“A Tentative List is an inventory of those properties which each [national government] intends to consider for nomination”
What's the status of the Victorian Goldfields World Heritage bid?
The Victorian Goldfields have been added to Australia’s World Heritage Tentative List in 2025.
A Tentative Listing is one step on the journey to being considered for World Heritage Listing. It acts as a placeholder for World Heritage listing and has no other consequences.
Our nomination can only be submitted after being on Australia’s World Heritage Tentative List for a minimum 12 months.
Heritage Victoria is the main agency responsible for submitting the Victorian Goldfields to the Australian Government for nomination.
What is Tentative Listing?
As a signatory to UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention, the Australian Government is asked to prepare a Tentative List of properties they consider to have Outstanding Universal Value and may decide to nominate in future years. This is the first step in the journey towards World Heritage Listing.
Having the Victorian Goldfields on Australia’s World Heritage Tentative List means that the Australian Government considers it to be suitable for inscription on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
The Tentative List entry has been submitted to UNESCO, and is published on the website of the World Heritage Centre.
What is included in the Tentative Listing submission?
A sample of what makes Victoria’s Goldfields suitable for World Heritage Listing.
The Tentative List submission highlights some of the places from across Victoria that could be put forward for a World Heritage nomination. Many people, including Traditional Owners, worked to develop the Tentative List submission.
The initial selection of examples that are listed in the Tentative List submission demonstrate how and why Victoria has the most extensive, coherent, and best-surviving historic goldmining landscape anywhere in the world.
A series of ‘component parts’
The Tentative Listing submission demonstrates how we could apply a serial nomination for a future World Heritage nomination, which means we will have more than one place being nominated.
For serial listings, it is the collection as a whole– and not the individual components – that are of Outstanding Universal Value.
A serial listing approach was recommended for the
Victorian Goldfields by the Australian Government in 2009. It found that a single site, however significant,
would not be enough to fully reflect the goldrush
phenomenon as World Heritage.
How are components represented in the Tentative Listing submission?
The component parts (places) that are mentioned in the Tentative List are represented by a ‘title’ and one central ‘coordinate point’ and/or some text. The coordinate point is located centrally in an area with possible World Heritage value only. These are detailed in the image below.
Three further places that have potential to be in the World Heritage nomination are mentioned in Australia’s Tentative List submission. These include the Ballarat Historic Urban Landscape, Beechworth Historic Township and Sluicing Landscape, and Whroo and the Balaclava Open Cut Mine.
Further research and consultation will be undertaken to determine sites for a World Heritage bid, which may include additional sites not part of the current Tentative List submission.
What's likely to be in the final nomination?
It’s too early to know. The components (places) identified in the Tentative Listing do not constitute the final nomination.
Extensive study to identify what the final components are for a World Heritage nomination is being carried out by nationally and internationally recognised experts with advice from Traditional Owners, local government, local stakeholders and communities, and the Victorian Government.
Further research and consultation will be undertaken throughout 2025-2026 to determine the nomination content and appropriate boundaries for the final list of components.
What are the implications for the components (places) that are listed in the Tentative Listing submission?
The Tentative List is an inventory.
Achieving Tentative Listing means the Australian Government considers that the Victorian Goldfields is suitable for inscription on the World Heritage List.
It does not affect ownership.
It does not introduce new protections or restrictions or change the existing protection for any place or area.
Tentative Lists are published on the website of the World Heritage Centre, but they are not assessed or evaluated outside of Australia.
It simply tells the world that Australia is going to be submitting a nomination after at least 12 months.
Maximising the benefits.
It’s likely there will be an increase of visitors to the region when the Victorian Goldfields Tentative Listing is published on UNESCO’s website as a result of media interest locally, nationally and internationally.
We are working with locals to Get World Heritage ready! through a series of community roadshows.
Find out how to get involved.
Who submitted the Tentative List?
The Australian Government is Australia’s ‘State Party’ for World Heritage. It is responsible for submitting both Tentative List updates and World Heritage nominations to UNESCO.
Only State governments can submit proposals for Australia’s Tentative List to the Australian Government (as outlined in the Australian World Heritage Intergovernmental Agreement 2009). State governments can work with other partners
but are solely responsible for submitting the documents, ensuring consultation with affected stakeholders has been completed, and that there is support for progressing Tentative Listing.
What is the timeframe?
The Victorian Goldfields have been added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative list in 2025. The Victorian Goldfields needs to be on Australia’s World Heritage Tentative List for a minimum of 12 months before a nomination can be submitted to UNESCO. The earliest a nomination can be submitted is 1 February 2026.
How is the bid funded?
In 2022 Regional Development Victoria provided $500,000 to the Victorian Goldfields Tourism Executive and the local government partnership, who matched funds of over $125,000 to deliver a draft Tentative Listing submission and a Sustainable Tourism Master Plan.
The Victorian Government granted $2 million to progress World Heritage Listing over three years from 1 July 2023.
