Cultural heritage & Native Title
VicRoads works with Aboriginal parties, authorities, and other interest groups to protect cultural heritage and Native Title rights on road projects.
About cultural heritage and Native Title
Cultural heritage can be described as places and objects of significance to past human activities, practices and beliefs.
Native Title recognises that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia continue to hold rights to land and waters that arise from their traditional laws and customs such as hunting, access and ceremonial rights.
How we protect cultural heritage and Native Title
We do this through:
- surveys during planning to identify significant sites so that project designs or alignments can be altered as appropriate, to avoid or minimise impact
- tenure history searches to identify potential impacts on native title
- stakeholder consultation on identified cultural heritage sites and native title issues
- management plans and agreements for road projects impacting on cultural heritage
- maintenance of key heritage sites including restoring and strengthening old bridges
- relocating scarred trees and recording and salvaging artefacts such as stone tools or shell middens
- recognition and interpretation initiatives such as road and roadside asset naming
- interpretative displays and signage, such as "Welcome to Country"
For more information download our Cultural Heritage guidelines.
VicRoads Cultural Heritage Guidelines 2007 [PDF 2.7 Mb]
VicRoads Guidelines for Interpreting Cultural Heritage [PDF 3.7 Mb]