How to use this map

1.You can click an on an item to see details specific to it

2.Clicking on the heritage management system (HMS) ID should take the entry for it in the HMS system, e.g. https://www.hms.heritage.nsw.gov.au/App/Item/ViewItem?itemId=2427756

3.You can click a category on the legend to toggle it being displayed or hidden

4. You can click on items that are inside the bounds of a different heritage item

5. Clicking the Show Visible list button - will let you see items that are currently visible, please be aware that items can change according to the zoom level, and search using the name of items

6. You can use “search location” to navigate to a specific address
7. You can use the compass style button to navigate to your current location
8. The satellite button toggles showing a satellite view

Comparison to other heritage map interfaces

The NSW planning portal or seed maps provide a similar view. However, they both require the user to know which options to enable to see heritage areas and both do not show images or heritage items. The HMS map is fairly useful but it does not show images, typically does not show the bounds of local items, and is missing many items.

For example, depending upon the zoom level you may not be able to see the ”Bondi Junction underground railway and station” item.

HMS also does not have a working link to see more details for the Bondi Junction station - but our interface does and also is able to show images for the item.

Issues in datasets

The NSW heritage management system (HMS) is in our opinion a difficult to use, confusing, and limited system. We believe that HMS does not meet the needs of the general public in terms of understanding the amount of heritage or to provide easy access to details about heritage items.

Heritage NSW is only able to associate 85% of local heritage items found in EPI Heritage to an entry in HMS (According to emails from Heritage NSW). This is due to issues with regards to data quality in heritage listings.
There are many items that have incorrect or out of date addresses. For example, Electricity Substation No. 183 shows as having a primary address of 80 Gould Street North Bondi should be 80 Gould St Bondi Beach (https://maps.app.goo.gl/9fgdo21rFUgU6Muy7).
Our map interface uses a few approaches to end up with a slightly higher percentage match than you will see in HMS. The point is that there are items that it is difficult to find more information about in the HMS system. There are items that are listed in a LEP but do not seem to have an entry in the HMS system at all. For example, the Imperial Building in Bondi Junction does not seem to have an entry in HMS.

Heritage items remain listed after being demolished. For example, Etchell’s Cottage at 60 Hansens Road, Minto Heights was demolished with development consent in 2014 as a safety risk, and as of September 2026 is still listed in the Campbelltown LEP and the State register, as of 2026. This particular item is likely to be delisted via this planning proposal.

Section 170

Section 170 of the NSW Heritage Act 1977 requires government instrumentalities to establish and maintain a Heritage and Conservation Register. However, not all built non-moveable section 170 items are part of the EPI Heritage or the State Heritage Register Curtilages data sets. Items such as this Sandstone Kerb are not found in the heritage map related datasets; as an aside Transport for NSW when asked was not able to find one of the studies associated with the item. This means that there are Section 170 heritage items that will not show in the property report of an item generated in the NSW planning portal interface, or in the HMS map interface, or in seed maps.

In August 2026 a story was published in the SMH on how an electricity substation (a section 170 item) could not be redeveloped, at great cost to the owner, due to administrative errors. This is likely not the first or the last case of this happening.

Notes and Warnings

Please be aware that Heritage NSW is only able to match around 85% of local significance heritage items in the Heritage Management System (HMS) to “Environmental Planning Instrument - Heritage” data and while we do make use of the association approach they use we also use some other approaches. As result of these additional approaches, such as matching based upon property address similarity, we are able to display more HMS links and details from HMS for items but matches may not be correct.

More on heritage

Sydney YIMBY’s submission to the NSW Heritage Review.
Our blog post on the Wollondilly Heritage Review
A video of Michael Clayden, one of our members, addressing Ku-ring-gai Council on heritage policy (from 46:10).

Sydney YIMBY believes

Truly valuable heritage is currently undermined by the existing NSW Heritage system
It freezes entire suburbs of mediocre, unimportant buildings in amber simply because they are old
It fails to consider or even acknowledge the existence of trade-offs and downsides that come from excessive heritage listings and expansive conservation areas
The NSW Heritage Act should be amended to require a quantitative comparison of costs and benefits before heritage listing.