The National Trust in Australia was founded in 1959, and most of us will be aware of the conservation movement and building bans of the 1970s, with the first major public campaigns to save significant buildings from demolition, such as the Regent Theatre on Collins Street. Despite being a dangerous force for the demolition of heritage buildings in the 1970s, the City of Melbourne got its house in order in the early 1980s, with heritage studies across the municipality resulting in a level of protection for more than a thousand buildings. It is no coincidence that this occurred during the only period in the history of the City of Melbourne where the Council's electoral system was democratic and based on residency (1982-1993); since the 1980s studies, and despite the attempts of many Greens and independent Councillors since 2001, the Council has studiously ignored its duty to keep its heritage gradings and reviews up to date. Until now.
A political breakthrough in late 2015 and the appointment of a Greens Councillor in the Heritage portfolio saw the City's heritage staff increase from 0 to 4, and more heritage work than has been undertaken in a generation: the old gradings system is being overhauled to meet contemporary standards and to give planners stronger tools to measure the significance of buildings; the Hoddle Grid and Southbank have undergone their first heritage reviews since 1984, resulting in hundreds of buildings being added to the heritage overlay, and new suburb reviews are on their way as well (with Carlton and North Melbourne currently underway).
All of this has happened at a time that public debates on heritage have evolved quickly. The National Trust has put itself back at the centre of modern heritage debates by nominating Federation Square to the State Heritage Register; a final determination on this is due early next year. The Yarra Building at Fed Square is only 15 years old, and the decision to demolish it was made by the Labor government without any public notice or consultation about the massive change of use, purpose and design of Fed Square - just a secret deal with Apple. Greens at all levels of government have been fighting this appalling approach to the governance of our public spaces.
Heritage shouldn't only be about what is old, it should be about what is rare and what we value as a community. It should also be about preservation in its broader meaning: as Greens, we should be advocating for the retention of built structures as a preference to the construction of new structures, especially where the new structures are not built to last anywhere near as long as the old. In the City of Melbourne, while increasing the amount of built fabric designated for retention, we are also freeing up owners' ability to place solar panels on the roofs of heritage buildings.
And above all, heritage preservation keeps our wonderful city interesting: the CBD's fine grain and human-scaled streets are due to its small plot sizes and the fascinating mix of architecture that this allows. The approach we are taking to heritage at the City of Melbourne is fundamentally green, even if heritage is not thought of as Greens core business: approached the right way, heritage preservation is the pursuit of sustainable development, and can make the densest parts of our city much more liveable. It's an exciting time for heritage in Melbourne and we are excited that the Greens are at the centre of it.