See the World's Most Significant Cultural and Heritage Sites With Google

In Sustainable Australian Travel For Dummies, I wrote about how important the preservation and enhancement of Australia's culture and heritage is to the tourism industry. Throughout the book I list some of Australia's best cultural and heritage experiences, particularly Australia’s unique indigenous Aboriginal heritage. Although Australia’s indigenous population is one of the oldest civilisations in the world, it is only in recent times that it is being widely recognised and celebrated through tourism.

Although Australia’s European settlement period is still comparatively young, a surprising number of well-preserved precincts in cities and towns throughout the country also highlight the country’s colonial settlement period. And it is in Australia's biggest cities where you'll find a thriving mix of European, Asian and African communities that highlight the importance that immigration has played in Australia's economic growth.

Many of the important heritage and cultural sites I list in the book are recognised globally on the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage List, which identifies, protects and maintain sites around the world deemed to have cultural and natural heritage of outstanding value to humanity. Currently there are 890 locations worldwide which have been awarded a spot on the list, most of which are cultural sites (689), a smaller number of unique natural sites (176) and a combination of cultural and natural sites (25). There are 17 world heritage listed sites in Australia, and they are:

* Great Barrier Reef, Qld
* Kakadu National Park, Qld
* Willandra Lakes Region, NSW
* Lord Howe Island Group, off NSW coastline
* Tasmanian Wilderness, Tasmania
* Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, NSW and Qld.
* Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, NT
* Wet Tropics of Queensland, Qld
* Shark Bay, WA
* Fraser Island, Qld.
* Australian Fossil Mammal Sites (Riversleigh / Naracoorte, SA)
* Heard and McDonald Islands (Australian territories in Southern Ocean)
* Macquarie Island, off Tasmanian coastline
* Greater Blue Mountains Area, NSW
* Purnululu National Park, NT
* Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens, Victoria
* Sydney Opera House, NSW

Four of the sites have been recognised as having both cultural and natural significance: Kakadu  (it is home to 40,000 years of indigenous heritage); the Willandra Lakes region (it contains fossil remains that dates human occupation back to between 40 and 65,000 years ago); the Tasmanian Wilderness (remains found in limestone caves show human habitation of some 20,000 years ago); and Uluru-Kata Tjuta (the rock domes form part of the traditional belief system of one of the oldest human societies in the world).

So what does Google have to do with all this? Well, Google and UNESCO have just signed an alliance that will allow most of their World Heritage listed sites to be explored online. In fact, at the moment, if you click on Google Maps here you will be able to check out Australia's urban-based cultural listings (the Sydney Opera House  - see below - and the Royal Exhibition Building and Gardens) via Google's great Street View tool (click on Discover more World Heritage Sites and follow the directions for finding the sites listed in Australia). Or if you want to go further a field you can check out the many European and North American listed UNESCO sites, enabling you to see them as if you are actually there. This is evidently only the start - UNESCO has encouraged Google to visit additional sites, focusing on difficult-to-access natural locations that most people will never get the chance to see in person.


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So, if have decided on a staycation these holidays, it doesn't have to be all doom and gloom - why not visit a different historically significant UNESCO site each day by using this great tool from Google! And if you are seeking even more adventure, why not fly there via their Google Earth platform - another great way to see the sites without leaving home!