TY - JOUR
T1 - Railway sites and world heritage status : some Australian reflections of Indian experiences
AU - Lee, Robert
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Four railway sites have been inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Three are in India and the fourth is in Austria. I was the UNESCO consultant who assessed two of the Indian applications and I have visited the other two. Based on these experiences, this paper will examine the relationship between the UNESCO criteria for inscribing sites on the World Heritage List and railway heritage sites. There are important issues applying to railway sites which could scarcely have been anticipated when the World Heritage Criteria were drafted. These include the extent to which sites are representative of other sites; the importance of moveable items such as locomotives and rolling stock; the tension between inscription and the need to upgrade railway facilities for safety, efficiency and convenience in operations; the financial viability of inscribed railways; and, the extent to which restoration and conservation are in tension. This paper will raise the issue of how representative these four sites are of the railway's role in history, and the problems of securing adequate recognition of that role through mechanisms such as World Heritage. It will concentrate on India, although its themes have wider application and are especially relevant to Australia, whose early railway history in particular has many similarities to India's.
AB - Four railway sites have been inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Three are in India and the fourth is in Austria. I was the UNESCO consultant who assessed two of the Indian applications and I have visited the other two. Based on these experiences, this paper will examine the relationship between the UNESCO criteria for inscribing sites on the World Heritage List and railway heritage sites. There are important issues applying to railway sites which could scarcely have been anticipated when the World Heritage Criteria were drafted. These include the extent to which sites are representative of other sites; the importance of moveable items such as locomotives and rolling stock; the tension between inscription and the need to upgrade railway facilities for safety, efficiency and convenience in operations; the financial viability of inscribed railways; and, the extent to which restoration and conservation are in tension. This paper will raise the issue of how representative these four sites are of the railway's role in history, and the problems of securing adequate recognition of that role through mechanisms such as World Heritage. It will concentrate on India, although its themes have wider application and are especially relevant to Australia, whose early railway history in particular has many similarities to India's.
UR - http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/558971
UR - http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=478094593148761;res=IELAPA
M3 - Article
SN - 0726-6715
VL - 21
SP - 7
EP - 10
JO - Historic Environment
JF - Historic Environment
IS - 2
ER -