Newcastle's extensive maritime heritage collection is facing a precarious and uncertain future, with just three months remaining before its current council-funded storage lease expires and no alternative home in sight.
Clock Ticking on Showground Storage
At an extraordinary meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Newcastle councillors will receive an urgent update on the desperate search for a new home for the Newcastle Maritime Museum Society's (NMMS) vast collection of approximately 8500 items. The lease at the Newcastle Showground, where the collection has been stored since 2022, is set to expire on March 20, 2026, and will not be extended by the venue manager, Venues NSW.
The situation stems from the closure of the Newcastle Maritime Centre back in 2018. Since then, the council has funded the storage of the collection, spending at least $167,670 since 2018, a figure that excludes significant staff time and includes over $72,000 in transport costs. The current lease was extended for one year until March 2026 on the condition that a concrete plan for future storage be developed. That plan has not materialised.
Working Party Efforts Stalled
A dedicated Newcastle Maritime Heritage Working Party (NMHWP) was formed to find a solution, but progress has been minimal. A council report reveals that the working party's chair, former Lake Macquarie mayor Kay Fraser, has declined invitations to brief the council on three separate occasions in October and December and has not proposed a future date.
The financial resources available for relocation are severely limited. The NMMS confirmed in July that its funds were limited to $7000, and the council understands that figure is now even lower after the society commissioned an independent assessment of the collection's significance. The working party has been unable to secure a new storage location or find the necessary funding for the collection's relocation and ongoing care.
Council staff have issued a stark warning: the showground storage is not of museum-grade condition, leaving the remaining NMMS-owned collection "at risk" of further degradation. Items of national significance were legally transferred to the Newcastle Museum in February 2022 for safekeeping.
Limited Progress Amidst Urgent Deadline
Despite council providing the society with multiple access opportunities to its Waratah Works Depot and the showground since April, only minimal items have been removed. These visits resulted in the retrieval of just three canoes and one timber rowboat from the permanent collection. Approximately 20 boats remain stored at the Waratah depot.
The physical review of the collection for the significance statement was expected to be complete by mid-November, with a report considered by the working party on December 11. The outcome of that meeting is now critical as the deadline looms.
With Venues NSW firm on not extending the lease beyond March, and no alternative location identified, the council report states plainly that the collection is at "significant risk come April 2026 when it has no legal home." The upcoming council meeting will determine what, if any, last-minute steps can be taken to preserve this important piece of Newcastle's maritime history.
