For Shellharbour City Council, Wollongong City Council and Kiama Municipal Council.

The Toolkit and accompanying protocol provides a set of guidelines for the assessment of development applications in relation to Aboriginal heritage, within existing legal constraints. It also sets out standard actions to be taken if Aboriginal items are discovered during construction, in cases where no predictive mapping or assessment has previously been made.  The Toolkit aimed to achieve best practice management associated with Aboriginal cultural heritage not only in the Shellharbour City Council area but also to inform Wollongong and Kiama local government areas and potentially apply regionally.  Development of the toolkit and protocol was built on an extensive programme of community education, engagement and consultation with the Aboriginal community, developers and residents as well as internal Council stakeholders.

The Toolkit received a NSW Award for Planning Excellence 2013, in the Improving Planning Processes and Practices Category, from the Planning Institute of Australia (NSW Division) and a Commendation in the National Planning Awards 2014, in the same category.  It was previously Highly Commended in the NSW National Trust Heritage Awards 2013 in the Research and Investigation/Analysis Category.

2013