Mansfield Heritage Museum
Fundraising Appeal: Mansfield Historical Society will be undertaking a major appeal for fundraising. We will be talking to members of our community seeking support for the important next stage of our project, internal building fit out, exhibit installation, existing building integration, programming upgrades as we work towards completion of the Mansfield Heritage Museum.
The Historical Society houses a vast collection of photos, clothing, stories and equipment from a bygone era, that has been donated and bequeathed from Mansfield families and individuals. They are also the custodians of over 1200 family files which include photographs which currently are in the process of being digitised. “We have family members who come in to discover pictures of their relatives that they’ve never seen before,” said curator – Ann Ware.
The Mansfield Historical Society volunteers work tirelessly to capture, research and record our history. One of the current research projects includes the provenance of a buggy believed to be connected to the Widow of Wappan, Anne Bon (1838-1936) – pastoralist, philanthropist and advocate for Aboriginal people.
Currently this collection of Mansfield’s history is housed in numerous storage facilities scattered around the district, out of sight. Recently a significantly important local collection was lost due to lack of storage and now these historical and valuable artifacts of yesteryear will be scattered across the countryside and lost forever instead of remaining intact in Mansfield as part of our unique heritage.
MHS has been building a case for many years for the funding of a new Mansfield Heritage Museum (MHM) which will form a key part of the new Mansfield Shire Precinct Project.
In 2022 funding of approximately $1.5M was obtained with the help of Mansfield Shire Council and the local community to enable MHS to build the new MHM (building shell to lockup) which is currently planned to commence in February 2024.
MHS needs to raise a further $600K – $1M to fund the:
- Storage Shed upgrade.
- Completion of the Internal fit-out for new museum.
- Completion of Exhibition areas.
- Development of Educational programming for each Exhibit area.
- Integration of existing MHS Station museum with new MHM.
- Landscaping, Sculptures, Artwork etc of MHM entrance and surrounds.
Our district has a rich history in farming, timber and gold, with wonderful stories of prominent families, successes and losses, crime, murder, war and mayhem just waiting to be discovered.