The formal name is the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Consultation Requirements for Proponents 2010, published by what is now Heritage NSW. People shorten it to the ACHCRs. They apply to any project where you are seeking an AHIP or preparing an ACHAR, and they set out — in some detail — how a proponent must consult the Aboriginal community before ground is disturbed.
The requirements exist because a database search can only tell you what has already been recorded. The cultural significance of a place, and how it should be cared for, is knowledge that sits with Aboriginal people. Consultation is how that knowledge informs the assessment. It is a genuine two-way process, not a form to file.
In the NSW process, Registered Aboriginal Parties (RAPs) are the Aboriginal people and organisations who register their interest in being consulted about your specific project. They are not appointed by the consultant or the proponent — anyone with cultural knowledge of, or an interest in, the area can register, and who ends up on the register is for the community to decide.
A quick note to avoid a common mix-up: “RAP” here is a NSW project-registration, not the same thing as a statutory body of the same initials in another state. In NSW it simply means the Aboriginal cultural knowledge holders on the register for this job.
At COLCO the consultation is run independently and impartially. The point of the process is to hear what the community actually says — including where that complicates a project — not to steer it toward a preferred answer. That independence is the whole value of doing it properly.
The ACHCRs break the process into four stages (with 22 individual tasks underneath them). In plain terms:
Stage 1 — Notification and registration of interest. You publicly advertise the project, write to the relevant government agencies and land councils, and invite Aboriginal people with cultural knowledge specific to your project area to register. This is deliberately done at the start of the project, so the right people are identified before any assessment is designed. Allow roughly one to two weeks for the newspaper advertisements to be placed and the government agencies to provide their relevant lists, then a statutory two weeks for registrations of interest to be placed.
Stage 2 — Presenting the project and the method. The registered parties receive the project information and the proposed assessment methodology, and have four weeks to respond. This is where the community can shape how the assessment is done, not just review it afterwards.
Stage 3 — Gathering information about cultural significance. This is the heart of it: the RAPs provide information about the cultural values of the area, often alongside the fieldwork (survey and, where needed, test excavation). Their knowledge feeds directly into what the assessment concludes.
Stage 4 — Reviewing the draft report. The draft ACHAR goes back to the registered parties, who again have four weeks to comment on the findings and the proposed management before the report is finalised.
Realistically, three to six months. The statutory response windows alone add up, and anything that slows communication — a change in project scope, late release of information, slow internal sign-offs — stretches it further. None of that is wasted time. Consultation started early protects heritage first, and it is also what keeps a project on solid ground: findings that the community has genuinely informed are far less likely to be reopened later. The delays that hurt projects are almost always the ones caused by leaving consultation until last.
This is the part people most often get wrong when they cross the border. The NSW consultation requirements do not apply in the ACT. The ACT manages Aboriginal heritage under the Heritage Act 2004, and consultation happens through the Representative Aboriginal Organisations (RAOs) — organisations declared under the Act. Under the legislation, the ACT Heritage Council must consult the RAOs on decisions affecting Aboriginal places and objects, including applications for excavation permits and Cultural Heritage Assessments (CHAs). In practice, the Council usually delegates that consultation to the project’s archaeologist, who consults the RAOs on its behalf and passes their input back to the Council.
There are two real differences between the two jurisdictions. First, the terminology: NSW has RAPs, ACHARs, AHIPs and AHIMS; the ACT has RAOs, CHAs, Statements of Heritage Effect and ACT Heritage Council excavation permits. They are not interchangeable, and using the NSW terms in the ACT (or vice versa) is a reliable sign the process hasn’t been understood. Second, the trigger: NSW works on a due diligence test — you assess whether your activity is likely to harm Aboriginal objects, and consultation follows from that. The ACT does not run on that threshold — a project there generally needs a proper heritage assessment regardless of how much ground disturbance is proposed. So if you’re working in the ACT, don’t set up a NSW-style RAP consultation; get advice on the ACT pathway instead.
Last reviewed 1 August 2026. General information, not legal or site-specific advice. NSW is progressing reforms to its Aboriginal cultural heritage framework — we keep our advice current. For advice on your project, contact COLCO.
For projects preparing an ACHAR or seeking an AHIP, yes. The Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Consultation Requirements for Proponents 2010 set out a mandatory four-stage process that must be documented as part of the assessment.
They are the Aboriginal people and organisations who register their interest in being consulted about a specific NSW project. They are independent of the proponent and the consultant — anyone with cultural knowledge of, or an interest in, the area can register, and who ends up on the register is for the community to decide.
Usually three to six months. The statutory response windows (four weeks at two separate points) plus notification and registration set the minimum, and changes in scope or slow information release extend it.
No. The ACT consults its Representative Aboriginal Organisations (RAOs) under the Heritage Act 2004, and generally requires a full heritage assessment regardless of ground disturbance. The NSW terms — RAP, ACHAR, AHIP, AHIMS — do not apply in the ACT.
COLCO can map the consultation program before you commit, and keep the NSW and ACT pathways straight so nothing is missed. Consultation run independently and rigorously, by a former regulator. Canberra-based, servicing the ACT and NSW.
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