A World Heritage site is defined as a place that is important to all peoples of the world. The Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton Gardens is the first non-Aboriginal cultural site in Australia to win World Heritage listing. It joins our nation's other World Heritage listings, which include Aboriginal cultural sites such as Uluru-Kata Tjuta, and the continent's many natural heritage areas—from Kakadu in the north to the Tasmanian Wilderness, from Shark Bay (Western Australia) to the Great Barrier Reef off the eastern coast.
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee announced the listing on 1 July 2004, after a rigorous international assessment process. The Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton Gardens has been listed under cultural criterion (ii), as set out in the Operational Guidelines for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention:
'exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design'
It is one of the few 'world fair' buildings from the 19th century and the only surviving Great Hall of the Palace of Industry, the centrepiece of the International Exhibitions.