Do historic houses have a future?

In the late 1960s the Central Coast of New South Wales, a rural fringe region situated between the cities of Sydney and Newcastle, was targeted by the state government as an area which could help to absorb some of the burgeoning population of metropolitan Sydney. Since then the regional and town planning policies of state and local governments have had an increasing and often detrimental impact on the built heritage of the Central Coast, particularly the dwellings. A close study of the subsequent history of heritage management on the Central Coast has shown that the preservation of an historic house is dependent on a number of factors: urban and regional planning, ownership, economic conditions, community effort and education. Comparative studies of other local government areas on the northern coastal fringe of Brisbane and Perth lead to a similar conclusion. The protection of culturally significant buildings and sites cannot be assumed to occur merely because of the presence of heritage legislation but must be actively sought after and supported by governments, property owners and the community, all working together to achieve the best outcome for current and future generations.