FREMANTLE PRISON
Digital Heritage Management Plan
Keeping a Record
Objectives
Our objectives are as follows:
to maintain an ongoing record of Fremantle Prison employing a range of media. This record will serve as a tool to (a) document the place’s heritage values and (b) inform and illustrate decision-making
to document continuity and change at Fremantle Prison
to realise the potential of Fremantle Prison as a teaching and learning resource for present and future generations
to maintain a record of decision-making at Fremantle Prison to ensure transparency and efficiency
Risks to Avoid
We have identified the following risks to be avoided:
Significant changes to the form, function or fabric of Fremantle Prison are not appropriately recorded.
Conservation decisions at Fremantle Prison are based on imperfect information due to poor record-keeping.
Knowledge about any part of the Prison and its heritage values is lost due to a failure to appropriately record and document.
There is a lack of clarity concerning the decision-making process, regarding, for example, when certain decisions were made, why they were made, and by whom.
Records are lost because of inadequate protection against preventable risks, e.g. theft, fire, flood and pests.
Fremantle Prison engages in ongoing research as part of its programs of interpretation and physical conservation. This research may be undertaken by external consultants, interested volunteers, as well as Fremantle Prison staff. The result is that large quantities of research data are generated. There is the risk that costly historical research is unnecessarily duplicated, important data are lost, or factual errors creep into relevant documents leading to poor physical conservation outcomes.
Statutory Framework
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations 2000 (Schedule 5, 2.02[e]) states that management plans for places on the WHL should include mechanisms ‘to deal with the impacts of actions that individually or cumulatively degrade’ World Heritage values. An effective and comprehensive system of recording and documentation assists in identifying cumulative impacts on heritage places.
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The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations 2000 (Schedule 5, 2.02[g]) state that the management regimes at a place on the WHL ‘must provide for continuing monitoring and reporting on the state of the relevant World Heritage values’. Similar provisions apply for National Heritage values (Reg. 10.01C [ix]).
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In assessing impacts of ‘controlled actions’ under the EPBC Act the Minister will have regard to whether or not ‘the person proposing to take the action has a satisfactory record of responsible environmental management and compliance with environmental laws’ (Reg. 5.03A (1)). Efficient ongoing record-keeping will assist to demonstrate Fremantle Prison’s excellent record in this regard.
Fremantle Prison is bound by the provisions of the Western Australian Freedom of Information Act 1992. The Act provides Australians with a legally enforceable right of access to government documents, including those kept by agencies like Fremantle Prison. This right is based on the premise that it enhances the transparency of policy making, administrative decision-making and government service delivery. Decisions made in relation to the Prison’s heritage management will generally be accessible to members of the public upon the making of a FOI application.
Fremantle Prison must maintain records in a manner that is consistent with the Western Australian State Records Act 2000. Section 16 of the Act requires Fremantle Prison to have a ‘record keeping plan’ that will ‘ensure that the government organization properly and adequately records the performance of the organization’s functions’. The ‘principles and standards’ expected of this record keeping by the State Records Commission are presented on ‘SRC 1 – Government Record Keeping’ (February 2002).
Non-Statutory Framework
Article 6.1 of the Burra Charter states that: ‘The cultural significance of a place and other issues affecting its future are best understood by a sequence of collecting and analysing information before making decisions …’
Article 27.2 of the Burra Charter states: ‘Existing fabric, use, associations and meanings should be adequately recorded before and after any changes are made to the place.’
Article 31 of the Burra Charter states: ‘New evidence may come to light while implementing policy or a plan for a place. Other factors may arise and require new decisions. A log of new evidence and additional decisions should be kept.’
Article 32 of the Burra Charter states: ‘The records associated with the conservation of a place should be placed in a permanent archive and made publicly available, subject to requirements of security and privacy, and where this is culturally appropriate.’
Article 33 of the Burra Charter states: ‘Significant fabric which has been removed from a place including contents, fixtures and objects, should be catalogued, and protected in accordance with its cultural significance.’
The UNESCO Resource Manual entitled Managing Cultural World Heritage (pp 124–5) encourages managers of World Heritage places to monitor the implementation of conservation policies against baseline data established through adequate documentation.
A number of state governments have prepared guideline documents on how to maintain an archival record of a heritage place. The Heritage Council of Western Australia has prepared a guideline document entitled Guide to Preparing an Archival Record. More detail on how a photographic archival record of a heritage place may be conducted is presented in the NSW guideline documents entitled How to Prepare Archival Records of Heritage Items (Heritage Office 1998) and Photographic Recording of Heritage Items Using Film or Digital Capture (Heritage Office 2006).
Constraints
Although the goal should be to make all archival records concerning Fremantle Prison publicly accessible, in some circumstances this will not be desirable or appropriate, e.g. due to security or privacy imperatives, commercial considerations, environmental sensitivity, or where this would be culturally inappropriate
Opportunities
Detailed archival records of conservation issues and responses at Fremantle Prison will comprise an excellent teaching and learning resource with potential for use in training local and national heritage professionals. This is consistent with one of the objectives of the WA ‘State Cultural Heritage Policy’, i.e. ‘Promote sound practice in the conservation, management and adaptation of heritage places’.
Ongoing archival recording at Fremantle Prison will yield, as a by-product, materials that will be useful for interpretation and marketing, e.g. high-quality photographs and drawings, oral histories. Fremantle Prison’s Intellectual Property in any records produced may also present opportunities for generating resources for the ongoing conservation of the place.
Overarching Policy Framework
POLICY 33
Fremantle Prison will maintain an ongoing record of the place, employing a range of media, and capturing continuity and change. This will integrate with data management systems within the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage.
POLICY 34
Where adverse impacts on the heritage values of Fremantle Prison would result from proposed works, it will be a condition of the works proceeding that an archival record of the impacted location be produced beforehand. This may include photographic archival recording or measured drawings, or both. This policy will be particularly relevant where significant fabric would be lost through physical intervention and where a modification of the Prison’s setting might occur. The level of documentation achieved will be sufficient to (a) record the condition and appearance of the place prior to the change and after it, (b) indicate the reason for the change, and (c) monitor the impacts of the change into the future.
POLICY 35
Fremantle Prison will make its records publicly accessible insofar as legislation, Department policy, security, commercial and privacy considerations, and cultural sensitivities allow.
POLICY 36
Fremantle Prison will continue to support and encourage broad-ranging research into the history of the Prison, as a means of enhancing Prison management and interpretation. This will include the collection of data from other sources such as volunteers.
POLICY 37
Fremantle Prison will continue to maintain a transparent record of its decision-making processes so that the rationale for conservation decisions, their outcomes, and the identity of decision-makers themselves, is recoverable. These records will be managed in accordance with the Department’s Record Keeping Plan.
POLICY 38
All records relating to Fremantle Prison will be stored in an appropriate repository safeguarded against risks such as flood, theft, fire and pests. Digital storage of records is appropriate provided digital data are appropriately safeguarded against corruption or loss and are future-proofed.
POLICY 39
Fremantle Prison’s documentation and recording program will take a holistic view of the place and will include maintaining a record of ‘lived experiences’ and ‘stories’, not just fabric and form, e.g. through its ongoing oral history program using text, audio and video (see also ‘Telling the Story’ overarching policy).
POLICY 40
Fremantle Prison will monitor all initiatives that have the potential to adversely impact the place’s heritage values, e.g. visitor impacts, fabric conservation, adaptive reuse.
Proposed Action
ACTION 20
Maintain a program to digitise historic archival material from Fremantle Prison and make this data publicly accessible online (see also ‘Telling the Story’ overarching policy and ‘Movable Heritage’ overarching policy).
ACTION 21
Establish a future-proofed, digital repository for historical data generated by Fremantle Prison personnel, external consultants and non-professional sources. Establish protocols to ensure that the data (e.g. words, pictures, recordings) are appropriately sourced and referenced. This may include data collected ‘piecemeal’ as part of ongoing works at the Prison. It should form a constantly evolving resource.
ACTION 22
Modify the existing Disaster Preparedness Plan (April 2016) to, at a minimum, identify: (a) appropriate means of storing hardcopy and digital data at Fremantle Prison and (b) measures to be implemented to ensure that hard copy material is not damaged through fire, flood, pests or natural deterioration, and are future-proofed.
ACTION 23
Continue to maintain Building Condition Assessments, Maintenance Schedules and Schedules of Conservation Works for works at Fremantle Prison, and retain those records indefinitely.
ACTION 24
Continue to monitor visitors and visitor numbers at Fremantle Prison to ensure that adverse heritage impacts are identified early and appropriately responded to.