Overview
This consultation is now closed.
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water have prepared draft guidelines for working in the near and offshore environment to protect underwater cultural heritage.
These guidelines aim to:
provide direction on addressing legislative obligations for proponents of near and offshore developments
promote best practice for identifying, assessing, and protecting underwater cultural heritage in Australian waters.
The guidelines include information to proponents on:
what their requirements are under the Underwater Cultural Heritage Act 2018
how they should identify, assess, and protect underwater cultural heritage in Australian waters
what is expected of them when they undertake activities to identify and assess Australia’s underwater cultural heritage
how they should implement management strategies to avoid or reduce the risk of impacts to this protected resource.
The guidelines have been designed to provide high-level process advice in the first few pages. The remainder of the document gives detailed guidance on undertaking underwater cultural heritage impact assessments, recommended documentation requirements, and mitigating and managing potential impacts.
We sought feedback on the draft guidelines from 31 March to 12 May 2023.
Your feedback will help inform our final guidelines which we expect to release later in 2023.
If you would like to discuss the guidelines, please contact: UnderwaterHeritage@dcceew.gov.au
