The information below explains the process for identifying what is World Heritage and how Australia applies the requirements of the World Heritage Convention and the Operational Guidelines for the Convention’s implementation.
A successful World Heritage listing process will take at least 2 and a half years from Tentative Listing. The process used in Australia is summarised in the following diagram, click on the image to enlarge.
International context
Identifying what is worthy of World Heritage listing involves the assessment of whether a property has Outstanding Universal Value or OUV.
According to the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention, ‘Outstanding Universal Value means cultural and/or natural significance which is so exceptional as to transcend national boundaries and to be of common importance for present and future generations of all humanity’.
In determining whether a property is worthy of World Heritage listing, the World Heritage Committee and its Advisory Bodies consider whether the property meets:
- one or more of the ten World Heritage criteria (OG Paragraphs 77-78)
- the conditions of integrity and/or authenticity (OG Paragraphs 79-95)
- the requirements for protection and management (OG Paragraphs 96-119)
All three must be in place for a property to be judged to have Outstanding Universal Value.
The Convention requests that States Parties identify the cultural and natural heritage in their territory. The determination of the significance and OUV of the property follows the process set out in the Operational Guidelines.
These guidelines are regularly updated and all current and prospective World Heritage property managers need to be familiar with them.
World Heritage criteria
The ten World Heritage criteria are always referenced as lower case Roman numerals in brackets:
(i) to represent a masterpiece of human creative genius;
(ii) to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design;
(iii) to bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared;
(iv) to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history;
(v) to be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change;
(vi) to be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance. (The Committee considers that this criterion should preferably be used in conjunction with other criteria);
(vii) to contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance;
(viii) to be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features;
(ix) to be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals;
(x) to contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation.
Here is a summary of procedures in the Operational Guidelines relating to the identification of World Heritage:
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Tentative Listing (OG Paragraphs 62-76)
States Parties are requested to prepare a Tentative List of properties they consider to have Outstanding Universal Value and may decide to nominate in future years. The reason for this is so that States Parties can manage their own forward work and indicate this to the World Heritage Committee, World Heritage Centre and Advisory Bodies to the Committee (ICOMOS and IUCN). A full list of properties on States Parties Tentative Lists worldwide is available on the World Heritage Centre’s website.
States Parties are also encouraged to consult with the relevant Advisory Bodies in their country to ensure properties on the Tentative List are credible, and with relevant communities to indicate broad support for a future World Heritage nomination and listing.
A template for Tentative List submissions is provided in the Operational Guidelines and on the World Heritage Centre website. The World Heritage Centre’s deadline for States Parties to submit or update their Tentative Lists is 1 February each year, but they can be submitted at any point in the year. A submission for the Tentative List is not the same as a formal World Heritage nomination.
Nomination (OG Paragraphs 120-152)
A format for World Heritage nominations is provided in Annex 5 of the Operational Guidelines. Guidance is also provided in the Resource Manual Preparing World Heritage Nominations available on the World Heritage Centre’s website.
It is important that the nomination presents a robust comparative analysis of the claims of the nominated property against other properties internationally, including those that are on the World Heritage List and Tentative Lists.
Properties must have been on the Tentative List for at least 12 months prior to a nomination being submitted to the World Heritage Centre. The deadline for nominations is 1 February each year but should be submitted in September to allow the World Heritage Centre to check whether a nomination is complete.
Evaluation (OG Paragraphs 143-151)
Once a nomination is accepted as complete, the World Heritage Centre then coordinates a process of evaluation by the relevant Advisory Bodies to the Committee (ICOMOS and IUCN) before preparing a draft decision for the World Heritage Committee’s consideration. In this process, topic experts from the Advisory Bodies examine the claims presented in the nomination dossier in an international context and make recommendations to the World Heritage Committee on whether the claims are justified and what issues may need to be addressed prior to or after listing. They also provide input to a recommended Statement of Outstanding Universal Value which will be put to the World Heritage Committee for decision (see below).
Decision (OG Paragraphs 153-160)
Decisions on whether to inscribe properties on the World Heritage List rest with the World Heritage Committee which meets annually in the middle of the year. Due to the time required for a nomination to be evaluated, nominations submitted in February of one year will not be considered by the World Heritage Committee until the middle of the following year.
Statements of Outstanding Universal Value (OG Paragraph 154)
It is now standard practice that the World Heritage Committee’s decision to include a property on the World Heritage List includes the adoption of a Statement of Outstanding Universal Value (SOUV) for the property. This Statement is the key reference for effective protection and management of the property into the future. For properties included on the World Heritage List prior to this requirement and without a Statement of OUV, the Committee has requested that Retrospective Statements of OUV (RSOUVs) be prepared.
Modifications (OG Paragraphs 163-167)
If a State Party wishes to extend an existing World Heritage property and the area involved represents a proportionally small increase (eg less than 10%) this is regarded as a minor boundary modification. If a boundary modification represents a more significant increase in area or a change to the criteria is proposed, then a renomination is required.
Australian context
As a federation of states and territories, Australia has a collaborative approach to world heritage. As the state party to the world heritage convention, it is the Australian Government that is responsible for contact with the World Heritage Centre and World Heritage Committee. This includes updating its tentative list and submitting world heritage nomination dossiers prepared by the relevant state or territory governments. Australia has 20 properties on the World Heritage List.
Australia’s World Heritage Tentative List
Australia’s World Heritage Tentative List is registered with the World Heritage Centre. This list provides an indication of what nominations Australia intends to pursue in future years. A property can only be nominated for world heritage listing if it has been on the Tentative List for at least 1 year.
Updating Australia’s World Heritage Tentative List is an ongoing process where the Australian Government seeks submissions from the state and territory governments which are encouraged to consult with community and stakeholder groups as well as the Australian committees of the relevant advisory bodies (ICOMOS and IUCN).
The state and territory governments are responsible for submitting proposals for the Tentative List to the Australian Government and undertaking the necessary research and consultation to support the case for tentative listing. The Australian Government is responsible for submitting updates to its Tentative List to the World Heritage Centre.
At the meeting of Environment Ministers in 2015 it was agreed to retain the current extensions to the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia and K'gari (Fraser Island) (Great Sandy Region) World Heritage areas on the Tentative List. Ministers also agreed to explore potential nominations for Cape York, subject to community and Traditional Owner views (Queensland), and the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape (Victoria). Ministers noted the Northern Territory’s intention to pursue a nomination for the Tjorita/West MacDonnell National Park for the World Heritage Tentative List.
States undertook to conduct further research and consult with community and key stakeholder groups to prove that a credible case for World Heritage List inscription can be mounted before properties can be added to the Tentative List. NSW undertook to progress consideration of Royal National Park for the Tentative List. Australian Government officials will continue to consult with jurisdictions on a number of other properties that might be included in the update to the Tentative List.
In November 2019, the meeting of Environment Ministers agreed to support the addition of Murujuga on Australia’s World Heritage Tentative List and it was formally included on the list in January 2020. With more than one million images, Murujuga (the Dampier Archipelago and surrounds) has the world’s largest, densest and most diverse concentrations of rock art carvings in the world.
A World Heritage nomination for the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape was prepared by the Victorian Government and the Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation with technical support from the Australian Government. In July 2019, the World Heritage Committee inscribed Budj Bim Cultural Landscape on the World Heritage List, making it the first Australian place listed solely for Indigenous cultural values.
Preparing World Heritage nominations
The Australian Government, as the State Party to the World Heritage Convention, is responsible for submitting a World Heritage nomination. Before a World Heritage nomination can be submitted, tentative listings and nominations are first agreed with the relevant states and territories who take the lead in preparing the nomination documentation or dossier. The states and territories also undertake the necessary consultation to achieve a credible nomination with broad support. Nomination dossiers need to follow the format provided in the Operational Guidelines (Paragraphs 129-133) and include:
- Identification of the property
- Description of the property
- Justification for its inscription, including justification against the criteria, integrity and authenticity and a comparative analysis of the property’s claims against other properties internationally
- State of conservation and factors affecting the property
- Protection and management
- Monitoring
- Documentation (e.g. attaching maps and a management plan(s))
- Contact information for the responsible authorities
Identifying World Heritage in the EPBC Act
The Environment Protection & Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) outlines the way Australia implements the World Heritage Convention. Once a property is inscribed on the World Heritage List it can then be gazetted under the EPBC Act as a World Heritage property. The Act provides for the protection and management of the ‘World Heritage values’ of the property.
These ‘World Heritage values’ are derived from the Statement of OUV for the property approved by the World Heritage Committee. If a property does not yet have an approved Statement of OUV, the ‘World Heritage values’ under the Act are derived from the inscription decision(s) for the property and more recent documentation of values that are identified as fitting the criteria for which the property was listed. All approved Statements of OUV are included in the World Heritage property documentation on the World Heritage Centre website.
When looking at how to prepare a Statement of OUV or interpret and use it for management purposes, it is important to remember that the Outstanding Universal Value of the property is not just a catalogue of important features. OUV encompasses the whole of the property, including its integrity and authenticity. In other words, the OUV of a property is more than the sum of its parts.
Best practice
The World Heritage Operational Guidelines encourage States Parties to ensure that all relevant people with rights and interests in the property be included in building a consensus of support for World Heritage nominations. This includes Traditional Owners, local communities and owners and occupiers of the area.
The standard for World Heritage listing is very high and not all the values of a particular property will reach that standard or threshold, even if some do. Other values found within the property may find recognition through other levels or forms of listing or promotion. For example, a property may be World Heritage listed for its historical OUV and yet significant species threatened at a state level may be found within the property. Or a World Heritage property listed for natural values may include Indigenous cultural values or historic buildings listed at a state or local level or may not yet be recognised in any listing. These different values contribute to the whole story of why the place is special and may be recognised or promoted in other ways, even if they are not formally recognised as of outstanding universal value through World Heritage listing.
More information
The Department produced a factsheet on OUV in 2012.
A more recent document from the Department relating to the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area also includes information on the definition of OUV (see pages 4-5).
The Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Committee (ICCROM, ICOMOS and IUCN) together with UNESCO have published a number of best practice resource manuals. These are available on the UNESCO World Heritage Centre website including:
Preparing World Heritage Nominations (2nd ed. 2011)
In 1994 the World Heritage Committee adopted a Global Strategy for a Representative, Balanced and Credible World Heritage List. By adopting the Global Strategy, the World Heritage Committee wanted to broaden the definition of World Heritage to better reflect the full spectrum of our world’s cultural and natural treasures and to provide a comprehensive framework and operational methodology for implementing the World Heritage Convention.
A review of the Global Strategy and previous decisions of the World Heritage Committee on other nominations is also recommended when undertaking a comparative analysis. These are available on the UNESCO World Heritage Centre website.
In 2008, ICOMOS published a study What is OUV? Defining the Outstanding Universal Value of Cultural World Heritage Properties. This study explains in more detail what authenticity and integrity mean for cultural properties and how OUV differs from significance.
In 2012 the Australian Committee of IUCN published Keeping the Outstanding Exceptional: the Future of World Heritage in Australia.
ICOMOS is developing an on-line collection of best practice documents. The entries identify the range of work being done world-wide to simultaneously advance the development of heritage principles and technical research that is worth sharing to assist the conservation of cultural heritage in all the ICOMOS fields of expertise.
- ICOMOS scientific toolkits
IUCN is also adding to their online collection of best practice documents and has made available their databases (for example threatened species) online.
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre has also published a series of World Heritage Papers with several providing useful background references for identifying OUV and comparing properties internationally.
- 5 - Identification and Documentation of Modern Heritage (2003)
- 24 - Rock Art in the Caribbean (2008)
- 26 - World Heritage Cultural Landscapes – A Handbook for Conservation and Management (2009)
- 29 - Human Evolution: Adaptations, Dispersals and Social Developments (HEADS) (2011)
- 32 - Assessing Marine World Heritage from an Ecosystem Perspective (2012)
- 33 - Human origin sites and the World Heritage Convention in Africa (2012)
- 39 - Human origin sites and the World Heritage Convention in Asia (2014)
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- Research, Comparative analysis, Upstream advice, Consultation
- Tentative List submission from State/Territory
- Tentative listing by Australia
- Nomination dossier prepared by State/Territory, submitted by Australia
- Completion check by World Heritage Centre
- Evaluation by Advisory Bodies
- Listing by World Heritage Committee