Upper Mersey Valley: Cultural Values of Natural Areas
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Report:
Russell, J., Cubit, S., Johnston, C., Hepper, J. 1998. Assessing Cultural Values in Natural Areas: The Upper Mersey Valley. Volume 1: Main Report on Method and Findings. Environmental Studies Occasional Papers, University of Tasmania.
Cubit, S., Russell, J., Johnston, C. 1999. Assessing Cultural Values in Natural Areas: The Upper Mersey Valley. Volume 2: Database of Culturally Significant Places. University of Tasmania.
Cubit, S., Russell, J. 1999. Assessing Cultural Values in Natural Areas: The Upper Mersey Valley. Volume 3, Part A: Historic Values Assessment – Contextual History and Significant Places. Environmental Studies Occasional Papers, University of Tasmania.
Cubit, S., Russell, J. 1999. Assessing Cultural Values in Natural Areas: The Upper Mersey Valley. Volume 3, Part 2: Historic Values Assessment – Thematic Analysis and Site Reports. University of Tasmania.
Articles:
Russell, J. & Johnston, C, 2005. Community and cultural values: The upper Mersey valley and the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Historic Environment, 18(2): 39-42. (Paper originally presented at Celebrating Mountains: An International Year of Mountains Conference, 24–28 November 2002, Jindabyne, NSW)
The Upper Mersey Valley is an upland area in northern Tasmania. Most of the study area is within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA) recognised in 1982 for its natural attributes and aesthetic qualities, and since as an outstanding example of humanity’s interaction with the natural environment reflecting 35,000 years of Aboriginal lifeways and management. This project was designed to investigate the social, aesthetic and historical values of this upland valley using innovative, community-based assessment methods. Chris’ role included guiding the development of the project methodology (especially the assessment of social and aesthetic value), input into ways of working with local communities, and the integration of heritage values into the final place database.
The project included several innovations: first, community perspectives were distilled into indicators of social value rather than using the set of indicators prepared for the Central Highlands RFA; second, the places, boundaries and values were subject to community review through a local exhibition and feedback session; third, the discussion groups were all affinity -based, recognising that conflicts may exist between interest groups, and taking the advice of local opinion leaders in shaping the workshop invitation list and locations.