Heritage Register

Heritage Register

Queensland’s culture and history is reflected by the heritage places and spaces. This history and culture is our connection to our past, shapes our present and gives us a sense of community.

Established in the 1960s, places which have cultural heritage significance to Queensland have been put on the Heritage Register list. 

There are many different types of Heritage Registers in Queensland! We classify our registers as statutory (when they provide legal protection for a place or object) and non-statutory (when they give recognition of significance only, but provide no actual legal protection).

What list is your heritage site on?

  • The Register of the National Trust (non-statutory)
  • The (Former) Register of the National Estate (non-statutory)
  • Australian Institute of Architecture’s Queensland Chapter
    Register of Significant 20th Century Architecture (non-statutory)
  • Queensland Heritage Register (statutory, for places of state heritage significance)
  • Local Government Heritage registers (statutory, for places of local heritage significance)
  • Commonwealth Heritage List (statutory, for places owned or managed by the Commonwealth Government)
  • National Heritage List (statutory, for places of outstanding value to the nation)
  • World Heritage List (for places of universal, outstanding value)

A Register is never full or complete!

A Heritage Register is never full!

Heritage Registers are also a product of the amount of resources put into them – there is no organisation that has undertaken a complete and thorough survey of every place across the whole of Queensland to assess its significance.  The Registers are a representation of what is important.  Just because something is not on the register does not mean it is not important – it may simply mean that its significance has not yet been recorded, recognised or assessed.

Heritage registers are evolving documents – each generation comes to value different things and our appreciation of the diversity of heritage places expands and grows each year. This is why it is important to keep evaluating our registers and make sure they include places that represent the diversity of society and its values. 

This register is one of the National Trust’s greatest achievements! In the 1960s, the National Trust started a list of buildings worthy of preservation – there were no statutory heritage lists at the time and no heritage legislation – the National Trust Register was all that communities had to prove the importance of a heritage place.

The list has grown to include more than 1200 heritage sites across Queensland, many of which are now protected on statutory heritage registers. The National Trust Register is an authoritative and recognised statement on a place’s heritage significance.

If you have any enquiries about places on our register or any archival material related to them, please contact heritage@nationaltrustqld.org

Search the NTAQ Heritage Register

It took more than 25 years after the National Trust started its own register for Queensland to enact heritage protection and prepare statutory heritage registers. The Queensland Heritage Act, 1992 established the Queensland Heritage Register, which now has more than 1,700 places listed on it.

The Queensland Heritage Register provides legal protection for the places on it – it is the state’s strongest statutory register and protects places that are important to the history and development of Queensland.

The National Trust regularly nominates places to the Queensland Heritage Register – in 2019, we successfully nominated our Toowoomba property Harris House to the Queensland Heritage Register so that its significance will be protected for future generations.

Important! If you are concerned about a development affecting a place or about the condition of a place on the Queensland Heritage Register – please call 1300 130 372 to lodge your concern (this number of for the Queensland’s government Pollution Hotline, which is the same hotline for heritage places).

Search the Queensland Heritage Register.

The National Heritage List is Australia’s list of natural, historic and Indigenous places of outstanding value to the nation.

There are only 116 places on the National Heritage List – these are the places that represent Australia’s national identity and tell the story of our nation.

The National Trust is currently in the process of nominating Reconciliation Rocks in Cooktown to the National Heritage List – you can read more about this remarkable place and our nomination here

Search the National Heritage List

This is a list of Indigenous, historic and natural heritage places owned or controlled by the Australian Government.

These include places connected to defence, maritime safety, communications, customs and other government activities that also reflect Australia’s development as a nation.

Search the Common wealth Heritage List

World heritage sites that are nominated for World Heritage listing are inscribed on the list only after they have been carefully assessed as representing the best examples of the world’s cultural and natural heritage. Australia currently has 19 sites on the World Heritage List, many of which are located in Queensland including Australian Fossil Mammal Sites, Fraser Island, Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, Great Barrier Reef, and Wet Tropics of Queensland.

For more information visit the UNESCO website.