Northern Midlands considers setting up heritage committee

It's one of the reasons why he's proposed setting up a committee that could promote the area's heritage sites.

The motion was discussed in the council's January meeting, with a recommendation for the council to prepare a report on forming a committee.

In his background to the motion, Cr Terrett said the Northern Midlands area was "blessed with a number of heritage sites including the Female Factory, Clarendon, Woolmers and Brickendon".

These sites operate independent of each other and the Northern Midlands Council, he said.

A heritage committee would look at how the council could facilitate these groups to promote tourism and the area's significant heritage sites.

The various heritage areas, historical societies and heritage properties should "all be talking together," to find ways to improve he said.

For example, one of the issues that he's aware of is a drop in volunteer numbers at heritage sites.

"I really highlighted the fact that if we don't understand where we've been, we don't understand where we're going"

"And preserving what the rich things of our area actually helps us on that journey".

Cr Terrett stressed he was speaking as a personal advocate not an official spokesperson for the council.

He said he was keen for the committee to draw a wide range of people and doesn't want it to turn into a bureaucracy.

There's a lot of historical knowledge in the area's historical societies which can get lost with time, he said.

But there's also people in the community who have good heritage knowledge.

That would include indigenous history, which "we really have lost over the years as well," he said.

"Whilst it was not talked for many years, we now maybe need to understand what actually occurred."

"Not rewrite history, but tell history."

The average person in the Northern Midlands has an interest in the history of the area though maybe don't know enough.

As tour guide at Woolmers, Cr Terrett often has locals coming up to him and saying "I never knew this existed."

Some councillors were concerned that it would be another layer of bureaucracy, he said, but others were very welcoming of looking into the idea.

The motion was carried.

Northern Midlands Mayor Mary Knowles has been contacted for comment.