Have you ever wondered whether there are aboriginal relics on your property or the property where you do your landcare work? Well, now there's a way to check and a way to certify that you've looked into this, and it is important you do.

Changes to Tasmania's Aboriginal Heritage Act came into effect on 16 August.  One of the changes is to remove the defence of ignorance for damage to Aboriginal sites and relics. You can read more on this here. 

This means that you must take reasonable steps to ensure you are informed any known or potential Aboriginal heritage on your site. The new online Aboriginal Heritage property search is designed to help with this.

Go to https://www.aboriginalheritage.tas.gov.au/propertysearch

Start the search by clicking the dark blue button at the bottom of the page.

Enter an address or property ID to bring up your search results.

Read your results in the red box.

Your property status could be any of the following:

• It has not identified any registered Aboriginal relics or apparent risk of impacting Aboriginal relics.
• It has not identified any registered Aboriginal relics, but there is an increased risk of impacting Aboriginal relics in the area. Caution must be applied when undertaking works.
• It has identified registered Aboriginal relics and further investigation is needed. In this case you need to contact Aboriginal Heritage Tasmania.

Depending on your results from here you can fill out the form to:

• Generate a an official "search record" that confirms you've checked the property with the online tool.
• Initiate an Aboriginal Heritage Desktop search.

The report on your property search will also issue you with a guide as to what actions need to be taken in the event that you find Aboriginal heritage after commencement of your work. Following these instructions is important to ensure you operate within the new laws, even if the property search does not identify any known sites.

ALL Landcare groups are encouraged to do a property search of the property where they carry out their work. Reports are valid for 6 months and should be retained as evidence that your group has looked into the issue.