Celebrating our city's unique built heritage

Published on 11 November 2021

The 2021 City of Launceston Heritage Awards have been announced at a ceremony at Town Hall.

The annual awards are organised by the Council's Heritage Advisory Committee, which was formed in 2008 to provide advice to the Council on heritage matters and to promote the values of heritage places within the municipality.

Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten said Launceston's built heritage was extremely well regarded not just nationally, but the world over.

"The Heritage Committee has been promoting and running the heritage awards since its inception in 2008. This year we celebrate 13 years of both the committee and the awards, which continue to grow and evolve," Mayor van Zetten said.

The Heritage Snap photography competition is open to school-aged students and is divided into three sections: primary, grades 7 to 10 and grades 11-12.

"The competition provides the perfect opportunity to promote our heritage environments in a contemporary way to a much younger audience by focussing on specific details that are often overlooked.

"We hope through these awards that we can inspire our young people to take an interest and become involved in a discussion about Launceston's built heritage, which is recognised not just nationally but internationally as being unique, very special and well worth protecting."

This year's theme for Heritage Snap was "If walls could talk ..."

Heritage Advisory Committee chair Councillor Hugh McKenzie said students were encouraged to explore the city and photograph architecture or scenes that spoke to them.

"We are always excited to find out what our young people think about our historic and not-so historic places," Cr McKenzie said.

This year, adults were also encouraged to get involved in sharing their interpretation of Launceston's historic streetscapes with the expansion of the open awards to include photography as part of the Highlighting Heritage category.

"Through the Highlighting Heritage awards, we aim to raise the profile and understanding of the significance of our city's incredible, historical cultural heritage to the broader community," Cr McKenzie said.

The inaugural Highlighting Heritage Award was also presented on Thursday.

Entries in this year's awards were judged by members of the Committee, including UTAS architecture lecturer David Beynon, former chair of the National Trust, Ray Foley, Cr Hugh McKenzie, and the Council's Place and Heritage Officer Fiona Ranson.

AWARD WINNERS

HERITAGE SNAP!

PRIMARY SCHOOL CATEGORY

Commendations - Magdalena Bernacki Martain (West Launceston Primary), Nicola Lindsay (Invermay Primary) and Poppy Steen (Launceston Preparatory School).

Winner - Ava Corbould (Scotch Oakburn College).

GRADES 7 to 10

Commendations - Ashlee Cherry (St Patrick's College) and Ella Cresswell (St Patrick's College).

Winner - Henry Carls (St Patrick's College).

GRADES 11 & 12

Commendations - Alysha Carins (Scotch Oakburn College) and Jess Shaw (Launceston College).

Winner - Phoebe Withington (Launceston College).

HIGHLIGHTING HERITAGE AWARD

Commendations - Florence Overton (A Conversation with the Past) and Steven McGregor (Faces of Launceston).

Winner - James Jacob (Buildings Remind Us).