Heritage is intrinsically about values and reflections of our past. A key to protecting heritage is to foster awareness and appreciation, which in turn encourages a common concern to safeguard our cultural heritage for future generations.
Celebrating heritage keeps it meaningful and alive for communities now and in the future.
We collaborate with others to protect and celebrate our State’s heritage. Some of our initiatives and partnership programs include:
Australian Convict Sites
We are a member of the Australian Convict Sites Steering Committee and work to protect and promote the outstanding universal values of the sites within NSW.
The Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property is a series of eleven outstanding heritage places across Australia. Collectively they are representative of the global phenomenon of forced migration of convicts.
Learn more about the Australian Convict Sites.
Blue Plaques
We are delivering the Blue Plaques program which celebrates heritage by recognising noteworthy people and events from our State’s history.
The program aims to capture public interest and fascination in people, events and places which form the story of NSW. It is inspired by the famous London Blue Plaques program which originally started in 1866, and similar programs around the world.
Learn more about the NSW Blue Plaques.
M24 Midget submarine
We work with Australian Government and Japanese Government representatives to protect and manage the M24 midget submarine underwater wreck site.
This is a fascinating story of three midget submarines which invaded Sydney Harbour on the evening of 31 May 1942. That night, the harbour was full of Allied naval vessels and the Japanese midget submarines were on a mission to inflict maximum damage. Two of the submarines (M22 and M27) were destroyed almost immediately and recovered from Sydney Harbour within a week. The third submarine went missing. The intact wreck was discovered by divers in 2006 off Bungan Head, Newport on Sydney’s northern beaches.
The M24 was the only one of the three submarines that was able to launch its torpedoes that night and with terrible effect. It sank a naval vessel, HMAS Kuttabul killing twenty-one men on board and injuring 10 others.
Learn more about the M24 midget submarine story and wreck site.