Reporting and recording a Site

The Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (AHA) states that anyone has an obligation to report anything that they believe could be an Aboriginal site.

If you believe that you may have come across an Aboriginal site, you should contact the Department of Indigenous Affairs (DIA) and report it to the Registrar.

How to report

DIA and the ACMC encourage you to report a site by lodging the Aboriginal site recording form with the Registrar.

Aboriginal site recording form

Download copies of the Aboriginal site recording form.

The form can be downloaded in either a one page A3 double sided format or a four page single sided A4 format for ease of printing and photocopying; the content is similar.

You can also contact the Registrar to obtain a copy of the form.

Guidelines for recording sites

The use of the form improves the quality and consistency of information the ACMC and DIA use to register and assess places and objects as Aboriginal sites. The form is aimed at ensuring that the ACMC has sufficient information to adequately carry out its functions under the AHA. DIA has produced guidelines that provide more information about filling out the form:

Guidelines how to record an Aboriginal site using the Aboriginal Site recording form

Once the form is completed, you can lodge it with the Registrar of Aboriginal Sites at DIA.

Note
DIA staff may request further information from you to ensure that sufficient and appropriate information is available to the ACMC. Providing this information may be necessary before the application is placed on the agenda of an ACMC meeting.

The management of heritage changes over time and DIA will review the site recording form accordingly. Please make sure to use the most recent version of the Aboriginal site recording form, which can be downloaded from this page.

Site recording in the context of the AHA

The AHA requires that Aboriginal sites are recorded in the Register of Aboriginal Sites. It indicates four categories of places or objects that can be entered into the register:

Places where Aboriginal people have left physical evidence of their presence (S5a).
Places of religious association (S5b).
Places and objects which the ACMC chooses to preserve on behalf of the whole community (S5c).
Places where objects of traditional significance are stored (S5d).

The mere existence of artefacts, engravings, camping grounds or spiritual beings does not automatically mean that reports of their locations/areas to the Registrar will result in these locations being evaluated as sites under the Act by ACMC.

Assessing Aboriginal site recordings

DIA assesses all places that have been lodged with the Registrar of Aboriginal Sites within the terms of Section 5 of the AHA. DIA assessments can only evaluate the relative importance and/or significance of a reported place or object based on the information submitted by a recorder. Therefore, if you record a site, you should provide as much information as you believe necessary to enable a reported place or object to be be assessed as having sufficient importance and/or significance to ensure that it is entered on the Permanent Register.

For more information about site assessments, click here.

Contact

For further information, please contact the Registrar.