Council reassures community about future of Sarina museum 

Published on 06 June 2025

Council has reassured the Sarina community that its museum items will be returned to the township once a project documenting the items of significance is completed.

Mayor Greg Williamson said that complex process was expected to be completed in about six months and the collection would then be returned to Sarina.

“The museum rationalisation project is, for want of a better term, a ‘stocktake’ of our museums collections,” Mayor Greg Williamson said.

“This has been a mammoth task, which began with Pioneer Valley Museum before moving onto Mackay Museum and now Sarina,’’ he said.

“Lessons learnt from the work at Pioneer Valley and Mackay showed the process can be done quicker and easier if the collection is moved off-site, which is what we have done with Sarina.

“The work is being done in a community hall at Andergrove and we’re about 30 per cent of the way through. We expect to finish that in about six months.

“There has been community angst in Sarina, and we acknowledge that we may not have communicated sufficiently with residents about this project.

“That has contributed to fears that the museum collection was being taken to Mackay permanently.”

Mayor Williamson said that was not the case and council had been making that clear in meetings with stakeholders.

The latest meeting was with Sarina Progress Association in Sarina last night (Thursday), attended by the Mayor and councillors and senior council staff.

“An important part of this process is that, as well as identifying significant items of interest in the collection, it will also highlight what the gaps are, and we’ll be able to put the call out to the community to try to fill those gaps,’’ he said.

Although the museum collection will be returned to Sarina, it may not be put back into the old Sarina Museum building in the Field of Dreams.

Mayor Williamson said that building was not currently fit-for-purpose for protection and conservation of a museum collection.

He said council was also undertaking in parallel a process to look at the entire Sarina Field of Dreams precinct and how it could be reinvigorated.

“We’re not saying the museum collection will definitely not return to that old building, but we want to look at all options to ensure optimum use of that precinct.

“Sarina is the gateway to the Mackay region and the Sarina Field of Dreams, which includes Sarina Sugar Shed, is extremely important in terms of tourism, as well as catering for residents.

“We don’t want to create a lost opportunity by not looking at all options for the overall precinct.

“We are committed to working with the community every step of the way on future improvements to Sarina Field of Dreams to benefit the whole Sarina community.”

Mayor Williamson said council was also continuing work on options for an interim regional museum.

Staff are currently working on the museum rationalisation project, with a focus on the Sarina collection.