Community and cultural values: the upper Mersey Valley and the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area

The upper Mersey valley, largely within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (TWWHA), represents deep affection, sense of place, and a sense of history for local communities. With World Heritage declaration, these people were 'locked out' and left out of decision-making. This paper covers two approaches to these problems: an upper Mersey cultural values study, and recent Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service responses that changed TWWHA planning prescriptions and the culture of management. First, the upper Mersey study incorporated important variations from Australian Heritage Commission methods for: social and aesthetic values assessment. The differences are explained in terms of doing full justice to local values and place perceptions (and historical values). Secondly, the paper analyses the TWWHAs two management plans (1992, 1999) and finds a major turnaround in accepting cultural values. Tasmania's parks are beginning to recognise an expanded mandate, shifting the focus from the exclusively natural. Important questions remain, however, about how cultural values will be understood, valued, and integrated into the management of the State s large-scale natural areas.