The trust behind the Cromwell Museum has secured $1.65M in grants to pay for the outfit of the museum in its new location beside Lake Dunstan.

Trustee Martin Anderson delivered the news at a Cromwell Community Board workshop on Thursday (September 4), saying $200,000 had been confirmed from Otago Community Trust, on top of $1.1M from Central Lakes Trust and $350,000 from a Lottery Environment and Heritage fund.

He told the board the trust was now confident of delivering “a magnificent facility”, which would be a “major drawcard” to the new hall complex, under construction on Melmore Terrace to replace the Cromwell Memorial Hall.

Elected members were given a digital walkthrough of design plans for the museum by consultants Story Inc, who delivered a detailed concept design to the museum trust last week.

Story Inc director James McLean said the Maori legend of Rākaihautū, who used his giant kō (digging stick) to carve out the mountain lakes of the South Island, sparked inspiration for design elements of the new museum.

He started his presentation with a poem: “Carved out with a kō in an ancestor’s hand, water flowed life into the land, many passed through, some stayed, the town submerged as the waters raised, people, like water, find their way”.

Displays planned for the space will reflect the themes of the poem: geology and land forming process, early Māori journeys through the area, the arrival of European surveyors and farmers, the gold rush, dam building, horticulture and viticulture, and conservation stories.

Windows on the southern side of the under-construction museum face Lake Dunstan. Image: The Central App

James described a museum that would be less about written words, and more about interactive displays bringing history to life through technology and real-person storytellers.

Examples included audio ‘cups’ allowing a visitor to sit and listen to a narrative “without bothering other people”, and a ‘gold cradle’ that, once the user has done enough, will reveal “little specks of gold” thanks to a lighting effect.

“We just want to create a spot that people say, ‘Oh, you must go down there’,” he said.

Cromwell Community Board chair Anna Harrison thanked Story Inc for its work, which she said would take “people on a journey”.

“There’re some really nice touches in there.”

She confirmed a name for the new museum had not been decided on, despite recent speculation in the community.

A vision for Cromwell’s new museum. Image: Supplied

Museum curator Jennifer Hay said she wanted the new space to be seen as a “living museum”.

“The displays will be refreshed and renewed regularly in order to keep it updated and dynamic and relevant for our population and for future generations,” she said.

Earlier this year Jennifer, the former director of the Cromwell Museum, accepted a one-year role as transitional curator for the new space, employed by the council.

Construction of the hall and museum is well underway and on track for completion mid next year.

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