It isn't just that the building itself was priceless and irreplaceable. It was also home to tens of thousands of artworks, artifacts and relics at the heart of the rise of western civilisation.

While the extent of the damage is not known, it could take months to catalogue what is salvageable and what has been destroyed, France is experiencing a true Joni Mitchell moment. You don't know what you've got until it's gone.

Notre-Dame's foundation stone was laid by Pope Alexander III in 1163. It took another 200 years for the iconic towers to soar above the skyline of Paris.

During the 856 years since construction began the massive structure has served as a stage for the the pomp and circumstance surrounding the births, deaths and marriages of the rulers of what was, for many centuries, the most powerful nation in Europe.

It has witnessed wars, plagues and revolutions and, most importantly, served as a sermon in stone for the ordinary people of Paris who were able to trace the stories of the gospels in its carvings and the many pictures on its walls.

Notre-Dame, like Paris itself, belongs to the whole world.

This is why calls by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten for an Australian fund for tax-free donations to help with the restoration deserve support.

While the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, is right in stating that as a rich nation France should be able to pick up the tab, the reality is thousands of Australians of all faiths want to help out.

Closer to home, the Paris fire is a timely reminder that although we do not have buildings of this antiquity or magnificence, Australia is the custodian for many unique landscapes, national parks and cultural sites of global significance.

These include the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu and the Daintree.

And, as the home to the oldest surviving culture on earth, we are also responsible for the preservation of indigenous sites including the magnificent rock art of the Pilbara's Burrup peninsula. Burrup may actually bear comparison with Notre Dame in that it is home to more than one million paintings and petroglyphs, some of which date back up to 50,000 years.

While neither the reef or the Pilbara rock art are things that can be destroyed overnight in an unforeseen fire, our track record on both has been very average to date.

Despite the fact the Pilbara paintings and carvings are already under threat from emissions from heavy industry they are not expected to be referred to UNESCO for a world heritage listing before 2021.

The Great Barrier Reef, one of the seven natural wonders of the world which gained its World Heritage listing in 1981, is under even more imminent threat.

An archipelago of 3000 individual reefs, 760 fringe reefs, 600 tropical islands and about 300 coral cays, it is the only living organism on earth that can be seen from outer space.

Thanks to coral bleaching caused by global warming and other damage from farm pollution and industrialisation, 29 per cent of the shallow water corals died in the summer of 2015-16. A further 20 per cent died the following year.

It's definitely time we lifted our game.