The Harden Murrumburrah Historical Society Museum is set to expand both its grounds and collections after receiving a $100,000 grant from the Hilltops Council on Wednesday.
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The combined funding will go towards developing extensions between the existing buildings that will house a private display acquired from the late Brian Dunn’s military collection.
It comes after a wave of community support and fundraising for the historical facility spurred a funding application that was approved by Hilltops administrator Wendy Tuckerman.
Harden Murrumburrah Historical Society (HMMS) president Robyn Atherton said the overwhelming support was “fantastic” and used the opportunity to call for more locally-contributed artifacts.
“Our community has been fantastic in trying to plan and work on this, so having this (additional) funding come our way is exceptional,” Mrs Atherton said.
“We’re hoping that these extensions are an impetus for people to bring forward more items from family collections locally that we could display.”
HMMS secretary Lorraine Brown was thrilled with council’s engagement, saying the museum’s value as both an educational and research tool could not be overstated.
“Lots of people come in here looking for ancestors who were light horsemen and do research on family history,” she said.
Mrs Brown also believes the extensions, which will see the museum hall and external building joined by a passageway, should free up space for exciting new displays.
“We also have artifacts from the early chinese community… and other items (such as TNT memorabillia and an iron Lung).”
HMMS treasurer Ken Pearsall was certainly surprised at the speed with which the funding was approved, however administrator Tuckerman said it was a simple decision to make.
“There is no greater enabler than passion,” Mrs Tuckerman said.
“That passion is contagious … and these (people) have bucketloads”
State MP Katrina Hodgkinson lauded the approved funding and hailed historical museums as the educational cornerstones for local schoolchildren.