Happy 40th Burra Charter!

In 2019, the Burra Charter turned 40! As part of our acknowledgement of this significant landmark, Australia ICOMOS hosted panel discussions to celebrate and reflect on the document’s success and evolution, and to consider its capacity to respond to an evolving heritage landscape. Does the Burra Charter address all of the issues relevant to contemporary heritage practice?

How has the Charter evolved in the past?

In addition to the current documents that form part of and relate to the Charter, older versions of the Charter, related documents and resources (including the Burra Charter video) can be found here.

Links to the current suite of documents

Click on the links below to go directly to each document. More detail about the Burra Charter and the Practice Notes follows.

• The Burra Charter
• The Burra Charter flow chart
• Practice Note – Understanding and assessing cultural significance
• Practice Note – Developing Policy
• Practice Note – Preparing studies and reports – contractual and ethical issues
• Practice Note – The Burra Charter and Archaeological Practice
• Practice Note – The Burra Charter and Indigenous Cultural Heritage Management
• Practice Note – Interpretation
• Practice Note – Burra Charter Article 22-New Work
• Practice Note – Understanding Cultural Routes
• Practice Note – Intangible Cultural Heritage & Place
• Practice Note_Heritage and Sustainability 1 – Built Heritage
• Code on the Ethics of Co-existence

The Burra Charter: the Australia ICOMOS Charter for Places of Cultural Significance, 2013 and the associated series of Practice Notes provide a best practice standard for managing cultural heritage places in Australia.

The Burra Charter

First adopted in 1979, the Burra Charter is periodically updated to reflect developing understanding of the theory and practice of cultural heritage management. The current version of the Burra Charter was adopted in 2013.

• Download The Burra Charter 2013 (Adopted 31.10.2013) (2.1MB)

Click here for previous versions of the Burra Charter and translations of the 1999 Burra Charter.

The Burra Charter flow chart

The Burra Charter flow chart is a graphical representation of The Burra Charter Process, which outlines the steps in planning for and managing a place of cultural significance. The download below forms part of the The Burra Charter, 2013. It may be reproduced in other publications, but must be done so in its entirety so that the headings and the citation in the footer remain intact.

• Download The Burra Charter flow chart (PDF, 1.3MB)
• Download the The Burra Charter flow chart (zipped file with jpeg version)

Practice Notes

Australia ICOMOS is developing a series of Practice Notes to supplement and provide practical advice on aspects of the Burra Charter and its application. They cover a wide variety of topics, recognising that heritage is an increasingly diverse field. The following Practice Notes can be downloaded by clicking on the links below:

• Practice Note_Understanding and assessing cultural significance (151KB)
• Practice Note_Developing Policy (727KB)
• Practice Note_Preparing studies and reports – contractual and ethical issues (257KB)
• Practice Note_The Burra Charter and Archaeological Practice (248KB)
• Practice Note_The Burra Charter and Indigenous Cultural Heritage Management (235KB)
• Practice Note_Interpretation (237KB)
• Practice Note_Burra Charter Article 22-New Work (201KB)
• Practice Note_Understanding Cultural Routes (210KB)
• Practice Note_Intangible Cultural Heritage & Place (878KB)
• Practice Note_Heritage and Sustainability 1 – Built Heritage (431KB)

The first three Practice Notes replace the former Guidelines to the Burra Charter. For details of the review that lead to the development of the Practice Notes, click here.

Suggestions of topics for future Practice Notes are welcome.

Code on the Ethics of Co-existence

The Code on the Ethics of Co-existence in Conserving Significant Places was adopted by Australia ICOMOS in 1998.

• Download the Code on the Ethics of Co-existence in Conserving Significant Places, 1998 (90KB)

The Illustrated Burra Charter (2004)

The Illustrated Burra Charter (2004) provides an article-by-article explanation of the Burra Charter (note: 1999 version, which has now been superceded by the 2013 version) with examples and illustrations. For details, click here.