The Yarra Valley in Victoria has been a place of bush recreation, gardens, horticulture and farming for over a century. Although it has a mix of public and private ownership it may be considered as a cultural landscape. The process of determining significance involves examining historic, aesthetic, social and natural values for the area already highly regarded for its cultural heritage which is often expressed through artistic works. Determining aesthetic values of landscapes is based on studies of artistic endeavour covering literature and music, visual arts and film, historical photography and tourism images and regional community opinion to identify and assess these values.
Australian impressionist art is now regarded as iconic, landscape based and acting as a filter in popular opinion but landscape design practice does not always take this into account. This paper will examine a range of art sources for Yarra valley landscapes as one of the cultural indicators of significance. Victoria has a long history of scholarship about landscape and heritage protection and has been an exemplar for the rest of Australia. But given recent changes to planning policies, new methods using familiar art works are required.