WATCH: AHS explains the Burra Charter
For those of you that don’t work regularly within the heritage space, you may have heard the term ‘Burra Charter’ used – but what is it exactly? Here our Senior Heritage Consultant, Jula Pritchard, explains why the Burra Charter is the guiding document for all things heritage in Australia!
The Burra Charter was first published in 1979 by the Australian arm of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), Julia explains, formed during a meeting at historic mining town of Burra in South Australia.
“It’s our guiding document and it shares all of the overarching principles for heritage conservation in Australia,” she says.
“So, we use the Burra Charter to inform all of our heritage decision making when it comes to heritage conservation, and all of our reports have been developed in a way that is consistent with the guidelines and principles outlined in the Burra Charter.”
“We often refer to specific articles to really back up and help us emphasise the decisions that we’re making when trying to protect heritage places.”
ICOMOS periodically updates the Burra Charter, in line with the constantly evolving theory and practice of cultural heritage management, with the last amendment made in 2013. Then in 2019, ICOMOS celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the Burra Charter, hosting a series of public events, as well as releasing educational and training resources.
Julia shares some of her favourite principles from within the expansive Burra Charter in the video, many of them relating closely to the types of heritage work AHS undertakes daily.
“The first one being that the Barra Charter advocates for a very cautious approach, so changing as much as necessary but as little as possible,” she says.
“We want to make sure with heritage buildings that we’re really protecting that patina of age and making sure that any changes we make are what’s necessary but making as little changes as possible.”
Another principle Julia aligns with is the concept of reversibility, meaning that any changes proposed to be made to a place should be able to be reversed.
“I really like the Guardian principle of reversibility in the Barra Charter because it means that if we are going to make changes to a building or a landscape or any sort of heritage fabric, that that change is reversible in its nature,” she says.
“So should we want to return a building or a landscape back to how it was in an earlier phase, we’re able to do that by using techniques and construction methods that allow for those materials to be reversed.”
Lastly, Julia explains that work to a heritage site must be consistent with the existing themes, without distorting or overwhelming a heritage place.
“While new work is acceptable, we want to make sure that it doesn’t distort the old building and that we can still really appreciate the history of an old place or landscape, and that the new fabric is juxtaposed to the old fabric so that you can really tell the difference between the two and find that balance,” she says.
At AHS, our key staff members like Julia are ICOMOS accredited, and we are proud to utilise the Burra Charter to guide our extensive heritage work around Australia. Our consultants offer a deep understanding of the principles outlined within the Charter, as we endeavour to provide leading heritage expertise now and into the future.
Contact us
To discover how we may be able to assist you on your next project, contact us today here via our website or phone (07) 3221 0000. You can also connect with us on LinkedIn.
