Museum Development Officer Network

This paper was delivered by Dr Dan Robinson, Director, Cultural Heritage, Queensland Museum at the MAQ State Conference, 15-16 September 2001, Cairns

Recommendation 3:
Recommendation 6:

Hidden Heritage

There were two recommendations from Hidden Heritage that were relevant to the establishment of the Museum Development Officer Network.

Recommendation 3:

It is recommended that a Regional Network of six Museum resource Centres staffed by professional Museum Development Officers be established under the auspices of the Queensland Museum and supported by a Technical Advisory panel with broad stakeholder representation.

Recommendation 6:

It is recommended that Local Government on a regional basis play an equal partnership role with State Government in establishing and maintaining the regional network of Museum Resource Centres and that Local Government representatives participate in the Museums Industry Development Committee, the Museums Assessment Panel, and the steering committees for development of a Statewide Museums Policy and a Queensland Cultural Tourism Strategy. Local Government's financial contribution should be proportional to the population in each Council area in the region and be additional to existing levies.

During the discussions that led to these two recommendations, several issues arose.

One was the extent and mechanism by which the Queensland Museum would be involved. The decision was that to ensure the professional recognition and professional support for the MDOs, they would be employed by the Queensland Museum, and that, where possible, the Museum Resource Centres should be established in branches of the Queensland Museum. The idea of letting non-branch centres out to tender was suggested.

A second point of contention was whether Art Museums and Galleries were to be served by the Museum Development Officers, in addition to Community Museums and Keeping Places. The final decision was that they were to be included, and current MDO activities recognise that decision.

The third issue concerned a desire that a 50% contribution from the State towards the cost of the Museum Resource Centres and the Museum Development Officers should be matched by a 50% contribution from Local Government in the regions served.

Perhaps it is not surprising that my recollection of discussions at the time is that the Local Government Association representative on the Reference Group for Hidden Heritage expressed some doubts about this idea.