Cairns Historical Society

As you are probably aware by now, the Cairns Council is renovating the School of Arts building and have awarded the contract to Hutchinson Builders.  This project is slated for completion in February 2017 and when finished the Society's area will really be just a empty shell.  The Society's project will then be to build the museum inside the building and to build the operational area for the Society.  Then all the objects will have to be moved back into the museum galleries.  This will be a separate job with Michael Marzik, a Cairns based Museum and Gallery specialist, taking on the work.  The historical society area will need new workstations and storage installed with upgraded IT systems and the return of the archival collection.  The current timeline has the Society re-opening in June 2017, but this is still notional as it depends on the building being handed over on time, with the museum fit-out being completed on schedule and the Society installation program running on time.  On other news, congratulations go to Pauline O'Keeffe and Gordon Grimwade who have been involved in the Cairns Regional Council project acknowledging and honouring the significant contribution made by the men and women of this region during Wold War One.  A part of which, the Cairns ANZAC Trail, was launched on 25th November.  Also, at the recent AGM, Clive Skarott was returned as President of the Society with Jan Wegner as Vice-president and Megan Lilly in the position of Secretary along with David Goodman as the new Treasurer and Suzanne Gibson returned as Museum Manager.  The Society Christmas party was held once again at the Edge Hill Bowling Club and the Research department closing down for the year from the 22rd December until the 5th January.