In 1986-87, Meredith Walker, Chris Johnston and Carmel Boyce formed a team to prepare a heritage study and strategy for Melbourne’s western region, commissioned by the newly created Melbourne Western Region Commission. The five volume report included a regional heritage strategy (1986-1990) listing forty-four projects designed to build on what had been achieved in the study, and reflecting community feedback. Project no. 31 was ‘What is social value?’, scoped as an illustrated discussion paper designed to elaborate the term ‘social’ in the Australia ICOMOS Burra Charter using place examples from the heritage study.