in the Commonwealth Heritage List. Studies on fire stations (2012) and navigational aids (2013-14) followed. We also prepared triennial heritage strategies (heritage management plans) for six of the air traffic control towers, and will soon begin a project on ASA radar installations.

Under the the EPBC Act and its Regulations, the agency is required to prepare a heritage strategy, which must be updated every three years. Our first strategy developed with ASA was written in 2010. In September last year, the second strategy was released — Heritage Strategy 2021-23, which is available for download from the ASA website. The strategy documents set out the agency’s objectives for the management of heritage places and outlines processes for consultation, reporting, reviewing and conflict resolution and monitoring.

Airservices Australia
www.airservices.gov.au >
Read online or download … Heritage Strategy 2021-23 >