Response to Heritage Tasmania Listing backhaul in Tasmania

10 Murray Street (pictured) was nominated for heritage status in 2002, but due to a backhaul of over 2300 applications it hasn't been assessed and is at risk of demolition.

It has been reported in the local newspaper (see news story here) that there are nearly 2300 heritage submissions to review, and that only a handful of these submissions are reviewed in a year.

Below is my response to the story:

I find it absurd that the Tasmanian Heritage Council has nearly 2300 applications to assess and that it can only get through a handful a year.

For Mr Lynch to say that it wouldn't have been fair to shift the goal posts all of a sudden in assessing 10 Murray Street, because the development had already begun, highlights the inadequacies of a Government department that should be there to effectively protect our built heritage.

I ask Mr Lynch why he believes that 10 Murray Street was never an assessment priority? How does the Heritage Council assess buildings of importance and significance? Is it only those that are built of sandstone or from the 1800s perhaps?

The heritage process is meant to work whereby the public can nominate buildings. In the meantime a prospective developer can purchase a site and effectively bypass heritage concerns, because the Tasmanian Heritage Council, for whatever reason, cannot process applications quickly enough.

To have 2300 applications awaiting processing is absurd and ridiculous, and some serious questions need to be answered if our heritage is to really be protected.