The National Trust and landscape heritage in Victoria: recent assessments of volcanic landscapes in Western Victoria

Abstract

For over 30 years the Landscape Committee of the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) has identified and classified landscapes to help protect them from inappropriate development. A joint project with the Victorian Subcommittee for Geological Heritage of the GSA Inc. resulted in an inventory and evaluation of the scientific significance of the main volcanoes of Victoria (Rosengren 1994). More recent assessments have included Lake Gnotuk, Mt Leura, and the Mt Porndon Stony Rises. At a recent VCAT hearing the Trust?s assessment of Tower Hill helped overturn a building permit application on the southern slope of this Internationally significant maar volcano.