The ACT Heritage Grants Program is an annual funding program administered by the ACT Government to assist the community to conserve and promote the heritage of the ACT.

The grants will provide $230,000 to identify and carry out projects that promote and conserve our local heritage. Applications close at midnight on Sunday 21 April.

“The ACT has a rich history from different locations and people from all walks and life, and that is why we would like to help empower the community to tell these stories in new ways,” Rebecca Vassarotti, ACT Minister for Heritage, said. 

Priorities for the 2024-25 round of the ACT Heritage Grants Program are:  

• ACT Heritage Register – Conservation works that enable the continued preservation, protection, use and access to places registered on the ACT Heritage Register, as well as Conservation Management Plans for registered or Aboriginal places and objects. 
• Community Participation – Projects that actively engage people in understanding, celebrating, and promoting heritage places and objects through education, oral histories, tourism, digitisation, interpretation and events. 
• Aboriginal Heritage – Aboriginal projects initiated by or involving local Aboriginal communities in cultural heritage activities. 
• Partnerships – Projects that provide partnership opportunities between community organisations and ACT Government agencies. 
• Diversity – Projects that reflect the Territory’s diversity and equality by documenting and recording the histories of women and Indigenous, multicultural, disability and LGBTQIA+ communities of the ACT. 

“I encourage any group or individual with a passion for sharing stories about Canberra’s heritage to apply and help new generations to learn and appreciate our vast history,” Ms Vassarotti said.

In the 2023-2024 round, the ACT Heritage Grants Program funded 15 individual or community group projects to the value of $159,500:

• Reid Residents’ Association: Conservation management plan for Reid Park Sportsground: $29,620
• Capital Region Heritage Rail: Conservation management plan for Locomotive 1210: $24,130
• Canberra Raiders: Oral histories: $15,330
• Deakin Residents’ Association: Discovering and valuing Deakin’s heritage – signage: $14,790
• Hall Museum and Heritage Centre: Conservation management project: $9,800; education display places – blinds: $4,200
• National Foundation for Australian Women: Web-based digital biographies of ACT female politicians: $12,000
• Ginninderra Catchment Group: Canberra Tracks signage for Indigenous cultural trees at Hall: $11,230
• Tidbinbilla Pioneers’ Association: Rock Valley conservation management plan: $11,130
• Brendan O’Keefe: History of Well Station from foundation to acquisition in 1915: $7,000
• Ozmega Committee: Heritage postcards for geocaching: $5,710
• Heraldry & Genealogy Society of Canberra: 60 years in Canberra – publication: $5,600
• Dickson Residents’ Association: Dickson’s Once Upon a Time centenary: $5,020
• Rosanne Burston: Well Station – oral history of Dennis Rose: $2,950
• Catherine Edlington: Oral history of Betty Edlington: $1,000

and three Community Heritage Partnership Projects to the value of $184,500:

• Canberra and Region Heritage Festival: $80,000
• Cultural trees heritage assessments: $54,500
• Heritage Advisory Service: $50,000