The Fiordland Museum Trust aims to fundraise for more than $7 million over the next 12 months to realise its long-held dream of a museum showcasing Fiordland's rich heritage.

The proposed Fiordland Heritage Centre would revamp and expand the current Alpine Centre, located outside the Te Anau township, into a multi-purpose hub that told some of Fiordland's most important stories.

The idea of a Fiordland-focused museum has long been a long-held goal for the trust, which was formed in the 1990s. 

However, trustees said now was the time to strike while the iron was hot, thanks in part to the funding potential of the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF).

Trustee and local historian Ken Bradley said there had never been the sort of funding the PGF offered, with $68 million going to Hawke's Bay infrastructure projects last month. 

The trust was also eager to focus on fundraising now as the project would likely cost more the longer they waited.

"That's another thing we're going to be facing. We might get our seven million, but when we go to get all this done, it might be another half-million dollars," Mr Bradley said. 

The trust would also be pursuing funding through groups like Community Trust South, the Lottery Grants Fund, and the Southland Regional Heritage Fund. So far the trust has raised $2 million of the estimated $9.3 million base design thanks to local contributions. 

The group worked on the design concept with Wellington-based creative studio the Gibson Group, which also designed the concept behind Curio Bay's recent Tumu Toka Curioscape. The centre would organise Fiordland's heritage into five themes such as Maori legends and its natural history, the region's impressive engineering feats like the Homer Tunnel, and Fiordland's mark on New Zealand's conservation history. 

Trustees said the stories the centre wanted to tell were of provincial and even national significance.

Trustee Penny Hutchins underscored the importance of what such a centre would mean to the region and beyond.

"There's so many stories to be told and they're going to get lost if we don't get on to it," she said.

Another advantage for the trust is its purchase of the Alpine Centre building in 2016, along with the 10 hectares it sits on. Trustees said the building and land would ideally make for a sustainable, self-funding model through leasing the land to other interested businesses and the operations of the existing cafe in the centre. 

Construction has already begun on a McKeown's fuel station next to the centre.

The centre also aligned with a larger strategical shift for the community. Trustee Chris Humphreys said the centre aligned with goals to make Te Anau a multi-day visitor destination in its own right, not just a stopping point on the way to Milford Sound.

"We want to have a really high-class facility here [so] that people come up here, go through the centre, potentially stay another night or more in Te Anau, and direct them out to the different parts of Fiordland and the operators that work within Fiordland, so they can experience some of the things they've seen in the centre firsthand."

Trustees said the project had thus far received good support after consulting with various industry groups. Residents interested in helping out could provide feedback in their ongoing market surveys 

that could be filled out at the Fiordland Cinema.