Snapshots from Behind the Scenes - Relocating Museum Victoria's Heritage Collections
Museum Victoria hosted an evening of short illustrated talks from expert staff revealing the work involved with relocating its vast collections.
How do you move house when your family includes giant squids, Phar Lap and over 13 million other large, small and precious items? Museum Victoria speakers explained and demonstrated the ingenuity, innovation and challenges involved in relocating the State's collections.
Speakers
Martin Hallett
Martin Hallett is Director of Museum Victoria’s Collection and Regional Services. Martin briefly introduced Museum Victoria’s relocation project and key members of his specialist team who speak about major parts of the move. The relocation of Museum Victoria’s collections from Swanston Street to new facilities is a major challenge. Over 13 million objects ranging from tiny fossils to a 15 metre high totem pole require relocation. The move of the collection presents a great opportunity to upgrade standards of care and implement state of the art tracking systems. The ongoing benefits of this relocation include improved access to the State’s Collection.
Anne Wright
Relocation Manager, Anne Wright, gave an overview of the strategy and planning behind the relocation project. With the help of colour images, Anne explained the completed stages and described the challenges that lie ahead.
Ruth Leveson
Ruth Leveson, Head, History and Technology Collection, will outline the experience of moving the Science and Technology Collection to Scienceworks Museum in 1991 and 1992. This successful relocation allowed Collection Management staff at Scienceworks to offer tours of storage areas to the public. Relocating this collection included some logistical feats such as moving the Cobb & Co. Coach, Melbourne’s No. 1 Cable Tram, the first Australian made aeroplane to fly (the Duigan) and the ‘noughts and crosses’ machine.
Melanie Raberts
Melanie Raberts, Head, Indigenous Collections will discuss relocating 100,000 items from a range of cultures including Australian Aboriginal, African, Egyptian and Maori. Melanie highlighted the challenges of moving fragile and physically complex objects such as a 14 metre long Solomon Island War Canoe.
Sue Boyd
The Natural Science Collection includes a great diversity of items such as dinosaur remains, microscopic animals, giant squid, mounted mammals along with magnificent insect, shell, butterfly and mineral specimens. Sue Boyd, Head, Natural Science Collections highlighted some of the issues facing Museum staff in organising the relocation of this collection from the famous "dungeons" under the former Swanston Street museum.
Marcelle Scott
Preserving the collections for future generations of Victorians is a high priority for Museum Victoria. Marcelle Scott, Head, Collection Conservation, outlined the role of conservators in the safe relocation of collections. She will describe the range of tasks performed by the Conservation Department in moving some of the more challenging objects including the famous Phar Lap.