Managing Small Heritage Sites with Interpretation and Community Involvement

In heritage site management, there is often a strong reliance on preservation, sometimes to the exclusion of contemporary use.The result is a tendency to remove heritage sites from the experience of the community who 'owns' the heritage. At the site level, heritage management does not always use the full range of available tools; largely because of the emphasis on preservation. Case studies from rural Queensland, Australia, show that even relatively recent industrial and historical archaeology sites can be conserved and presented to benefit both the sites and local communities. There are several components to ultimate success, broadly encompassing a broader recognition of site values, pragmatic management and pro-active presentation. Smaller heritage sites may be modest in appearance, but they are still worthy of conservation. They may not attract large numbers of visitors like Stonehenge or the Acropolis but they are capable of providing socio-economic advantages for local communities and transferring knowledge of the past to future generations.