Invercargill City council (ICC) Councillors and staff got a sneak peak at the almost-complete Te Unua Museum of Southland's storage facility in Tisbury last week.

The facility – part of Council’s Project 1225, to build new cultural facilities within the city including Invercargill’s new museum and a specialist tuatara enclosure – will house precious museum collection items when they are not on public display.

ICC Councillor Grant Dermody, lead councillor for Project 1225, said the walkthrough of the facility gave elected members a chance to gain a deeper understanding of the facility.

“Our museum collection items play an important role in telling the story of Invercargill and Southland’s past, and the Tisbury storage facility is crucial in ensuring they are protected for generations to come,” he said.

“Being able to see the facility behind-the-scenes as it gets closer to being completed was a great opportunity for our elected members, and I think everybody was suitably impressed with the asset we have created for our community.”

The 1650m2 storage facility includes state-of-the-art shelving for various objects, temperature-controlled areas to protect collection items, offices and workrooms for staff, and a public viewing space for members of the community who wish to view particular items not on display in the new museum, which is scheduled to be completed in the second half of 2026.

Photo: ICC

ICC Group Manager Infrastructure Erin Moogan said it was exciting to see the facility almost complete, with much of the shelving and internal structures already in place.

“Project 1225 is an enormous undertaking, and a huge amount of work goes on behind-the-scenes. We’re pleased to say, and be able to demonstrate to the Councillors, that we are on track with time and budget,” she said.

“While there is still a lot of work to be done for the museum, the impending completion of the Tisbury storage facility is a major milestone. We are well and truly on the countdown to its official opening now.”

Contractor ABL began the build of the Tisbury Storage Facility in December 2022 and is on track to be completed in December this year.

The process of moving about 4 million museum collection items from the existing Southland Museum and Art Gallery will then begin.

All items are scheduled to be transferred to the new facility at Tisbury in early 2024.

An official opening event of the storage facility will be held next month.

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