SA Museum restructure targets jobs and ‘outdated’ exhibitions to ensure it remains relevant in today’s world

SA Museum visitor favourites including the beloved Egyptian room face an uncertain future amid a restructure targeting “outdated” exhibitions. Poll: Share your view.

The Ancient Egypt gallery was originally established in 1939 and has changed very little since. Picture: SA Museum

The South Australian Museum is reviewing the future of its “outdated” and “inflexible” natural science and cultural heritage displays, including the Egyptian and Polar exhibitions.

As the museum looks to become more “contemporary”, its decades-old displays will be reviewed as its content does not address current global challenges, including climate change.

The museum is undergoing a major restructure to make it more “sustainable” and “accessible” for the 21st century and which includes the loss of 27 research and collection positions.

It is proposed the 27 positions be replaced with 22 new roles at the museum, including an increase in the number of positions for Aboriginal employees.

Details of the changes were outlined in a letter by SA Museum chief executive Dr David Gaimster to valued supporters last month to quell public misinformation.

South Australian Museum chief executive Dr David Gaimster. Picture: Supplied

Dr Gaimster explained the academic research had been “narrow in scope” with “very little” of the output shared with visitors or changed the museum experience over the past 20 years.

He said the museum would transition to a curatorial model for research, where curators ensure the research was translatable for the wider public and research becomes part of their remit.

The Geological Society of Australia SA division has written to Premier Peter Malinauskas expressing “deep concern” the research team would be replaced by “five junior curation staff”.

“We have a vast natural heritage that is managed, highlighted and understood through the work of ... museum researchers and collection managers,” chair Professor Alan Collins wrote.

“We are concerned that the changes will impoverish the population of South Australia through lack of education, lack of preservation and presentation of our natural heritage, and the loss of understanding of the fabric and deep natural history of the land we live on.”

SA Museum's polar exhibition commemorates the extraordinary Antarctic expedition of Sir Douglas Mawson.

In Dr Gaimster’s letter, he wrote the collections and scientific and historical research still remained a “significant priority” for the museum. The challenge was to make the extensive collections “available to the public as much as possible both onsite and online”.

He clarified there would be no changes to its Aboriginal Family History Unit or Repatriation programs, and instead a ‘First Nations First’ approach was part of its new strategic plan.

Dr Gaimster and museum board chairman Kim Cheater fronted the Budget and Finance Committee Wednesday afternoon to provide clarity on the restructure.

In questioning, Dr Gaimster could not guarantee the Egyptian, minerals, biodiversity and polar exhibitions would continue in their present form.

“I can’t guarantee they’ll stay as they are,” he said.

They would not answer questions on the cost of the restructure as the Public Service Association had launched a dispute on the changes.

Dr Gaimster said the museum had also “temporarily suspended” taking new collections while it undertook a stock audit, which has uncovered 29 of 50 “high value” items that were unable to be located during the 2022/23 stocktake.