Ex-chair Duncan Marshall returns to lead interim ACT heritage council

Duncan Marshall will chair the interim council for at least a year while Tasmania-based consultants Stenning & Associates conduct an independent assessment of the territory's heritage arrangements.

Mr Marshall said the new council had a great deal of expertise and strong community connections and was determined to deliver an effective heritage system for the territory and work with the government on reform.

"The ACT's rich and layered heritage is appreciated not just by the local community but by many around Australia. This heritage is entwined in the fabric of the everyday city and its landscapes which bring reflection, enjoyment and a deeper understanding," Mr Marshall said in a statement.

Mr Marshall was previously a member of the council between 2011 and 2015, and chaired the body from 2012.

Heritage Minister Rebecca Vassarotti said the diverse group of qualified and experienced Canberrans appointed to the interim council had been selected through a rigorous recruitment process.

"All of the Council members bring unique expertise in diverse areas of heritage, including architecture, natural resource management, Aboriginal and European cultural heritage, archaeology, and nature conservation, as well as community and Aboriginal representation," Ms Vassarotti said.

The other members of the interim council are: Catherine Skippington, deputy chair and community representative; Karen Demmery, Aboriginal community representative; Rachael O'Neill, property ownership, management and development sector representative; Doug Williams, member with expertise in archaeology and Aboriginal culture; Kate Clark, member with expertise in archaeology; Alanna King, member with expertise in architecture; David Hobbes, a heritage architect; and, Alistair Henchman, member with expertise in architecture and nature conservation.

"I look forward to formally inducting each of the council members in the coming weeks, and continuing the work with them to embed ACT's unique heritage values as a vital part of our growing and dynamic city," Ms Vassarotti said.

Mr Marshall and another former heritage council chair, Dr Michael Pearson, told an ACT parliamentary inquiry into the ACT's heritage system in a February submission that more resources were needed to proactively manage heritage sites.

Mr Marshall and Dr Pearson wrote one of the most important challenges was the need to reset the conversation in Canberra about heritage.

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"There is a lingering and powerful view that heritage is a problem, not an opportunity, and that heritage is for the elite few rather than the broad community," the pair's submission said.

The pair said despite Canberra's community being generally well educated, there continued to be an "impoverished dialogue about the value of our heritage, its conservation and sympathetic integration with a modern society".

The pair's submission to the Legislative Assembly's standing committee on environment, climate change and biodiversity said the current heritage register was not fit for purpose, and the government needed to clarify the role and direction of the heritage council and heritage unit.

The standing committee in December launched a review of the ACT's heritage arrangements after Ms Vassarotti moved to sack the previous heritage council, after a consultants' report found evidence of "unprofessional" behaviour.

The report found strained relationships between the heritage council and inefficient heritage systems presented an "imminent risk to ACT heritage sites".

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