Talking up the importance of preserving our urban heritage

Before Melbourne had historic buildings legislation, pretty much anyone could pull down anything they wanted, according to Professorial Fellow in the University of Melbourne’s School of Culture and Communication, Gerard Vaughan.

“There were massive changes to Melbourne in the 1950s, 60s and 70s: as a schoolboy I watched whole parts of Melbourne disappear before my eyes,” Professor Vaughan says.

“In those days the National Trust in Victoria led the charge, and fought heroic battles, most of which were unsuccessful. The heritage debate has been raging ever since,” he says.

Strong debate continues today concerning how the heritage planning system works, the roles of the Minister for Planning, Heritage Victoria, and the Melbourne City Council, in the context of needing to balance the protection of the best urban built heritage with the need for new buildings and facilities in a major commercial centre.

So it’s a good time to explore the issues and, Professor Vaughan says, the University of Melbourne is ideally placed to host a forthcoming conversation between local, interstate and international experts, bringing together the heritage lobby, politicians and bureaucrats, architects and architectural historians, and the property development sector.

It will also be an opportunity for members of the community with a general interest in built heritage to get an informed and up-to-date perspective on these issues.

Presented by the Australian Institute of Art History, based at the University of Melbourne, ‘An International Conference to explore approaches to the preservation of urban built heritage, with a focus on Melbourne,’ will take place over three days: 30 September, and 1-2 October.

“It’s not about criticising the process of new developments; it’s about working with it,” Professor Vaughan says. 

“The University is a very natural host for such a discussion, which is intended to be a civic discourse, gathering together all the stakeholders. 

“The University is part of the city of Melbourne, geographically embedded in the city, and it also manages significant heritage building stock of its own. And, like the city of Melbourne, it has its own chequered history in relation to its historic buildings.”

Professor Vaughan says this conference is about trying to understand what the issues are, what the processes are, what their history is, and whether there might be better, more efficient ways of dealing with the heritage debate, in a better informed civic arena, so that decisions about what can and can’t be changed, altered and demolished are presented and argued transparently.

“There appears to be a lot of uncertainty, and if that can be replaced with certainty then we’ll be in a much stronger position in terms of managing the architectural future of the city of Melbourne.”

In the spirit of this aim, the Lord Mayor Robert Doyle and the Minister for Planning, Matthew Guy, are focusing on the respective roles of the City of Melbourne and the Minister. The City of Melbourne has also provided a grant to enable several high-profile international speakers to attend the conference and speak about heritage concerns and processes overseas, and there will be a special emphasis on urban heritage in Asian cities on the first day.

The keynote speaker, Professor Andrew Saint, is a senior adviser to English Heritage, and currently General Editor of the influential Survey of London. He is a former Professor of Architecture at Cambridge University.

University speakers include Professor Jaynie Anderson, head of the Australian Institute of Art History, as well as Professors Kate Darian-Smith, Philip Goad and Don Bates from the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, and Shane Carmody of the Baillieu Library.

While Dr Vaughan’s professional interests have been concerned with management of museums, he grew up in Melbourne and has had a lifelong interest in both its historic and contemporary architecture, so this is an issue of great interest to him.

“It’s worth reflecting on the history of the urban heritage debate in Melbourne. If you look at the history of architecture in the CBD, every generation has replaced buildings of the previous generations.

“The buildings of the 1850s and 60s were replaced in the property boom of the 1880s. A lot of good buildings were then pulled down after 20 or 30 years, and that’s gone on ever since.

“We need to accept there will be a mixture of old and new buildings in a commercial centre like Melbourne, but it’s about asking ‘How can this process take place in an ordered, predictable and reasonable way?’

“It’s about certainty, which is crucially important. On one hand, we have a legislative structure that supports it, on the other, we have unending public outcries concerning the demolition of historic buildings.”

The conference will be a forum for contributors and attendees to speak their minds and voice concerns, to get everyone talking to each other.

“We would like to see discussion about the quality of architecture in the City of Melbourne,” Professor Vaughan says. “Today’s new buildings will be tomorrow’s heritage. We need a renewed sense of a civic vision for Melbourne’s architecture.”

One and three-day conference tickets are still available. Click here for more information and registration.