Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L01891:body:0:p56
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L01891
Segment Type: other
Provision Reference: 
Character Range: 161957–165162

contains the
archaeological remains of two of Australia's three oldest government houses, built in 1788.

Rare areas of natural heritage include the Cemetery Bay dune area with its plant and remnant lowland
forest unique to the Island. This area is also associated with the fossiliferous preservation of the Island's
past biota and small remnant land mollusc population.

4.4.3 Criterion C—Research

Archaeological research potential is enhanced by the lack of substantial development, allowing
opportunities to contribute to a wider understanding of the history of each of the Island's four distinct
settlement periods. Many buildings and archaeological sites at KAVHA are significant for their research
potential to contribute to a wider understanding of the history and development of industrial processes,
technology, architecture and engineering on Norfolk Island.

KAVHA is significant as a microcosm of society, providing an unparalleled resource for integrated
research with its rich array of architectural and archaeological elements, landscape, archives, artefacts,
Pitcairn language, ongoing traditions and anthropological research potential. KAVHA is valued for its
potential to demonstrate ongoing conservation and restoration techniques.

Previous life forms including an extinct mollusc also provide significant research potential.

4.4.4 Criterion D—Characteristic Values

KAVHA is a monument to the convict origins of European settlement in Australia. The large group of
convict era buildings (some modified during the Pitcairn period), ruins and subsurface archaeological
remains, and landform and cultural landscape elements are an outstanding testament of the
development of global convict transportation.

The landscape shows the way and pattern in which the land was cleared, used and developed by the
inhabitants since European settlement, and demonstrates the impact of this on a natural environment
hitherto occupied by Polynesian peoples.

In addition to being an outstanding example of a place of secondary punishment, KAVHA's built elements
illustrate the Georgian streetscape and town plan. This is evidenced in the military officers' residences of
Quality Row which form an intact Georgian administration centre and the most extensive street of
surviving (although partly reconstructed) pre-1850 penal settlement buildings in Australia. The fabric of
the Second Settlement clearly illustrates the method of construction, building techniques and way of life.

Since 1856 the Norfolk Island community has used KAVHA as the administrative centre for social,
religious and political development. KAVHA retains rare evidence of this Third Settlement period through
elements and ongoing uses which illustrate these aspects.

4.4.5 Criterion E—Aesthetic Characteristics

KAVHA is valued for its picturesque setting, historic associations, part ruinous configuration and
subsequently undeveloped nature, illustrating the contrast between the horror of the past and charm of
the present. These elements contribute to the aesthetic drama of KAVHA and enable visitors to
appreciate aspects of the history of Britain, Australia and the South Pacific with rare thematic clarity.

Kingston