High hopes for new museum space

RICHMOND River Historical Society is in talks with Lismore City Council to find a new home for Lismore Museum after its lease was revoked unexpectedly.

The Society had been housed in the heritage-listed former Lismore Municipal Building before it was damaged in the 2022 floods and had been expecting to return to the refurbished site soon.

But president Dr Robert Smith received a letter from Council rescinding the Museum’s lease as it undertakes a strategic review of its buildings to determine if there may be better uses for them.

Council has resolved to find a suitable building to house the Museum as part of this property strategy.

It has had three meetings with the Society to discuss finding an alternative accessible space that will keep its collection safe during future flood events.

“Two councillors declared that through this process Lismore Museum may end up in even better premises – we may be absolutely delighted with what we get,” Dr Smith said.

“We’re still waiting to see what they’re going to offer us.

“I believe they have received a massive number of emails in support of the Museum.

“The good thing is that it’s really tapped into that broad community feeling that whatever our differences we really do care about the history of this place and for it to be told in accessible ways, particularly to children and also to tourists.”

The Society received a grant to open the Lismore Museum Pop-up Shop in Molesworth Street in 2024 and has had more than 4000 visitors view its exhibitions there since September.

But it is keen to see its permanent collection returned to display.

Its Bundjalung collection features rare Indigenous artefacts from the 1800s, including woven baskets, spears, stone tools and breast plates.

Other items include the piano that was transported on a raft on the Wilsons River by early settlers in the 1840s and a rare trouper’s tunic from the Boer War.

Dr Smith said the Society planned for the new Museum to be more contemporary and engaging, with rotating exhibitions.