Cultural heritage is a legacy from our past and defines Australia’s identity. An integral part of life today for all Australians, it gives meaning to the stories and places we pass on to future generations. Until now, aboriginal elders have been keeping an oral history of the land. Storytelling, rather than maps or signposts, has been used to record the significance and location of sites.

With development occurring across the country, and very few physical records of this cultural heritage existing today. There are frequent incidences of damage to cultural heritage, sometimes even complete destruction, through ignorance.

Our Summit Cultural Heritage Solution consists of a web-based management system that can be accessed by authorised users, and a map-based data collection application that runs on tablet PCs for use in the field. The solution can be used to review cultural heritage records, sorting by site type and searching for particular sites based on the site details. It provides a wide array of searching and reporting tools that assist users in finding the cultural heritage information that they need. A history of changes to each record can be viewed, and various summary reports can be produced from this master list.

The system is also designed for cultural heritage owners to keep a completely private record of heritage information, to be shared within the community, while respecting the sensitivity of the information. Additionally, all data is encrypted so that it cannot be accidentally viewed by users of Records can include links to documents, sound files, videos and other archived information, with multiple photos and/or multimedia links able to be attached to any record. Each record can be viewed in detail and may be edited only by authorised users.

Reports on individual sites can be produced, and a summary of information on a set of cultural heritage sites can be produced in table form. The set of sites can also be displayed on a map to show their relative locations. This helps correctly identify the records of interest and is very valuable for communicating information to government agencies and landholders.

Summit Cultural Heritage is making a major contribution to communities across Australia. Talk to us to learn how we can help you preserve your living history.