Cultural Heritage Management Plan Guidelines

• 1. Purpose and background

  The Guidelines will help everyone involved in Victoria’s CHMP system navigate their way to better cultural heritage management practice and economic benefits for the private sector and for Victoria.

• 2. Principles

  Principles of the Cultural Heritage Management Plan Guidelines.

• 3. Obligations

  Minimum obligations for all participants and decision makers in the Cultural Heritage Management Process.

• 4. Guidance summary statements

  Guidance summary statements for Cultural Heritage Management Plans.

• 5. CHMP procedures

  Information about Cultural Heritage Management Plan procedures.

• Step 1 – Pre-preparation

  Find out what you need to do to prepare for a Cultural Heritage Management Plan.

• Step 2 – CHMP initiation and desktop assessment

  Once a CHMP is determined by the Sponsor as the desired course of action, whether mandated by the Act, Regulations or voluntary, the CHMP process is initiated.

• Step 3 - Discuss desktop assessment with RAP

  Once finalised, the desktop assessment results and recommendations should be discussed with the RAP.

• Step 4 – Prepare and discuss standard assessment program

  If it is determined that a standard assessment is required, the HA will prepare a plan for undertaking the standard assessment based on the information gathered by the desktop assessment.

• Step 5 - Seek agreement about plan for undertaking a standard assessment

  Once finalised, the plan for undertaking a standard assessment should be submitted to the RAP.

• Step 6 - Complete standard assessment

  The standard assessment shall proceed in accordance with the plan for undertaking a standard assessment. The date of commencement should be included in the CHMP.

• Step 7 - Prepare and discuss complex assessment program

  If it is determined that a complex assessment is required, the HA will prepare a plan for undertaking the complex assessment based on the information gathered by the desktop and standard assessments.

• Step 8 – Seek agreement about plan for undertaking a complex assessment

  Find out more about seeking agreement about a plan for undertaking a complex assessment.

• Step 9 - Complete complex assessment

  The complex assessment shall proceed in accordance with the plan for undertaking a complex assessment. The date of commencement should be included in the CHMP.

• Step 10 - Completing CHMP conditions

  A final CHMP meeting should occur with the RAP to discuss and seek to agree CHMP conditions, including contingencies, induction and salvage conditions, where appropriate.

• Step 11 - Agree on salvage strategy (if applicable)

  If salvage is proposed as a CHMP condition, a detailed Salvage Strategy should be a part of this condition documented in the CHMP, developed by the HA and presented to the RAP for input at Step 10.

• Step 12 - Agree CHMP conditions and submit CHMP for approval

  Where the Sponsor, HA and RAP cannot agree on the CHMP conditions, DPC assistance is available. It is advisable this be used at this point, as this is the final opportunity to resolve such disagreements before the CHMP is submitted for approval.

• Post CHMP approval - Step 13 - Conduct inductions

  A cultural awareness induction may be required on large sites with considerable compliance conditions, for site managers and the Sponsor to promote the importance of implementing conditions.

• Step 14 - Implement conditions

  The Sponsor is responsible for conducting the activity and implementing CHMP conditions, including salvage, as agreed.

• Appendix 1: Aboriginal intangible values in relation to a place and cultural landscapes

  Physical places and objects are critical for understanding the human past. However, it is the relationship between these places and Traditional Owners which make these places significant in the first place.

• Appendix 2: Cultural Heritage significance

  CHMP conditions should be explicitly linked to the cultural heritage significance of the Aboriginal cultural heritage which is the subject of the condition.

• Appendix 3: CHMP role demarcation

  Participants in the CHMP process need to be mindful of their own powers, responsibilities, expertise and rights and those of others

• Appendix 4: Isolated and low-density artefact distributions and dispersed shell midden material in coastal environments

  Isolated and low-density stone artefact distributions, and dispersed shell midden material in coastal environments, should be recorded, but in most cases should not require further subsurface investigation and may be managed via contingencies.

• Appendix 5: CHMP contingencies for the discovery of Aboriginal cultural heritage during the activity

  The Aboriginal Heritage Regulations 2018 (the Regulations) require CHMPs to include contingency plans for the discovery of Aboriginal cultural heritage during works.

• Appendix 6: RAP right of refusal under sections 61 and 63(4)

  RAPs are empowered under the Act to refuse to approve CHMPs when they are not satisfied the measures proposed are adequate.

• Appendix 7: Salvage

  Salvage should only be a condition of a CHMP when there is no other way (including preservation in situ) to minimise or prevent harm occurring to Aboriginal cultural heritage of particular significance.

• Appendix 8: CHMP induction requirements

  CHMP inductions should be conducted as two distinct presentations with different purposes in mind.

• Appendix 9: Explanation of principles

  Find out more about the CHMP principles.

• Appendix 10: Dispute resolution and assistance

  Should a dispute arise and the parties wish to engage in dispute resolution processes, parties should consider seeking their own independent legal advice.

• Appendix 11: Agreements about CHMP conduct

  Agreements about the conduct of parties undertaking CHMP work may be useful to enter into ahead of CHMP fieldwork, and may be either single documents governing the entirety of a CHMP, or broken into the CHMP stages.

• Appendix 12: Predictive modelling

  “Predictive modelling” is used throughout these Guidelines to refer to work done prior to and during cultural heritage assessment by survey and excavation to map areas more likely to contain Aboriginal cultural heritage and to plan sampling strategies to guide the archaeological sampling of landscapes to test the predictive model.

• Appendix 13: Sampling strategies for archaeological surveys

  These Guidelines mention three different types of sampling strategies which may be employed to plan CHMP standard assessments (surveys) and to test predictive models when probabilistic sampling strategies are required (e.g. in the absence of known Aboriginal places in an activity area).

Updated 30 June 2026