Preserving Ballina’s maritime history

A DEDICATED group of volunteers is preserving Ballina’s maritime history, ensuring it isn’t lost forever.

Volunteers at the Ballina Naval and Maritime Museum are about to embark on their latest project – relocating the PV Richmond to a weatherproof enclosure – after approval of their development application.

Ballina Shire Council has approved work to extend its entry and exit points and construct a weatherproof display area for the PV Richmond, one of its iconic vessels.

The pilot vessel is currently housed under an awning, but museum volunteer Andrea Lynn said it needed to be protected before it deteriorated.

“It’s important the younger generation can see what went on here – there was a lot of industry,” Ms Lynn said.

Ms Lynn said the pilot vessel operated on the Richmond River at Ballina from 1923 until the 1980s.

With more than 13,000 people visiting the museum each year, she said its display provided a glimpse into a past way of life.

“Unless somebody keeps track of it, it just goes. It’s gone,” she said.

That fate almost befell the Florrie, another vessel at the museum, which has already suffered damage due to exposure to the elements.

The new enclosure for the PV Richmond will prevent the same from happening again.

The project, which includes demolition, site preparation, construction, engineering and internal fit-out, is expected to cost about $550,000.

The museum, established in 1983 by a group of former sailors with a passion for maritime heritage, began in a single room in the old pilot’s cottage – now the site of the Ballina Information Centre.

It moved to its current location in 1993, and in 2006 the museum expanded with a 300-square-metre extension to accommodate its growing collection. Today, the Ballina Naval and Maritime Museum remains a self-funded, not-for-profit organisation run by volunteers.