According to the NSW Heritage Act 1977, environmental heritage means those places, buildings, works, relics, moveable objects, and precincts, of State or local heritage significance.
Woollahra Council manages items of local heritage significance that are listed on the Woollahra Local Environmental Plan 2014. This includes Heritage Items, Heritage Conservation Areas and Archaeological Items. Find out more about Aboriginal heritage.
Woollahra has a rich and diverse history and natural setting that is represented in Victorian, Federation, Inter-war and post-1950 buildings, precincts and streetscapes complemented by a rich Aboriginal heritage. This environmental heritage has a local, state and, in many instances, a nationally recognised level of significance.
There are over 700 heritage items, comprising individual buildings, structures, trees and landscape features in Woollahra. Woollahra’s Environmental Heritage is listed in Schedule 5 of the Woollahra Local Environmental Plan 2014 (the Woollahra LEP 2014) and identified on the Woollahra LEP 2014 - Heritage maps.
Identifying and listing items of heritage significance are the first steps in protecting and managing places and objects that we, as a community, want to keep. Listing our special places on statutory heritage registers provides a legal framework to manage change to these significant places. Heritage is an evolving concept and we regularly undertake heritage studies to identify new items worthy of statutory protection.
Heritage items means a building, work, place, relic, tree, object or archaeological site the location and nature of which is described in Schedule 5.
Some of Woollahra’s items are also listed on the State Heritage Register under the NSW Heritage Act 1977 or are listed by NSW Government Agencies. A number of items are protected under Schedule 11 of the State Environmental Planning Policy (Biodiversity and Conservation) 2021.
Proposed items, areas, archaeological sites and potential archaeological sites may also be listed in exhibited draft environmental planning instruments, which include planning proposals.
If you are seeking to buy land it is very important that you read the section 10.7 planning certificate which must be attached to the sale contract by the vendor. This will identify if the property is a heritage item located in a heritage conservation area (HCA), or included in an exhibited planning proposal.
A section 10.7 planning certificate will also identify if a property is located within a HCA or in a proposed HCA under an exhibited planning proposal.
Within the Woollahra Municipality there are a number of established heritage conservation areas (HCAs). These HCAs have been determined by a set of heritage values, which are particular to that area, distinguishing it from other places in the Municipality.
There are 15 heritage conservation areas (HCAs) in the Woollahra Municipality. Their boundaries can be found on the Woollahra LEP 2014 - Heritage map. Whilst they vary in size and location, they are all identified as locally significant in Schedule 5 of the Woollahra LEP 2014.
Paddington, Woollahra and Watsons Bay are the largest HCAs, with each having its own chapter in the Woollahra Development Control Plan 2015 (Woollahra DCP 2015) containing local planning provisions.
There are 11 Neighbourhood Heritage Conservation Areas (Neighbourhood HCAs) in the Woollahra LGA. These are located in the suburbs of Darling Point, Bellevue Hill, Rose Bay and Vaucluse and are:
- Etham Avenue HCA, Darling Point
- Darling Point Road HCA, Darling Point
- Mona Road HCA, Darling Point
- Loftus and Mona Road HCA, Darling Point
- Aston Gardens, HCA Bellevue Hill
- Victoria Road HCA, Bellevue Hill
- Balfour Road HCA, Rose Bay
- Beresford Estate HCA, Rose Bay
- Rose Bay Gardens Estate HCA, Rose Bay
- Kent Road HCA, Rose Bay
- Bell Street HCA, Vaucluse
Transvaal Avenue in Double Bay is a listed HCA in the Double Bay Centre.
Significant items located within a heritage conservation area contribute to and exemplify the heritage significance of the place.
Archaeological items in Woollahra have been identified through heritage studies or heritage assessments. These can be buildings, remnants of buildings or other structures such as wells, bridges, objects of household such as crockery, bottles, personal effects, machinery and tools and other organic remains.
Historical archaeological remains are additionally protected from being moved or excavated through the operation of the ‘relics’ provisions. These protect unidentified ‘relics’ which may form part of the State’s environmental heritage, but have not been listed on the State Heritage Register or protected by an Interim Heritage Order. An archaeological site is an area of land that contains one or more archaeological ‘relics’.
Relics are defined the NSW Heritage Act 1977 as "any deposits, artefact, object or material evidence that:
- relates to the settlement of the area that comprises New South Wales, not being Aboriginal settlement, and
- is of local or state significance."
Archaeological sites and relics are protected under the NSW Heritage Act 1977. If land has potential to contain a relic, an excavation permit is required to excavate it. For additional information, refer to the Heritage NSW website.