A more liberal approach to maintaining the district’s heritage attraction was adopted at the February meeting of Tenterfield Shire Council, with councillors opting to take more of a carrot than a stick approach to compliance with using heritage colours in listed properties.
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Strategic planning and environmental services director James Ruprai stressed that the heritage colour schemes were put forward by staff in response to a need in the community seeking advice on heritage colours.
Clr Bronwyn Petrie spearheaded the move to make any colour palette non-mandatory.
“We need to make it very clear that the colours are not mandatory, but strongly encouraged,” she said. “We’re not the paint police.”
She favours the approach of Bendigo council, which has developed heritage design guidelines to help property owners identify the era of a dwelling from its features, as well as detailed guidelines on renovations including painting and finishes.
“We’ve got to get people enthused about heritage,” Clr Petrie said. “I’d like to see all heritage-listed buildings on the (council) website, with explanations as to why they’re listed. The biggest threat to heritage is neglect. I want to encourage people to embrace our heritage, and not feel that a heritage listing is a burden.”
Councillors carried her amendment to made the heritage colour palette non-mandatory, along with other changes to the Heritage Colours Provisions contained in the Development Control Plan. These include that any repainting of a heritage item and place withing the heritage conservation area be in accordance with the principles of the Australia International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Burra Charter, which provides a ‘best practice’ standard for managing cultural heritage places in Australia.
Cleaning and conservation of original finishes is preferred in order to retain a historic patina that can’t be achieved through modern paint finishes, and only previously-painted surfaces may be repainted. A building’s history should be researched in order to establish an authentic colour scheme, preferably the original paint colours, with encouragement to use colours from the three main historical periods set out in Suters Main Street Heritage Study from 1997.
A move to prohibit reverse colour schemes of dark walls and light trims in the absence of historic evidence was deleted.
