Focus area
Respect culture and heritage
Transport is committed to partnering with our communities, including Aboriginal people and communities, to ensure sustainable co-design and the consideration of relevant culture and heritage across all of our projects.
Our goals
Aboriginal culture is acknowledged, integrated and preserved
Acknowledging and incorporating culture through stories, examples and best practice
Why it's important
Australia has a rich diversity of culture, heritage and history It is vitally important that we protect and conserve the places, objects and cultural values that our communities value for future generations.
We understand that meaningful engagement with Aboriginal communities is critical to ensuring Aboriginal culture and heritage are understood and preserved.
Aboriginal culture is acknowledged, integrated and preserved
Our transport network follows the traditional songlines, trade routes and ceremonial paths, containing Aboriginal heritage such as objects, places, dreaming stories, songs, cultural practices and traditions, that our nation’s First Peoples followed for tens of thousands of years.
In the creation of our transport infrastructure and networks, we will recognise and value the importance of connecting to Country. We are committed to incorporating local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge, cultures, art and heritage into the places we create.
Our specialist engagement team collaborates with Aboriginal groups to protect and enhance First Nations culture and heritage in projects and operations.
We are transitioning from our Reconciliation Action Plan 2019-2021 to our Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan 2022-2025 to further drive reconciliation. So far, we have achieved 45 of the actions in the previous plan with one on hold and 17 that will be carried over to our new plan.
Acknowledging and incorporating culture through stories, examples and best practice
Transport owns and works with a range of heritage places and objects such as buildings, land and water-based archaeological relics, historic infrastructure such as bridges or wharves, entire streetscapes or towns, cultural plantings, natural elements and memorials. Through Transport’s heritage procedures, guidelines and resources, in addition to our Sustainability Plan, we identify, assess and manage the heritage we are custodians of or affect. We do this to conserve, adapt and interpret our shared living history.
Case studies and highlights
To find out more about our performance, visit:
