The Taumarunui Museum Building Committee met last night (Mon 20 May) and agreed to support bringing together the artifact and taonga collections that are currently being held separately by various caretakers in the Railway Station building.

Council Chief Executive and Committee Chairperson Clive Manley said that the vision is to have an area to house the artifacts and taonga when they are not on display with office space for supporting personnel such as a historian and custodian.

“The Museum Building Committee which includes representatives of the Historical Society, Museum Trust, Ngati Haua, TRAC, the community and local historian voted unanimously to support bringing the various collections together at the new museum,” said Mr Manley.

“Everyone felt that having a space upstairs for housing the artifacts and taonga that reflect Taumarunui’s history and culture that is managed by people with the appropriate knowledge and skills will aid in their cataloguing and preservation as well as assisting with any research projects.

I will now be meeting with all the individual Trusts and other groups holding collections to discuss what can be housed at the new museum and any special needs the artifacts or taonga currently in their care might require to be appropriately stored.”

Mr Manley said that the second floor area being dedicated to housing the collections has contained a large 21 metre model railway built by the now inactive Taumarunui Model Railway Club over 20 years ago.

“The model needed a lot of work to fix it up to a point where it could form part of a display,” he said.

“Local railway history club TRAC has fortunately stepped in and taken on the responsibility of breaking the model down and moving it into the railway goods shed that they will be developing into a display area.

In the future it is hoped that the model can be reassembled and fixed up and go on display as part of TRACs amazing collection of railway memorabilia.”

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