‘We need help’: NT museum on the brink of closure

FALLING tourist numbers have driven the Katherine Museum to the brink of closure — with their doors set to shut for good this October if they can’t muster up funding support.

A petition has been launched to save Katherine Museum from the brink of closure. Picture: Supplied

FALLING tourist numbers have driven the Katherine Museum to the brink of closure — with their doors set to shut for good this October if they can’t muster up funding support.

A small team of hardworking staff and volunteers from the Katherine Historical Society have been desperately scrambling to keep the place afloat with visitor numbers falling by about 1500 each year.

Museum curator Simone Croft said the non-for-profit, which opened in 1985, was sadly on its last legs.

“We’ve been doing all that we can to survive but we’ve gotten to a point where we need to ask for help,” she said.

“If we don’t get some new funding soon the our museum is contemplating closing up at the end of October.”

Ms Croft said so far their attempts to secure funding support from the Territory Government had been unsuccessful.

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“The problem is most of the support they offer out is project based while we just need some operational support to get by,” she said.

“We’ll be launching a campaign at the Katherine Show to gather community support and call on the government to help save our museum.

“The town just can’t afford to lose it. It would be a great injustice because if we lose our past and our rich history what would Katherine be?

“The museum is one of our town’s most important community assets and plays a vital role in celebrating our shared past, as well as educating our future generations.”

She said they started a petition last week to save the museum and so far have gathered about 1500 physical signatures, on top of about 1000 more from an online petition.

Katherine resident Camille Berto said she was shocked to hear about the impending closure.

“What is Katherine without its rich history?” she said.

“To close the museum is like putting a hole in the heart of our little town.”

Clare Pearce said she was also sad to hear about the museum’s plight and signed the petition.

“Katherine is a thriving and slowly growing little town where so many different people and cultures have lived,” she said. “We need to be able to tell the story of all of us.”

The Katherine Museum’s financial troubles come on the heels of town’s oldest supermarket’s the Five Star closing down last week.