Cultural Values Assessment Guide

Understanding the distinction between tangible and intangible cultural heritage is essential to understanding why a CVA is sometimes needed alongside — or instead of — a purely archaeological assessment. 

 Tangible cultural heritage refers to the physical, material evidence of Aboriginal occupation and cultural practice. Under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006, this includes:

• Aboriginal places — sites of cultural significance on the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Register (VAHR), including artefact scatters, earth mounds, rock shelters, ceremonial grounds, scarred trees, and burial sites
• Aboriginal objects — moveable items such as stone tools, grinding stones, and ceremonial objects
• Culturally modified trees (CMTs) — trees bearing evidence of bark removal, branch modification, or carved designs
• Shell middens — accumulations of shell, bone, and food refuse marking places of past Aboriginal occupation
• Ancestral remains — the physical remains of deceased Aboriginal persons

These are the values that archaeological survey methods — pedestrian ground survey, test pit excavation, geomorphological analysis — are designed to find and assess.  

Intangible cultural heritage refers to the non-physical dimensions of Aboriginal cultural knowledge and expression. Under Section 79B of the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006, amended in 2016, Victoria became the first Australian state to legislate specifically for the protection of intangible Aboriginal heritage. This includes:

• Oral traditions and narratives — stories, histories, and knowledge systems passed down through generations
• Performing arts — song, dance, music, and ceremony
• Social practices, rituals, and festivals
• Craft traditions and visual arts
• Environmental and ecological knowledge — Traditional Owner knowledge of land, water, plants, animals, and seasonal patterns
• Spiritual and sacred connections to specific places and landscapes
• Song lines and Dreaming tracks — networks of spiritual and narrative meaning that traverse Country and connect communities across vast distances

These values cannot be identified through a desktop assessment or pedestrian survey. They exist in the knowledge, memory, and lived experience of Traditional Owners — and can only be accessed through direct engagement with Community. Cultural Values Assessments identify and record Intangible cultural heritage.

A CVA is not mandated by the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 in the way that a CHMP can be mandatory. It is, however, increasingly required or strongly recommended in the following circumstances. 

The Victorian Planning Authority (VPA) has incorporated CVAs into its precinct planning process for significant growth areas. CVAs are increasingly being treated as a standard component of the evidence base for significant planning decisions, not an optional extra. 

Major infrastructure projects — transmission lines, pipelines, road and rail corridors, and renewable energy facilities — traverse large areas of Country and may pass through landscapes of deep cultural significance that standard archaeological survey would not capture. A CVA allows Traditional Owners to identify and document the cultural values of the full corridor, enabling project designers to make genuinely informed decisions about alignment, design, and impact mitigation. 

Land management agencies including Parks Victoria, DEECA, and local councils are increasingly required to incorporate Traditional Owner cultural knowledge into their land management planning. A CVA provides the structured framework for capturing that knowledge and translating it into management outcomes that reflect Traditional Owner priorities. 

Where a developer is undertaking a significant project in an area of known or likely cultural sensitivity — near waterways, in volcanic landscapes, or on land with a long history of Traditional Owner connection — a voluntary CVA is increasingly recognised as best practice. It demonstrates genuine respect for Traditional Owner authority, reduces the risk of unforeseen heritage issues during construction, and can generate genuine development value through authentic partnership with Community. 

Where Aboriginal places have been identified through CHMP fieldwork and their significance needs to be assessed for VAHR registration, conservation planning, or management condition development, a CVA provides the anthropological and cultural context that transforms an archaeological site record into a meaningful understanding of what the place represents to its Traditional Owners.