Challenging Heritage or Heritage Challenges, Draft Strategy
Have your say on Melbourne's draft Heritage Strategy.
Help us shape our final Melbourne Heritage Strategy. Have your say by 5pm Monday 16 June 2025.
We’re developing a new heritage strategy to plan how we acknowledge the distinctive heritage of our city, for the next 10 years and beyond.
As our city evolves, it's more important than ever to recognise the value of heritage and the places that tell our shared story.
Our Draft Melbourne Heritage Strategy focuses on the positive role heritage can play in responding to key challenges facing our city, including climate change and the housing crisis.
It highlights the importance of understanding community connections to the city’s stories and places to better plan for the future.
In 2024 we prepared and consulted on the Heritage People and Place Discussion Paper (Discussion Paper) to start a conversation about how we shape our new Heritage Strategy. Feedback received from diverse voices of the community, business and government informed the preparation of the Draft Melbourne Heritage Strategy: Stories of People and Place (Draft Melbourne Heritage Strategy), which is now open for consultation from Monday 5 May until Monday 16 June 2025.
The Events section below has links to upcoming events, including 'Challenging heritage or heritage challenges?: A Panel Conversation'.
Have your say
Consultation for the Draft Melbourne Heritage Strategy: Stories of People and Place is now open.
Explore the Draft Melbourne Heritage Strategy then get involved by:
- Taking part in upcoming consultation events.
- Having your say via the online survey below.
Consultation closes 5pm Monday 16 June 2025.
Melbourne's Draft Heritage Strategy outlines five ‘priorities’, developed in response to feedback received on the Heritage People and Place Discussion Paper.
- Aboriginal Heritage - Ensuring Aboriginal culture is prominent in all our heritage activities
- Powerful Experiences - Sharing the layers of knowledge, history and stories of Melbourne
- Distinctive Places - Heritage should continue to be legible and inform city growth
- Climate and Biodiversity Emergency - Can we adapt heritage places to operate sustainably in a changing climate.
Stewardship - Caring for our heritage places and appreciating their wider public value
Explore the draft strategy here - Draft Melbourne Heritage Strategy | Melbourne Heritage Strategy | Participate Melbourne
Join us in celebrating World Environment Day with a panel discussion:
Challenging Heritage or Heritage Challenges?: A Panel Conversation
Amid a housing and climate crisis and in light of evolving social values, how can heritage adapt to contemporary challenges while preserving what we love about Melbourne? This conversation will explore the complexities of achieving meaningful heritage outcomes. It will examine how we can safeguard and care for our city's heritage, protecting its character and identity, while ensuring heritage places remain relevant to today's needs and for future generations.
In partnership with City of Melbourne, Open House Melbourne is presenting a series of talks, tours and workshops as part of the community consultation for the Draft Melbourne Heritage Strategy: Stories of People and Place.
Join Kerstin Thompson, Director + Principal at KTA, Patrick Kennedy, Principal at Kennedy Nolan, Dr James Lesh, Founding Director of Heritage Workshop in conversation with Jo Cannington, Director City Strategy at the City of Melbourne as they share and unpack challenges facing heritage.
This conversation will explore the complexities of achieving meaningful heritage outcomes. It will examine how we can safeguard and care for our city's heritage—protecting its character and identity—while ensuring heritage places remain relevant to today's needs and for future generations.
Grab tickets here - Challenging Heritage or Heritage Challenges?: A Panel Conversation
