Historic heritage values relate to the occupation and use of the Region since the arrival of Europeans and other migrants. Historic heritage is the tangible and intangible evidence about lightstations, lighthouses, wrecks, voyagers, associated artefacts and other places of significance that are not on the National Heritage List.1138
The assessment of the Region’s historic heritage value does not include the heritage values on Queensland islands or parts of the Catchment (above low water mark). However, an exception is applied where values are critical to transmitting (sharing) knowledge about the condition (and trend in condition) of the Region’s historic heritage value (for example, newly discovered shipwrecks in the intertidal zone). Sites of particular significance to First Nations’ people’s truth telling (for example, missions, the influence of First Nations people on managing Country, marine or coastal landscapes as sites of frontier violence in the colonial period) are components of Indigenous heritage values, and not included in this assessment.
All heritage artefacts undergo natural deterioration. For the purposes of this assessment, a declining trend in condition should be interpreted as deterioration being faster than expected. Generally, natural deterioration through usual processes is considered stable.12