TODAYS COMMUNITIES - A LIVING HERITAGE

The shack communities today number hundreds of families across a wide range of backgrounds with the involvement of some families reaching back over five generations.

The people have a strong attachment to place and to maintaining:

• Values of self-regulation, self-reliance, low technology/alternative technology living
• Assistance to the public through the three Surf Life Saving Clubs in the Royal National Park (two of which would not exist without the shack communities)
• Contributing to the environmental protection of the Royal National Park through Landcare and Fireguard.

THESE ARE CO-EXISTING, YET PART TIME COMMUNITIES WITHIN THE ROYAL NATIONAL PARK

CULTURAL HERITAGE IS PEOPLE AND PLACE

It has been a long and hard struggle to maintain the shack communities as they are today. Had it not been for the people organising to save the shacks from demolition, these unique communities would have been destroyed.

The shack people provide a tangible link with the history of these unique places. The value of this heritage to the broader community is not only the shacks themselves, but also the knowledge and responsibility that the people contribute in maintaining the shack areas.

Cultural heritage is the connections between people and place. In our communities this heritage goes back over generations and projects into the future with the passing on of the history, knowledge and practices of shack life.

RNP SHACK COMMUNITIES ARE LOCATED SOUTH OF SYDNEY IN THE ROYAL NATIONAL PARK

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 Location Map