Heritage Office Enquiry Submission
From Christine Stewart, Proprietor, Collits’Inn, Hartley Vale, NSW 2790

Experience with the Heritage Office of NSW
We purchased Collits Inn on 1st May, 1998 and worked with the Heritage Office for 6 years.

Is it a good idea to have a Heritage office to oversee projects?

In principal, we think it is.  We, and I think most of the community that we have talked to about this subject, think it is vital that our heritage is preserved.  It is very important to have bodies such as the National Trust and the Heritage Office to oversee this.  Too much of our history has already gone and we feel people should be encouraged and helped to take on such projects.

0First, the owners or a paid historian should research the history and the Heritage office should let owners know that it is necessary to give a two page Executive Summary at the front of the CMP. I personally would suggest that owners research the history themselves with guidance from the heritage architect. It is very expensive to have a historian do it and one can do a much more thorough job if one has the time, without the constraints of finance, to do so. It is also very interesting.  For instance, I spent almost a year researching the Archives, The Mitchell Library and interviewing people who had spent time at the Inn.  We could only have afforded 3 weeks at the very most with a professional historian who often would not have time to check back to original documents.  For instance, I found many mistakes which came from using an erroneous document to base further history on e.g. a postcard put out by State Rail was shown to me by several proud descendants.  It said “Collits’ Inn at Hartley Vale”.  As it was a two storey building, which Collits’ Inn is not, I checked back with State Rail photos and found that it actually should have said “The Victoria Inn at the bottom of Victoria Pass”! It was a sharp lesson in the necessity of checking back to original documents.
2.	Once the history is done, have an initial interview with the client and the heritage architect to explore the approach based on the heritage potential of the project.
3.	When plans are prepared, the client and perhaps the architect, could have a further meeting at the H.O. to discuss any controversial aspects.
4.	Once this is done, leave any changes to be decided between the client and the architect.  If the architect is a trained heritage professional, then he should be aware of doing the right thing.  This would avoid the 40 day wait, the Section 60 applications and all the additional expense and waiting involved.
5.	Archaeology is a very difficult area – it is obviously important but at what cost?  To find a few pins at $1,000 expense to the client would not be worth it for instance..  We were expected to have a professional sitting there each day that we disturbed the ground.  This was impossible at $500 per day, so we agreed that we would contact an archaeologist if we saw anything of interest.  It is impossible for many people to pay that sort of money when the whole project is far more expensive than a non-heritage building.  We also were disturbed that metal detectors could not be used as history would be being lost because small items such as coins or military buttons would not be seen or found any other way and much of the ground had to be disturbed. The only other way to find them would be by digging and sifting, obviously prohibitively expensive so could not be done. Most of the history of Australia lies lightly on the ground and most of it in that area lies in coins and military buttons as there were so many soldiers in the various stockades in the area.
6.	I would also encourage the Heritage Office to be aware that people who take on these things are often doing it for the love of it and they need to be encouraged, trusted, congratulated (if they have done a good job) and thanked as much as possible for what they are doing.

I thoroughly support the concept of a Heritage Office and am sorry these remarks are so negative, but the truth can only be helpful I think.  

Christine Stewart  21st July, 2005