Four Commonwealth heritage plans for Canberra and Alice Springs open for comment

The Department of Finance has opened public consultation on four draft Heritage Management Plans covering places entered on the Commonwealth Heritage List in the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. Submissions are invited from members of the public, Indigenous people with rights and interests in the places, key stakeholders and community groups. The invitation is published in the Government Notices Gazette of the Commonwealth of Australia as C2026G00721, registered on 13 November 2026, with comments closing at 5.00pm AEDT on Sunday, 13 December 2026.

The consultation rests on paragraph 341S(6)(b) of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, the provision under which the Department of Finance is inviting comment on the draft plans. The notice identifies all four properties as places included on the Commonwealth Heritage List, the register of heritage values on Commonwealth land. Two of the four entries concern separate buildings of the Royal Australian Mint in the ACT, which are being planned for independently of each other.

The four places under consultation

• The Royal Australian Mint – Former Process Building, ACT
• The Royal Australian Mint – Former Administration Building, ACT
• Casey House and Garden, ACT
• 13 McMinn Street, Alice Springs, NT

Three of the four places are in the Australian Capital Territory, while the Alice Springs entry is the only Northern Territory property in this round. The notice treats the two Mint buildings as distinct heritage places rather than a single site.

Where to read the draft plans

The Department of Finance states that the draft Heritage Management Plans are available on its website, at the government property and construction page dedicated to the 2026 public consultation on heritage management plans. Hard copies are also available on request. The department has not indicated in the notice any fee or registration requirement for access to the documents.

How and where to lodge a submission

The notice sets out separate contact routes for the four plans, and the split does not follow the geography of the sites:

• Comments on the first three plans — the Royal Australian Mint Former Process Building, 13 McMinn Street in Alice Springs and Casey House and Garden — should be sent to environmentheritage@finance.gov.au
• Comments on the Royal Australian Mint Former Administration Building plan should be sent to info@collectivecapital.com.au
• The closing date for all public comment is 5.00pm AEDT on Sunday, 13 December 2026
• Enquiries, feedback and comments may be directed through the same two addresses listed in the gazette

Prospective submitters should note that the Administration Building plan is handled through a separate mailbox from the other three, so a single submission covering all four properties would need to be split between the two addresses.

Who is being asked to respond

The notice extends the invitation beyond the general public to Indigenous people with rights and interests in the places, key stakeholders and community groups. That wording reflects the statutory framing of the consultation rather than a restricted audience: the gazette describes the call as open to members of the public as well as to those specific constituencies. For the Department of Finance, the exercise is a formal consultation step on documents that have already been prepared in draft.

The notice does not state how long the comment period will run beyond its closing time, nor does it set out a timetable for finalising the plans after submissions close. Property owners, occupants and community organisations with an interest in any of the four listings have slightly under a month from publication to respond.

Source: Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, Government Notices C2026G00721, 13 November 2026, notices (official reference: C2026G00721).