Places are powerful: they evoke memories and stories. Every place is loved by someone. Researching people’s connections to their place is a real privilege.
Chris Johnston
Chris Johnston is a strategic planner who specialises in heritage and community planning projects. She has skills in strategic thinking, policy analysis and development, and is solutions oriented in her approach. She has more than 35 years’ experience in heritage consulting. Chris is the founder of Context Pty Ltd, a leading Australian heritage consultancy that is now part of GML Heritage where Chris remains as a Special Adviser as well as undertaking projects on her own behalf or with La Trobe University where she is an Honorary Research Associate. Chris has expertise in social and aesthetic values assessment, in working with communities and documenting their values, and in interpreting people’s relationship to place. She brings her facilitation skills to all her work, seeking to engage people effectively. She often works with Aboriginal communities and organisations.
Chris has a national reputation for her work on developing and applying social significance methods. Her paper What is Social Value? published by the Australian Heritage Commission in 1992, has become a standard reference on the assessment of social value. Since then, she has delivered nearly 90 projects that include the assessment of social values. Chris has spoken and written extensively at professional conferences and in journals about approaches to understanding social values and working with associated communities. Chris has also contributed to the field of community-held aesthetic values for National Heritage assessments: examples include the National Heritage aesthetic values for the City of Broken Hill (NSW) and the Tarkine (TAS), and the Great Barrier Reef as part of a review of its Outstanding Universal Value.
Key experience
World heritage places
- Budj Bim World Heritage Nomination Dossier—Client: Aboriginal Victoria, Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Corporation, Department of Environment and Energy
- Kingston & Arthur’s Vale Historic Area, Norfolk Island, Heritage Management Plan—Client: KAVHA
- Defining the aesthetic values of the Great Barrier Reef—Client: Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities
Management plans
- Lake Boort Management Plan—Client: Parks Victoria
- Anzac Parade Canberra Heritage Management Plan, Social and Community Aesthetic Values Component—Client: National Capital Authority
- Ngootyoong Gunditj Ngootyoong Mara/South West Management Plan, Cultural Heritage and Social Value Assessment—Client: Parks Victoria
- The Meeting Place Precinct, Kamay Botany Bay National Park, NSW, Conservation Management Plan—Client: NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service
Heritage values assessments
- Acknowledgement of places with shared heritage values—Client: Heritage Council of Victoria, Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council
- Aboriginal Cultural and Spiritual Values of the Australian Alps— Client: Australian Alps Liaison Committee
- Wedge Island and Grey Shack Settlements Cultural Heritage Assessment: Social significance component—Client: National Trust WA and shack communities (for Godden Mackay Logan)
- Colonial Sydney: National Heritage Values Research—Client: Commonwealth Department of the Environment
- Victoria’s Post 1940s Migration Heritage—Client: Heritage Victoria
Consultation and community engagement
- Commemorative Area Consultation: Australian War Memorial, Canberra—Client: Australian War Memorial
- Community and Stakeholder Engagement Plan for the Kamay Botany Bay National Park Master Plan—Client: NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service
- City of Melbourne Heritage Strategy—Client: City of Melbourne
- ‘Victoria’s Heritage: Strengthening our communities’—Client: Heritage Victoria
