"Under section 6 of conservation Act 1987 the department manages for conservation purposes all historic resources on the land it administers, and advocates for the conservation of historic resources generally. "

"Managing historic resources on the conservation estate includes the collection of information, research, restoration work on specific sites, preparation of interpretive material and the preparation of strategies and policy advice."

"Land administered by DOC contains thousands of historic places, many of which are of high cultural heritage value." Quotes from Department of Conservation Fact Sheet 1996: Historic conservation.

Some major themes represented are:

• Early Maori settlement, Maori pre-european warfare, social organisation and expression, economics
• European discovery and contact
• whaling, sealing
• New Zealand wars
• Gold mining
• Timber industry
• Farming
• Tourism and recreation
• Nature conservation