AVIATION CULTURES CONFERENCE University of Sydney 27–28 April 2017 Preserving our national aviation collection: an alternative approach to a single National Aviation Museum David Byrne – SA Aviation Museum Aviation Museums National Network At the last conference in 2015 the late Antony Grage described the various attempts to set up a National Aviation Museum, dating back to 1991 (Grage, A 2016). Unfortunately, all previous attempts to establish a National Aviation Museum have been unsuccessful. I would like to propose some reasons for the failure of these previous attempts, despite the fact that aviation has transformed Australia and broken the ‘tyranny of distance’ across the country. Some reasons could be: • The cost. The continual question of who will fund the establishment and operating costs has yet to be answered. • The location. The most likely reason here is again the question of which state will get the ‘prize’. • Difficulty acquiring a collection of significant exhibits when the most significant items are already firmly located in one museum or another across Australia. The Vickers Vimy in Adelaide would be an interesting case. Antony Grage identified the Vimy as ‘a must’ for a National Aviation Museum. Moving this aircraft away from Adelaide would be no easy task, despite little federal or state interest in it. It is currently in the care of Adelaide Airport Ltd, which uses Artlab to monitor its conservation. This is proving to be a very good arrangement and the aircraft is well cared for. Any mention of relocating it would be met by considerable protest. It is interesting to note that we have an excellent National Maritime Museum , which is a very professional organisation dedicated to preserving and displaying our maritime history. This museum was formed in 1991, cost $70 million to establish, and last year received $24 million from the federal government towards its operating costs. The museum is governed by the Australian Maritime Museum Act 1990 and supervises grants to regional museums across Australia – $1 million since 1995 (Commonwealth of Australia, 2016). This would be an excellent starting point to assist the creation of a National Aviation Museum with a decentralised collection as its basis.
Aviation Museums National Network The potential for the creation of a National Aviation Collection has been greatly enhanced by the formation of the Aviation Museums National Network (AMNN) under the guidelines of Museums Australia. This network was formed following a meeting held at the SA Aviation Museum in March 2008. The meeting was attended by all the current members, who decided that there was great benefit in the sharing of each other’s experiences and in having a single avenue to project the objectives of all the museum members. Investigation of similar organisations, such as the British Aviation Preservation Council, was carried out to find a form of organisation that allowed our non-profit volunteer museums to join together and further their common interest in our aviation heritage. In order to achieve the objectives, it was decided to adopt membership of Museums Australia, the peak museums body in Australia, as a mandatory standard for acceptance as a member. Membership of Museums Australia ensured that the ethics and standards set by this national organisation would become the goal of the Aviation Museums Network. Under the Museums Australia organisation, a network group was established and listed on the Museums Australia website. Since the first meeting in Adelaide, meetings have been held in Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, the ACT and the NT. Member museums continue to strongly support the Annual Meetings, and all members have gained from the exchange of knowledge and resources between the various museums. MEMBER MUSEUMS AND LOCATIONS
Airways Museum Essendon, Vic. Australian Aviation Museum Bankstown, NSW Australian Gliding Museum Bacchus Marsh, Vic. Australian National Aviation Museum Moorabbin, Vic. Aviation Historical Society of NT Darwin, NT B-24 Liberator Memorial Restoration Fund Werribee, Vic. Benalla Aviation Museum Benalla, Vic. Evans Head Aviation Museum Evans Head, NSW Queensland Air Museum Caloundra, Qld RAAFA WA Heritage Museum Bull Creek, WA South Australian Aviation Museum Adelaide, SA Tavas Qld MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA There are three main criteria: 1. Be a current member of Museums Australia. Membership entails agreeing to abide by the ethical standards of Museums Australia. 2. Be a non-profit entity with an organisational structure to support this. 3. Have an aviation collection of significance. OBJECTIVES The objectives are to: • Develop an interactive network of communication by co-operation and self-help between participating volunteer-based aviation museums in Australia. • Further the preservation of Australian aviation heritage and the ongoing successful development and operation of existing and future aviation museums. • Improve the operation of volunteer or community-based non-profit aviation museums and collections. • Adopt Museums Australia code of ethics and accreditation standards. • Promote aviation preservation to governments, industry and the general public. These objectives are currently being achieved by the following: • annual meeting of all members • exchange of operating procedures • exchange of proven marketing and fundraising ideas • assistance with raising conservation and display standards • assistance with the exchange of technical advice, exhibits, parts and memorabilia • compiling a register of significant items in all the collections using the British Aviation Preservation Council significance rating system (no date)
• co-operation with the RAAF Heritage Unit to assist with proposals regarding disposal of RAAF aircraft and equipment (six of the member museums were selected for the allocation of F-111s or F-111 cockpits for public display). AN OVERVIEW OF THE NETWORK MEMBERS AND COLLECTIONS • All are volunteer non-profit organisations. • There are two museums with paid staff. • Sources of income include: entrance fees, shop sales, events, donations, community support and government grants. • Conservation and display collection management are being improved via the National Library of Australia programs, Significance Assessment Reports and Preservation Needs Assessment Reports, with Accreditation to Museums Australia standards a goal for network members. One member museum has already achieved this goal. • Facilities are a major issue for all museums. Providing the infrastructure to house and display significant aircraft is a costly exercise. Exhibits that remain in the open require constant and costly maintenance. • Tenure – the majority of museums have in the past five years achieved long-term tenure of their museum site. AMNN members contribution to our aviation heritage: The total no. of volunteers 1,932 Total no. of visitors 2014/15 141,744 Total no. of major exhibits (aircraft only) 214 Estimated no. of significant aircraft (20%) – 43 (survey currently being conducted) Items of aviation memorabilia 30,250 367,363 Total no. of photos Total no. of technical manuals 17,183 Survey – AMNN members , December 2015. AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH Having formed this organisation and seeing it continue and gain strength, the members are now considering an alternative approach to form a National Aviation Museum. This could be one where we utilise the existing dedicated aviation museums and their collections located in each state – that is , members of the AMNN (Tasmania and ACT do not have members) – to form a national collection. This would be under the auspices of a Federal National Aviation Museum office which would supervise the governance, funding and conservation standards across the nation.
The benefits of this approach are: • Many significant items both civil and military are already held by these museums. • There would be better accessibility for the public and educators to aviation heritage across Australia. • Improved conservation and display of aviation heritage. • Improved governance to ensure protection of the national collection. • A better cost/benefit outcome than that of a single new museum through utilising and improving existing facilities. • Volunteers can be supported with some salaried and professional curatorial staff. The criteria for selection as part of this National Aviation Museum would be: • be an existing non-profit museum open to the public with core facilities • display a significant collection • be accredited or prepared to obtain accreditation. How can a National Aviation Museum based on a decentralised collection be achieved? • support of the AMNN collections • financial support at a federal/state government level to: Ø improve the existing infrastructure to house and display the significant aviation exhibits in the collection Ø provide conservation and display support specific to aviation museums Ø provide ongoing grants to support the annual operations of the museums, including support staff • support at a state government level • a prominent individual or organisation to support the proposal • a set of operating procedures supervised by the Federal Department of Communication and Arts. This approach would see Australia’s aviation heritage offered a much more secure base for the future than that of the current arrangement that relies on volunteer community support and very limited government support. For further information on the AMNN please visit our website at: WWW.AMNN.COM.AU Or: Mr. David Byrne South Australian Aviation Museum David.byrne@amnet.net.au
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