The Keilor Historical Society has slammed the Brimbank council’s decision to retain its indoor art collection and a civic and ceremonial collection at the Hunt Club Community and Arts Centre in Deer Park.
The collections were moved from the former council offices at the Keilor Community Hub while it was renovated last year and were to be returned upon the completion of works.
However, at last week’s council meeting it was decided that the collection would remain at the Hunt Club.
The decision follows an “exhaustive” council investigation into the future home of the collection.
Deputy mayor Daniel Allan said it made more sense for the collection to remain where it is.
“It’s estimated that it will take 500 hours for an officer to actually separate and report the individual collections and this would take about 12 to 18 months as a conservative timeline,” Cr Allan said.
“Further to that, there would be a cost of around $10,000 to appropriately fit out the space at the Keilor Community Hub and the loss of two community meeting spaces to accommodate the collection.”
Cr Allan moved a motion to offer some compromises to the Keilor Historical Society, including holding four exhibitions of the collections at the Keilor Community Hub each year.
However, Keilor Historical Society president Susan Jennison said the proposal doesn’t go far enough.
“These works are precious to Keilor. It makes absolutely no sense at all for historical Keilor artifacts to be housed in Deer Park,” Ms Jennison said.
“We already have an exhibition each year, so all we want is for council to keep its word and return the works to their rightful home.
“They talk about costs involved, but they always seem to find money for the things they want, it’s just an excuse as far as I’m concerned.”
