International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)
21st General Assembly and Scientific Symposium (GA2023)
ICOMOS GA2023 Program
Haberfield Seminar
Don't miss these incredible tour opportunities 
Sydney and its surrounds will be highlighted during your stay in this remarkable city, with multiple prospects to explore its heritage places and attractions.
Now is the time to consider registering for the pre and post conference tours, many of which are filling up. We take this opportunity to bring the following range of tours to your attention, which include programs that cover multiple heritage interests and extraordinary experiences of Australia and Australian people. Registration for tours must close soon, so act quickly.
Visit our website here to find a full list of tours. To register for any of these tours, use the direct link below.
The spirit of the nation's cultural and democratic landscape
Canberra – Australia’s National Capital – is one of the world’s great twentieth-century planned city landscapes. It hosts many of Australia’s premier historic public buildings, reflected in listings on Australia’s National Heritage List. The 1912-1913 Walter Burley and Marion Mahony Griffin designed city blends harmoniously with natural bush settings and planned landscapes to provide an expression of Australia’s shared democratic ambitions. The area chosen for the capital had been inhabited by Indigenous Australians for up to 21,000 years, with the principal group being the Ngunnawal people. The city is inseparable from Indigenous landscape and values, and the word "Canberra" is derived from the name of a local Ngunnawal clan who were referred to by the early British colonists as either the Canberry or Nganbra tribe.
Aerial shot of parliament house | Photo courtesy of Tourism Australia
A culture-nature journey through time
Victoria hosts an extraordinary diversity of World and National Heritage landscapes, from the World Heritage listed Royal Exhibition Building and Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, to the nationally listed Great Ocean Road cultural route. The Goldfields World Heritage bid is a current and important objective, and all connect with other significant places and stories. Traditional Owners will present their stories and understandings, with input from specialist guides and managers to engage with the multiple cultural values and stories of each place and the rich landscapes within which they are found.
Budj Bim Cultural Landscape | Photo courtesy of Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation
The Hawkesbury Region highlighting its vernacular and colonial architecture
The Hawkesbury Valley region in Western Sydney was the third area to be settled by colonists. Within a few weeks of settlement at Port Jackson in 1788, Governor Phillip decided that new viable farming land was a matter of urgency if the colony was to grow and prosper. His search party explored the river called “Deerubbun” by the Aboriginal people, but which Phillip later named the Hawkesbury. The Hawkesbury Valley was settled in 1794. Today it is a landscape steeped in the heritage of Australia with the area rich with early to mid-19th century wood technology, vernacular buildings and historically significant farmhouses and associated outbuildings. 
St Bartholomew’s Cemetery | Photo courtesy of NSW Blacktown City Council
The hidden history of Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Training Home and the Macleay Valley
This tour provides insights and a significant engagement with the important stories and views of history that connect to the heritage listed Stolen Generations site, the Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Training Home, and reveals the depth of its personal and social impacts. Further exploration of the Macleay Valley will place the events within past and ongoing cultural and historical contexts. While providing a deep understanding of mechanisms that characterised and directed approaches to the Stolen Generation, this tour also highlights the contrast between popular Australian historical themes and the relative invisibility of 60,000 years of Aboriginal history and culture.
Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Training Home survivors | Photo by Peter Solness
What is SBH?
The ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Shared Built Heritage (ISCSBH) was set up to promote greater protection and conservation of the shared heritage built over time by different cultures and civilisations with different social and religious backgrounds. For this purpose, the ISCSBH researches and fosters discussion on the understanding of ‘shared’ and on the management of historical built legacies resulting from multicultural encounters and mutual influences. The group is relatively young, having started in 1998 as the Scientific Committee on Shared Colonial Architecture and Town Planning, and changing its name in 2003 to reflect more open objectives.
In some cases, shared heritage is at the centre of identity narratives constructed by different communities and nations; in others, it is the source of tension, and is therefore neglected. The aim of the scientific group is therefore to understand how shared heritage is valued and promote its revitalization, rehabilitation, and conservation, encouraging the use of existing structures and of traditional building techniques as much as possible.
To this end, the ISCSBH organises meetings, debates, study visits, symposia, and conferences with the aim of disseminating the state of the art in various technical, scientific and academic fields, promoting the exchange of knowledge and, through thematic workshops, trying to instill a taste and curiosity for heritage conservation among young people and emerging graduates.
