Chris Johnston
Director/Principal Consultant
Chris Johnston is the founder and Managing Director of Context. Chris is a strategic planner and facilitator. She specialises in community engagement and in understanding the value of heritage and people’s attachment to place. As a strategic planner, Chris works with government, private organisations and community clients to develop strategic directions, visions, policies and actions.
Prior to establishing Context, Chris worked in strategic regional planning for the Upper Yarra Valley & Dandenong Ranges Authority, landscape and heritage assessment with the National Trust, environment and heritage planning and policy for the Victorian government. She taught in socio-environmental research, policy and public participation at RMIT.
Since starting the business in 1984, consulting has been her full-time occupation, creating Context in 1988 and establishing its credentials in the fields of environment, heritage and community. Over these years, Chris has contributed to many successful projects.
Recent and significant heritage planning projects include Lake Condah Restoration Conservation Management Plan (2008) and The Meeting Place Conservation Management Plan (2008). Facilitation is also a significant part of her work and recent projects include the Seaworks Foundation Strategic Statement (2007), chairing stakeholder and community liaison committees for Boral, Melbourne Water and the Department of Primary Industries. Increasingly she is working with Aboriginal communities and heritage work, including assisting Aboriginal Affairs Victoria and the City of Melbourne with policy development.
Assessing the social value of heritage places is an important focus of her work. It involves engaging those who have special associations and connections to a place to understand its significance to them and plan for the future. Significant examples include: in Tasmania – Port Arthur and the Upper Mersey Valley; in Queensland – Musgrave Park (1996); in NSW – The Meeting Place (2008), White Bay Power Station (2002), The Rocks (2001), Mount Penang (2001), Ingleburn Army Camp (1999); in Victoria – Lake Condah (2008), Maribyrnong Defence Site (2003). At Context, Chris guides all the social significance assessments. Recent examples include the La Perouse Headland CMP (2008), Lake Burley Griffin HMP (2008), Parliament House Vista HMP (2008) and the Kosciuszko Huts Conservation Strategy (2005).
Chris has contributed to the development of current Australian practice in the assessment of social significance and the involvement of communities through her writings, conference papers and project work. She was a member of the Burra Charter Working Group that developed the 1999 Burra Charter. In 2008, Chris has been appointed to the Australia ICOMOS working group reviewing the Guidelines, and as an expert member on the ICOMOS International Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Chris loves challenging projects that really engage people. Developing a new national approach to assessing inspirational landscapes for example, has enabled her to engage a wide range of people from Australia and overseas who had ideas and expertise to offer. Working with local communities on their heritage places enables their experiences and values to be articulated. In developing policy and a strategic vision, such as for the Victorian Heritage Strategy 2005 -2010, Chris aims to build shared understandings about the importance of our heritage and a strong commitment to its conservation.
Her love of land and landscape also influences her ceramics; she completed her Diploma of Art (Ceramics) at ANU’s School of Art in 2008.
Qualifications and Professional Memberships
- Master of Environmental Science (Monash University)
- Graduate Diploma – Local and Applied History (Armidale CAE)
- Bachelor of Arts – Political Sociology (Melbourne University)
- Member – Planning Institute of Australia – Certified Practising Planner
- Member – Professional Historians Association
- Member – Australia ICOMOS
- Member – ICOMOS International Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage.