Author: Joan Kent
Client: NSW National parks and Wildlife Service
Under the National Forest Policy Statement (NFPS) Commonwealth, State and Territory governments agreed to a framework and process for carrying out comprehensive assessments of the economic, social, environmental and heritage values of forest regions. Once completed, comprehensive regional assessments (CRAs) will provide governments with the information required to make long term decisions about forest use and managements.
As one of the initial steps in the assessment of the cultural heritage values of the NSW forests there was an urgent need to provide an historical overview as a context for assessing the heritage resource of the Eden CRA region forests. This Overview Thematic Forest History Report fulfills this requirement.
The Brief for the Eden CRA Region: Overview Thematic Forest History (non-indigenous) provided for the compilation of an overview history from sources identified by the Statewide Data Audit, Integration and Analysis project. The thematic outline was required to be consistent with the draft Principal Australian Historic Themes: A Guide for Heritage Agencies and the NSW State Heritage Manual.
This report documents the History of the Eden Forest History but also includes:
∙ Identification of specific historic heritage themes of relevance to the Eden CRA Area;
∙ Identification of areas/themes requiring further research;
∙ Identification of themes/areas to be followed up in the community;
∙ Identification of areas which might yield specific historic heritage sites and places which should be targeted in the field validation and recording stage.