Hume City councillors voted to look again at the location of Sunbury’s George Evans Museum collection following a vote at Monday’s meeting (9 September).
The proposal, by Cllr Trevor Dance, means council staff will review the options for a fully free-standing building – such as within the Jacksons Hill site – and investigate any potential to “expand the current location at The Global Learning Centre in Sunbury to ensure all historical items are on display at all times when these locations are open”.
During the debate it became apparent that the collection of exhibits, said by council numerous times to be 5,000 items, is in fact more than 10,000 items. Many of which were donated by Sunbury families. Since 2017 the entire collection has been in storage and generally inaccessible to the public.
Cllr Dance says there are growing calls by those who donated items to the museum for their return.
“Many feel sold out, when the original promises were made when the Sunbury library closed in 2017,” he said. “We’ve even seen interested parties not invited to Jackson Hill advisory groups which is a concern.
“It is also clear all stakeholders have not been engaged in the process.”
He also said the discrepancy in the number of items is a cause for concern.
In response to Cllr Dance’s notice of motion (seconded by Cllr Jodi Jackson), council officers said that once the Sunbury Community Arts and Cultural Precinct (on Jacksons Hill) has another gallery, Sunbury’s Global Learning Centre gallery space “will be more focused on local history and heritage, further expanding display opportunities for the George Evans collection”.
See our previous reports on the museum here.
