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knowledge of the station's history beyond the significance of its name.

Figure 2. Mawson buildings and structures.

3. Assessment of Commonwealth Heritage values

Mawson's heritage 'significance' forms the foundation upon which conservation policy for the place is developed. The EPBC Act (s.528) defines the 'heritage value' of a place as including the place's natural and cultural environment having aesthetic, historic, scientific or social significance, or other significance, for current and future generations of Australians.
In 1992-93, the cultural significance of the thirteen station buildings that had been entered on to the Register of the National Estate was formally assessed by Elspeth Wishart and Linda Clarke from the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Tasmania.
In 1996, Sam Rando and Martin Davies conducted a further assessment using the scale outlined in Kerr (1990). Their assessment established the presence of values consistent with Commonwealth Heritage listing.
Rando and Davies' analysis, and the statements of significance associated with Mawson's Register of National Estate listing, and Commonwealth Heritage listing in 2004 (Place ID 105444) – are provided at Appendix II. The latter forms the foundations for site management planning. In developing this plan, the values identified in the official listing were revisted in consultation with individuals with relevant expertise. The review process reaffirmed the validity of the Commonwealth Heritage values that were originally identified. The review conclusions are summarised at Table 2.

Criteria                      Values
A  Processes                  Mawson's status as the oldest continuously occupied scientific station in Antarctica, the first permanent station south of the Antarctic circle, and Australia's first continental station remains unchanged.
B  Rarity                     Mawson's buildings remain rare in that modern stations are entirely different in their scale, planning and construction.
D  Characteristic values      The buildings at Mawson continue to be a representation of the characteristics of early Antarctic stations and the way of life of early expeditions.
E  Aesthetic characteristics  The village arrangement of Mawson, backed by distant views of ice cap and mountain, remains a striking and unusual landscape evocative of 'frontier living'.
F  Technical achievement      Mawson represents the most complete surviving collection of buildings demonstrating the evolution of Australian Antarctic building design.
H  Significant people         The establishment and early operations of the station remain closely associated with people significant in Australia's Antarctic history including Phillip Law, John Béchervaise and Robert Dovers. The Station was named by Law after Sir Douglas Mawson.

Table 2. Validation of the relevance of the Commonwealth eritage values identified in 2004.

4. Condition of Commonwealth Heritage values

There are two different methods of analysing the condition and integrity of heritage values:
       * the condition of the significant heritage fabric; and
       * the condition of the Commonwealth Heritage values themselves.
An assessment by each method is presented