PEOPLE CENTRED HERITAGE - SYDNEY SPOTLIGHT // Eleanor Banaag on Sydney Harbour Bridge

“Conservation is not a static thing. It means different things to different people, different communities. The most important thing is to try to find a balance, so you’re really enhancing the story you’re trying to tell.” - Eleanor Banaag

Early in her career, heritage expert Eleanor Banaag was part of a team tasked with restoring the maintenance cranes that scaled Sydney Harbour Bridge for nearly seventy years. Workers used the four cranes to paint and repair the bridge, as Sydneysiders tracked their progress across the arches. But after nearly seventy years, the equipment was in dire need of attention.

For Eleanor, it was a lesson about the value of conservation, and the different approaches she could take, as the cranes went from being utilitarian tools to valued heritage objects, telling a small but crucial story of the city and one of its most recognisable icons.

#sydney #maintenance #career #conservation #leadershipteam #leadershipmindset