Maritime Museum releases four-year Strategic Plan

COMMITTEE and general members of the Queenscliffe Maritime Museum (QMM) are celebrating the competition of its strategic plan for the next four years.

With initial discussions regarding the museum’s 2024-2028 Strategic Plan dating back to last year, president Sean Blackwood said the museum was thrilled to have completed the process.

“We’re extremely excited to release the strategic plan to the community digitally in due course and it’s already available for viewing at the museum,” he said.

“The plan for this strategic plan was always to provide the museum with a document that everyone could be involved in, and that we could use to showcase the museum to other organisations and create partnerships.”

The final document released by the committee contains three Transformative Themes and five Key Strategic Action areas to guide the museum over the next four years.

The museum also listed its values (aspire, embrace, explore, respect, transparency, sustain and connect) and commits to engaging further with First Nations organisations to enhance its truth telling and learning facets of the museum.

The museum has also regained control of the Fisherman’s Co-Operative, following up to a year of asbestos removal handled by the Victorian Asbestos Removal Scheme and is now again welcoming visitors to the site at 4 Wharf Street.

Future plans at the museum-proper at 2 Wharf Street as stated in the Strategic Plan include the increase of the museum’s digital assets, the creation of an escape room attraction, an upgrade to the Gil Allbutt Boat Shed, and the development of a walking tour of Fisherman’s Flat.

“During our dealings with the committee and the rest of our members, the main thing that came out of our discussions was just establishing a direction for the museum, and we think we’ve captured that with our Strategic Plan,” Mr Blackwood said.

“We wanted to ensure what we do isn’t always such a top-down approach, something that we can work with our volunteers on and more horizontally across our structural pillars.

“We’re also keen to set up various times throughout the year where everyone connected to the QMM can meet.”

The QMM also recently announced the appointment of its new manager, Valentina Bydanova, who Mr Blackwood said came into the role highly regarded.

Ms Bydanova boasts an Honours degree in maritime history, a master’s degree in museum curatorship and is now undertaking her PhD in experimental maritime curatorship and museology.

The QMM’s opening hours are daily from 11am to 4pm, when visitors can read the strategic plan in full.