IN APRIL, the waters ahead for the Newcastle Maritime Museum looked more than choppy.
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The centre’s future in its waterfront Honeysuckle site, which president of the volunteer group keeping the doors open Ian Jones described as “ideal”, was in doubt as its lease wound down.
“We are a volunteer organisation and it’s a tough job to keep the museum open and available for the community, and from time to time we need some help,” Mr Jones said on April 6.
While its location was ideal, the museum as it had stood had been beset by its share of problems.
Mr Jones himself admitted in these pages that it owed money for rent, utilities and tax, and acknowledged the collection had not been rotated to share the full breadth of its treasures. The museum ultimately folded with debts of about $200,000, and its collection has since lived behind closed doors in Mayfield.
It is welcome news that it will begin its journey back to public exhibition with a stint at Carrington, where its items will be audited and repaired.
It flows on from some items, including model boats and artefacts from the Susan Gilmore, sailing into the Newcastle Museum already.
A vital part of the new home for the collection is security, as Newcastle Museum director Julie Baird notes. Some were sad to see the departure of the model replica of the S.S. Orontes depart the Hunter, sold to the National Maritime Museum for $90,000, and will be eager to ensure it is not a common event for items to sail away.
It is incumbent upon all involved to ensure that the museum offers a certainty for the collection, lest it find itself in the same deep water again in a few years.
That certainty will also allow it to loom as a logical home for fresh treasures as they become available.
The museum shaped as the ideal and obvious option when the need for a new home became clear. In addition, uniting the history on the water with the city’s broader memories may offer a more rounded image of the city as a whole.
All involved will be hoping that the last few months degenerate into one more shanty about rough seas to file away in the archives of Newcastle’s maritime history. Now, it once again has a clear home.
