Heritage listing of Tharwa School
From Australian Heritage Places Inventory
Statement of Significance
The 1912 Tharwa School is significant as one of only two examples associated with the end of the period when rural schools were provided in the region and before the new period started with suburban schools developed for the city of Canberra. While the Tharwa School dates from just after the creation of the ACT, its origins pre-date the Territory. It was part of the development of small schools in rural towns rather than suburban schools developed for Canberra. Suburban schools were developed as part of the city from 1922 (Criterion A.4). The school has considerable social value for the Tharwa community for it has provided educational services for much of this century and it occupies a central role in village life. The school is also one of the village’s main building groups (Criterion G.1).
June 15th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
However from http://www.ahc.gov.au/register/furtherinfo/listing.html:
“The Commonwealth Government is the only body whose actions are constrained as a result of listings in the Register of the National Estate. Under Section 30 of the Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975, the Commonwealth Government is prohibited from taking any action which would adversely affect a place in the Register, unless there are no feasible and prudent alternatives to the action….
State government heritage registers, National Trust lists etc often have similar criteria to that of the Register of the National Estate.”
This suggests that the Territory government may not be constrained by this Act and the listing in the Register of the National Estate. I couldn’t find a listing for Tharwa PS on the ACT Heritage List, is it listed somewhere else??
That said, whilst there may be no legal constraints on the govt’s proposal, the entry in the Register of the National Estate does strongly support the argument that Tharwa is special. Does listing in the Register of the National Estate create an obligation on the Commonwealth Government to maintain the intrinsic significance of the school? I haven’t been able to find information on that.
August 3rd, 2006 at 6:58 pm
If there ever was anything information about the Governments obligation to maintain the intrinsic significance of the Tharwa School it has probably disappeared.
April 11th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
From the beginning your blog seemed pretty dull for me. But now it keeps getting better. THIS post is just AWESOME!