Developing a tool-kit for geoheritage and geoconservation in Western Australia

Globally, geoheritage has become important because it has been recognised that Earth systems have a story to tell, and that they are linked to the ongoing history of human development, providing the resources for development, and a sense of place, with historical, cultural, aesthetic, and religious values. In addition, Earth systems are the foundation of all ecological processes, and part of the heritage of our sciences (Torfason 2001). To place geoheritage and geoconservation on a robust footing in Western Australia, building on Geoheritage: from global perspectives to local principles for conservation and planning (Brocx 2008), we have developed a “tool-kit”, firstly to define the scope of geoheritage, the scales at which geoheritage features can be identified, and levels of significance that can be assigned to such features, and secondly, to identify geoheritage features from small scale to large scale that occur as an inter-related suites in a given area and that should be conserved as an ensemble