Burra Charter

In 1979, the Australia ICOMOS Charter for the Conservation of Places of Cultural Significance was adopted at a meeting of Australia ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) at the historic mining town of Burra, South Australia.^[6] It was given the short title of The Burra Charter.

The Charter accepted the philosophy and concepts of the ICOMOS Venice Charter, but wrote them in a form which would be practical and useful in Australia. The Charter is periodically revised and updated, and the 2004 publication The Illustrated Burra Charter^[7] elaborates and explains the principles of the 1999 version in an easy to understand form. In 2013 the Charter was again revised and updated.

The Burra Charter has been adopted by the Australian Heritage Council (December 2004), the Heritage Council of New South Wales (December 2004), the Queensland Heritage Council (January 2005) and the Heritage Council of Victoria (July 2010).^[8] It is also recommended by the Heritage Council of Western Australia^[9] and the Tasmanian Heritage Council.^[10]

The Burra Charter begins with a series of definitions, such as:

• Cultural significance means aesthetic, historic, scientific, social or spiritual value for past, present or future generations.
• Conservation means all the processes of looking after a place so as to retain its cultural significance.

The types of actions that might be taken in the Conservation of a heritage place are defined as :

• Preservation: Maintaining a place in its existing state and preventing further deterioration.
• Restoration: Returning a place to a known earlier state by removing accretions or by reassembling existing elements without the introduction of new material.
• Reconstruction: Returning a place to a known if there is sufficient evidence. and is distinguished from restoration by the introduction of new material.