Site Assessment Policy

All places reported to the Registrar of Aboriginal Sites are assessed within the terms of Section 5 of the AHA. The site status is the assessment outcome.

The Register has seven types of site status. These are:

L = Lodged: Lodged with the Registrar, placed on the Register, not assessed.
I = Insufficient Information: Lodged with Registrar, placed on Register, assessed as having insufficient information to complete an assessment within the terms of Section 5 of the AHA.
P = Permanent: Lodged with Registrar, placed on Register, lodged information is assessed as meeting the terms of Section 5 of the AHA.
S = Stored Data: Lodged with Registrar, placed on Register, lodged information is assessed as not meeting the terms of Section 5 of the AHA.
IR = Insufficient Information (as assessed by Site Assessment Group)
PR = Permanent register (as assessed by Site Assessment Group)
SR = Stored data (as assessed by Site Assessment Group)

Site Assessment Group (SAG)

Sites lodged with the Department are assessed under the direction of the Registrar of Aboriginal Sites. These are not to be considered the final assessment. Final assessment will be determined by the Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee (ACMC).

Lodged Data

All places lodged with the Registrar will be placed on the Register and considered as Lodged Data. The letter L will be used in reports from the Register to indicate that a place is Lodged. These places are have not been assessed against Section 5 of the AHA. The provisions of the AHA apply to these places until they are assessed as places to which the AHA does not apply.

Insufficient Information

Places lodged with the Registrar that have insufficient information in order to complete an assessment under Section 5 of the AHA have their status set at Insufficient Information. The letter I will be used in reports from the Register to indicate that a place has a status of Insufficient Information. The provisions of the AHA apply to these places until they are assessed as places to which the AHA does not apply.

The Permanent Register

Places lodged with the Registrar and assessed as meeting the terms of Section 5 are known as Permanent Sites. The letter P will be used in reports from the Register to indicate that a place has a status of Permanent site. These sites are also assessed against the terms of Section 39(2) of the AHA in regard to their importance and significance. Sites on the Permanent Register are places to which the AHA applies.

Stored Data

Places that are assessed as not meeting the terms of Section 5 of the AHA have a status of Stored data in the Register of Aboriginal Sites. The letter S will be used in reports from the Register to indicate that a place has a Stored data status. This is also the case for those places which do not have any Aboriginal association. The provisions of the AHA do not apply to these places unless further information is lodged with the Registrar requiring a reassessment of the place.

Information relating to Stored data is not deleted from the Register, but is retained and displayed for a number of reasons:

It is possible that information provided about a place at one point in time may be incomplete and further information will be provided in the future that may change the assessment of the place.
To alert people to the possibility that even though a place may not meet the terms of the AHA, there may still be some level of Aboriginal heritage value associated with a place.
To identify the location of places reported as sites but assessed as not meeting the terms of the AHA for planning purposes.