Engineering Heritage Recognition Program - Guidelines and Templates

Heritage and Conservation

In August 2023 Engineering Heritage Australia published An engineer’s guide to the conservation of Australia’s engineering heritage. This Guide is designed to assist engineers working on a built item or its intangible heritage, to assess the significance of the item and its components and devise a course of action to achieve the conservation of the significance of the item.

Engineering Heritage Recognition Program (EHRP)

Engineers Australia established the Australian Historic Engineering Plaquing Program in 1984 as a means of bringing public recognition to engineering works of historic or heritage significance and to the engineers who created them. This program is now called the Engineering Heritage Recognition Program. The purpose of the Program is to encourage conservation of Australian engineering heritage and to raise community awareness of engineering and the benefits it provides.

An Engineering Heritage Marker is the method of formal EHRP recognition, comprising three categories:

Engineering Heritage Marker (EHM)
Engineering Heritage National Marker (EHNM)
Engineering Heritage International Marker (EHIM)

An Item of Engineering Interest is an additional category which provides for items that may or may not later be recognised with a Marker.

Recognition with a Marker occurs through a Nomination process. Anyone can make a Nomination. However, all Nominations must be submitted through the relevant Engineering Heritage Branch in whose area the item is located. The Nomination process is shown below:

The EHRP Guidelines were recently updated to support EHA’s on-line presence and to clarify EHRP policy. Importantly, the underlying principles remain unchanged. The 2024 EHRP Guidelines explain the Program and the details of the Nomination process.

Key extracts from the Guidelines are:

Please contact the Chair, EHRP at heritage.engineersaustralia@gmail.com to forward Nominations and also to report any damage to Markers or Interpretation Panels.

The original 2017 EHRP Guidelines are available for download from the Engineers Australia website at 2017 Guide to Engineering Heritage Recognition Program.

Items of Engineering Interest

Generally, an ‘EHRP Item of Engineering Interest’ is an example of engineering or technology with a story that is worth recording. Many of these items are already identified, for example, in brochures for local walking tours.

Recognition of an ‘EHRP Item of Engineering Interest’ is by inclusion in the EHA Website list and the creation of a webpage for that item. No physical or virtual Marker is provided as part of the listing. Each Engineering Heritage Branch is responsible for items included in the EHA Website list and for the accuracy of the material included on the webpage, subject only to editorial and style review by the EHA Webmaster.

Items of Engineering Interest should be recorded using the Item Description Template.

EHRP Committee

Current Terms of Reference for the EHRP Committee were approved by the EHA Committee during their meeting held on 13 December 2023.

The EHRP is run by a volunteer national committee. Current members are: Richard Muncey (Chair); Bob Taaffe (Deputy Chair); Perry Beor; Rex Glencross-Grant; Gregg Klopp; Merv Lindsay; Frank Johnson; Bill Phippen and Mike Taylor (ex-officio member, Chair EHA).

EHRP Tables and Lists

The lists below are automatically generated from the above tables.