Rescue cash to keep local museum afloat

Alex de Vos
Ratepayers will bail out Queenscliff Maritime Museum after work on the town’s harbour redevelopment cut off potential visitors and dried up revenue.
Borough of Queenscliffe has approved a $14,000 funding injection to compensate the museum for loss of revenue.
The grant will help pay the wages of a full-time employee so the museum can continue operating seven days a week.
Maritime museum president Les Irving-Dusting said contractors working on the harbour had dug service trenches directly outside the museum’s front doors.
The loss of easy access meant the museum had “missed out on casual visits”, he said.
“Each time they dug up a trench they put up a fence out the front and people thought we were closed,” Mr Irving-Dusting said.
“We missed out on the casual visits and the walk-ins, which are sort of the cream.”
The museum displays the maritime history of Queenscliff including its lifeboat service, Port Phillip Sea Pilots, lighthouses and the shipwrecks in the southern part of Port Phillip Bay and offshore in Bass Strait.
Mr Irving-Dusting said the centre also relied on school and bus group visits.
Museum secretary June Negri welcomed the grant after witnessing the centre’s “funds just dwindling away” during the construction work on the harbour.
Ms Negri backed up Mr Irving-Dusting’s claim that the museum looked closed during the construction work.
“We were tucked in behind a fence and people took one look at the fence and just didn’t come in,” Ms Negri said.
“It was also hard to see the way in and people with a disability didn’t have a hope of coming in.”