Geographers have traditionally been excellent recorders of the components making up the landscapes of regions. However, in Australia currently few planning schemes protect such landscapes. Identification is left to architects and archaeologists working for heritage planning agencies and these tend to concentrate on historic built components. Biodiversity components have been extensively identified in some States like Victoria with its ecological vegetation classifications. But the disparate approaches have not been brought together to focus on place.
This session will canvas ways to engage more in identifying and protecting our precious regional landscapes which are often more valued in the abstract as part of tourist promotion, for example, for wine growing regions. It will ask geographers working in various fields to reconsider the integration of spatial components of heritage landscapes so that they might be better protected in statutory planning schemes.
Format for the theme:
4 standard session papers –preferably each from different regions –and then a panel discussion on the issues raised in the papers. These issues could be explored on a field trip to the Yarra valley
Key words:
Heritage
Landscapes
Regions
Planning schemes