The group met at the Galong Monastery where Noel Lane who has worked with the National Museum of Australia presented a hands on workshop on ‘Regular Conservation and Maintenance’ before returning to the Murrumburrah Museum for a tour and a check up of the facility.

The workshop provided a great opportunity for the local museum’s volunteers to gain an insight into conserving the artefacts and looking after the Historic former School of Arts building in which the collection is housed.

The inspection highlighted a number of problems with the Murrumburrah Museum including the biggest problem of dust entering the building from a number of points including gaps between the ceiling and walls. Dust is the single biggest offender when it comes to the deterioration of artefacts.

Other problems include water not diverting from the building. The window sills are in need of repairs and painting and there are areas where lead based paint is present.

A similar workshop held last year highlighted these and other problems including the cluttered state of the storage area in the basement of the museum. These studies led to a clean up and reorganisation of the area and success in obtaining a grant for archival shelving.

The building is owned by the Harden Shire Council and is leased to the museum free of charge. The volunteer group is inturn encouraged to take care of its maintenance.

Unfortunately the cost involved for the work needed to be carried out on the building is hard to cover by the entrance admission fees and the fundraising events the museum volunteer’s collect.