An independent heritage expert witness is a professional with specialised knowledge and experience in heritage conservation. We provide authoritative and independent statements and presentations in legal, planning, and policy contexts involving heritage places.

Our Difference: Next Generation Conservation At Heritage Workshop, we offer innovative, creative, future-orientated heritage consulting.

We are a boutique, research-led practice based in Melbourne, founded by Dr James Lesh, a leading heritage specialist.

While traditional heritage practice often focuses on buildings as physical objects, our "next generation" philosophy is built on a deeper, more powerful questions:

Why does this place matter?

What makes the place significant?

How can this significance guide the future of the place?

We focus on the heritage values, architecture, history, stories, social values, sustainability , and community connections that give a place its true meaning. This "people-centred" approach uncovers new opportunities, navigates complex challenges, and delivers heritage outcomes with lasting value.

What Sets Us Apart The heritage field is diverse, with firms offering different specialisations.

Our clients choose us for our unique, strategic and collaborative focus:

1. Beyond Buildings: A "People-First", "Place-First" Philosophy

Many excellent firms are led by architects and conservators, with a primary focus on the technical conservation of built fabric. This work is essential.

Our practice builds on this traditional buildings approach.

We also uncover the intangible heritage—the community histories, uses, and attachments—that make a place significant. We believe a building's story is as important as its materials.

We use this knowledge about both built fabric and heritage significance to guide our advice, reports and recommendations.

2. Beyond Compliance: A Strategic Approach

A heritage report is often treated as a statutory hurdle to overcome. We see it as a strategic opportunity.

Our work goes beyond a simple compliance report. We develop robust, forward-thinking strategies, methodologies and recommendations that unlock a site's future potential.

We are uniquely skilled in navigating heritage places that defy simple categorisation, turning perceived constraints into compelling assets, for strong and viable results.

3. Beyond Generalists: A Specialist Focus

Large, multidisciplinary consultancies offer heritage as one of many services. As a boutique firm, urban and built heritage is our only focus.

Our clients engage directly with our founder, Dr James Lesh. You get the personal attention and authority of a recognised thought leader who has published and taught extensively on the very methodologies we use and the places we conserve.

4. Beyond the Past: A Future-Focused Vision

Our "next generation conservation" philosophy means we believe heritage must be a dynamic part of the future. We balance the preservation of significance with the need for places to adapt and thrive.

We provide practical, grounded advice that enables reasonable and quality development, ensuring that our heritage contributes to social, economic, and environmental sustainability. When to Engage Heritage Workshop Engage us when you're seeking more from your heritage consultant than a mere technical report.

Our approach is ideal for:

Addressing Heritage Upfront: Ensuring heritage considerations guide your project to save you time and money down the line for great project outcomes.

Working Together Towards a Shared Vision: Collaboration to integrate development, design, sustainability, community and heritage objectives.

Understanding Social and Community Value: Engaging with a place's significance to people, as well as its built fabric.

Navigating Contested Histories: Expertly managing complex sites with challenging and layered stories.

Developing Future-Focused Policy: Creating heritage strategies for government, masterplanning and asset managers across metropolitan Melbourne, regional Victoria, and Australia wide.

Crafting a Compelling Narrative: Building a strong, compelling and evidence-based case for your heritage project, incorporating placemaking and interpretation.

Research and Expert Services: Providing authoritative, robust and grounded analysis.

Ready for a new perspective on heritage?

Contact us today to discuss how our next-generation approach can add value to your project.

Heritage Workshop adopts best-practice heritage management approaches and combines them with high-level analytical thinking and strategic heritage and historical research.

Every heritage project and place is different. So, Heritage Workshop prepares a distinctive methodology statement on every heritage expert report. This statement explains how we went about preparing the report, our working assumptions, the legal and planning context, the heritage approaches used, and the research undertaken.

Heritage Workshop is rigorous in its approach to next generation conservation.

We thoroughly review all project documentation and conduct strategic heritage research. We examine listings, controls, policies, historical studies, and archival evidence. Our approach usually includes a comprehensive site inspection to understand the existing heritage context. We maintain close liaison with the project team and client throughout the process. We provide high-resolution report documents.

A heritage consultant is a professional who specialises in the conservation, management, and adaptive reuse of historical buildings and sites. We provide expert advice on preserving the significance of buildings, while ensuring compliance with planning, building and heritage standards.

Our goal is to help clients navigate the complexities of heritage conservation. Our team is committed to delivering advice and solutions that respect and enhance the cultural value of heritage place, while enabling the heritage places to sustainably evolve into the future.

At Heritage Workshop, our consultants hold, at a minimum, postgraduate qualifications, and are members of relevant professional bodies. We collaborate with our clients to deploy best-practice heritage approaches, utilise deep research, and apply high-level reasoning to your project.

Heritage significance can include historical, architectural, aesthetic, rarity, scientific, spiritual, technical, environmental, economic, scientific and spiritual values.

Heritage places and landscapes demonstrate at least one of these heritage values. Without significance, the place is no longer heritage.

Typically, we divide heritage significance into two categories. First, we examine values embedded within places, such as historical and aesthetic significance. Then we examine the flows and impacts of other values on heritage places, such as economic and environmental value.

A Statement of Significance is a key document in the field of heritage conservation and heritage planning. It outlines the heritage significance and values that mean a particular building or precinct exceeds heritage listing thresholds.

A Statement of Significance is typically divided into three sections:

What is the heritage place? Its location and boundaries.

Why is it significant? Its heritage values.

How does it demonstrate its significance?

Historical notes, permit exemptions, design guidelines, photographs, and other documentation may be appended to a statement of significance.

Statements of Significance can vary in the quality of information, often dependent on how recently it was published. These are not exhaustive documents. They require examination and interpretation when development and conservation efforts are proposed for the heritage place.

Heritage Workshop crafts tailored strategies and advice for heritage places that conserve and enhance their significance.

A Heritage Context Report provides details about a property's heritage listing. It is a desktop-review of the heritage planning status. It's a useful report for designing and planning your next project.

Ensuring your development or renovation project considers your property's heritage listing assists with project feasibility and design. The Heritage Context Report identifies heritage opportunities and constraints for your project. You don't want to have to change your project later on, because it doesn't meet heritage requirements. Reworking your project also means delay and expense for you.

Explore our fixed-price Heritage Context Report.

As subject matter specialists, Heritage Workshop brings a unique collaborative approach to working with your stakeholders and communities. Not only do we know heritage. We also have qualified stakeholder workshop facilitators. We then utilise people-centred heritage approaches that genuinely and meaningfully integrates diverse perspectives to achieve stronger project outcomes.

Heritage Workshop brings our unique evidence-based approaches to both social value and people-centred heritage.

Social value is embedded within heritage places over time, such as at heritage train stations, sporting grounds, pubs and theatres. We use expert methods to define social value and prepare strategies for its continuity into the future.

People-centred heritage is broader. Heritage Workshop works collaboratively with stakeholders and communities across our heritage projects to achieve community-focussed heritage outcomes.

We can implement social value and people-centred heritage to strengthen your next project.

People-centred heritage conservation is an approach that emphasises understanding why historic places matter to individuals and communities. It seeks to balance traditional conservation practices, which often focus on the material aspects of heritage, with the emotional and personal connections people have to these places.

This approach recognises that historic places are not just physical structures, but also places infused with meanings, memories, and practices. It moves beyond top-down evaluations to include diverse forms of empirical evidence, such as community perspectives and personal attachments, to inform heritage management and ensure the continued relevance of the past.

Founding Director of Heritage Workshop, Dr James Lesh is an expert in the theory and practice of people-centred heritage. He is the co-editor of the book: People-centred methodologies for heritage conservation: exploring emotional attachments to historic urban places.

A: Heritage Workshop offers specialised support to owners of heritage homes, offices, shops and other buildings through comprehensive conservation advice, impact assessment and permit approvals. Our services are tailored to enhance and conserve the significance of heritage places, while integrating modern needs and standards. Whether you require guidance on regulatory compliance, restoration techniques, or design options, Heritage Workshop is dedicated to helping preserve and enhance your heritage property.