Journal Article

Author

Davies, Paul

Title

What Makes Industrial Sites Heritage Significant and How Can They Be Managed to Retain Their Heritage Value in an Operating System? The Heritage of Hydro Tasmania - a Case Study

In

Australian Journal of Multi-disciplinary Engineering

Imprint

vol. 6, no. 1, 2008, pp. 21-26

Url

https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.167038308352794

Description

Paper presented at the National Engineering Heritage Conference (14th: 2007 : Perth).

Abstract

Over three years, I have undertaken a comprehensive heritage survey of all aspects of the Hydro Tasmanian system, including one former private power scheme and one remaining private scheme. The objective was to assess each place, building, feature and major element for its heritage value, and to make comparative assessments across the whole system. Each site and element was visited and recorded. I was selected to undertake the work partially as a non-engineer who had no detailed knowledge of the system, but also on the basis that I had undertaken extensive broadscale heritage surveys of regions and building types, including studies of railway sites, the hop industry, lighthouses, jails, port facilities and fortifications. This is important as the assessments incorporated a broad range of values that extend well beyond the technical achievements of the place or item. Often industrial heritage is recognised only for its technical achievement or innovation, but major achievements, such as Hydro Tasmania, are significant for the impact they have had on the economic achievement of the state, for the social changes brought about by bringing a large work force into the country from overseas, for the creation of towns and local infrastructure, for the impact of construction on major (in this case) wilderness areas, for innovations in rehabilitation, and for the political action taken to prevent development in places such as the Gordon below Franklin, etc., as well as the often extraordinary solutions developed to solve unique engineering problems. Significance is also not always in the large or impressive, but is found in small elements that tell stories of human endeavour. Often abandoned sites or ruins contain significance and the Hydro system contains excellent examples of abandoned and closed sites. This paper explores some of those themes with numerous examples taken across the system to demonstrate how industrial sites have a broad range of heritage values.

Related Published resources

isPartOf

• '14th National Engineering Heritage Conference - Selected Papers (2007 : Perth)', Australian Journal of Multi-disciplinary Engineering, 6 (1) (2008), 128, https://search.informit.org/toc/ajmde/6/1. Details