In January 2004, federal environmental protection legislation was amended to introduce a register of heritage properties owned or controlled by national Governement agencies and departments. Under the legislation, agencies such as Australia Post are required to have a Heritage Strategy to guide them in the management of properties on the Commonwealth Heritage List, as this new register is called.

Lovell Chen is both preparing the Heritage Strategy and advising Australia Post on its wider heritage obligations under the legislation. The agency owns more than 520 heritage places (and leases many more), somewhere between 100 and 150 of which are anticipated to be on the register. We are reviewing and assessing all their properties to determine which should be put forward.

Australia Post properties serve postal distribution and sales, administrative and retail purposes. They include buildings from all periods of Australia's history, buildings of all sizes — from grand 19th century GPOs to modest post offcies in small towns — and buildings in many different streetscapes and settings.