THE accolades keep coming for the Port Macquarie Museum in Clarence Street.
Just weeks after winning Bronze in the Australian Tourism Awards, the museum has been shortlisted in the 2025 National Trust (NSW) Heritage Awards.
The awards recognise excellence in the conservation, protection and interpretation of natural, cultural and built heritage.
Port Macquarie’s nomination in the Advocacy Category reflects the efforts of volunteers in ensuring the future of the heritage listed museum site.
“Looking after a state significant building requires an ongoing commitment to maintenance, conservation and advocacy,” said Museum Curator Debbie Sommers.
“[This includes] raising and maintaining the public profile, highlighting the heritage values and meaning, and advocating for place and funding.”
The former private residence, boarding house and store, and its various additions, are classified by the National Trust of Australia as “a rare example of a convict-built structure circa 1836”.
The building was abandoned when the Hastings District Historical Society (now the Port Macquarie Historical Society) leased the site in 1958/59.
It carried out restoration works and opened it to the public as a museum on Easter Monday, 1960, before buying the building eight years later.
To ensure it is preserved for future generations, the museum’s volunteers are now reviewing how they maintain and use the “Store” building.
With the support of Heritage NSW and The Copland Foundation, they recently commissioned a Conservation Management Strategy.
“The project, completed by Design 5 Architects, has gone beyond the usual scope and we have learnt more about the Store building’s age, construction and uses over the past nine months, than we have over the past 65 years,” Ms Sommers said.
These new insights will guide the ongoing conservation and maintenance of the building as well as the museum’s cultural and heritage preservation work.
The Conservation Management Strategy can be viewed on the museum’s website at portmuseum.org.au by following the links to “News”.
Winners of the National Trust Heritage Awards will be announced at a ceremony in Sydney on Friday 16 May.
For the first time, they include a People’s Choice Award.
Port Macquarie can get behind the museum by going to surveymonkey.com/r/Peoples-Choice-Heritage-Awards.
Voting is open until Sunday 4 May.
By Sue STEPHENSON
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