HERITAGE is only about one thing: significance. This is often misunderstood by owners or developers who fear heritage-listing ossifies items in a time capsule. A lot of developers think a good block is an empty block despite emerging trends to re-use our 19^th century warehouse buildings as apartments, a key growth and investment area.

In fact, Sydney Council’s planning rules allow adaptive re-uses which encourage changes to items but still retain their “significance”. This is what conservation means. Significance takes many forms: archaeological (underground items), social (connected with important people), historical (connected with important past event), architectural (important designs or designers) and technical (important use of new materials).

There is no age limit on a heritage item. And anything can become a heritage item, even a lock of Captain Cook’s hair. Heritage can even include whole suburbs.

The Elizabeth Bay and Rushcutters Bay Heritage Conservation Area is a heritage item.

Elizabeth Bay and Rushcutters Bay have significance for their original street pattern of nineteenth century marine villas and grand residences and terraces of late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Rockwall and Elizabeth Bay House (both 1830s) are prime examples of grand colonial mansions. Jenner, Bomerah and Tarana, and Victoria Street’s grand 1840s to 1880s terraces are examples.

The area has significance for a second overlay of early to mid-twentieth century apartment housing. Together with Potts Point, nowhere else in Australia were apartments built to this height or level of density. Birtley Towers (Art Deco), Marlborough Hall (Modernist), Cahors, (Modernist/Art Deco), Vanderbilt (Neo-Georgian classical revival) are examples.

These two periods represent the largest proportion of the built area and create streetscapes of strong urban form and Victorian, Federation and Inter-war character.

The heritage listing notes: “the area provides building types which represent the last 150 years of development and co-oexist in a harmonious way, despite the intrusive nature of later high-rise towers whose impact is disproportionate. The area provides a highly cohesive character although the towers visually dominate the background of low scale streetscapes.”

The implications are that changes can be made which don’t destroy street patterns or visually jar with the area’s characteristics.

This gives increased clarity, certainty and cohesiveness to the planning process.

I call these principles The Three Cs.

And they give potential purchasers some comfort in knowing that what they buy and see is what they are getting and often keeping for their future enjoyment: heritage can never go out of style.  All this in a dense urban area embraced and caressed by Sydney Harbour and part of Australia’s first suburb. The area is not just unique: it’s exceptional.

By Andrew Woodhouse, Director, Heritage Solutions