Thames researchers have been given an early Christmas present, as Te Whare Pātaka The Treasury Heritage Research Centre and Archive reopens its reading room to the public after a year-long hiatus.
The reading room, which has been closed since the end of 2023 due to a lack of funding for paid staff, reopened on November 27.
Around 21 research volunteers are currently on the reading room roster, and two new supervisors, Anna Dunwoodie and Tracey Hinton, have taken on the task of managing them.
The reading room crew is one of three volunteer groups who work from the Treasury’s Carnegie Library building, alongside a publications team and the Treasury’s board.
“The [reading room] volunteers are the caretakers of the collection,” Anna said.
“We want to highlight how important [they] are, and have always been as the front-facing members of the Treasury, and we would like to see if we can encourage more volunteers to come onboard.”
Tracey agreed, saying their help meant the people of the district could now access valuable information again.
“What’s the point of having all this if we’re not sharing it? Our role is to make accessible the information about the history of Thames, the Coromandel Peninsula and Hauraki, and our families and businesses,” Tracey said.
“We do encourage that people come in and plan to undertake most of the research themselves,[but] it has some guidance from us, because for somebody coming in, it’s quite overwhelming.”
Geraldine Dunwoodie, a founding member of the Coromandel Heritage Trust which began the Treasury project, said she was thrilled to see the volunteers return.
“Over the last few years volunteer numbers have dwindled, and the unwelcome 12-month hibernation has added to it, with some volunteers resigning because they have found other interests to support,” she said.
“It was heartwarming to see such an enthusiastic group again – many of them from the original volunteers at the Treasury and all very keen to get started in this new phase.”
Geraldine said the aim now was to set the volunteers up so they could function regardless of whether the Treasury had paid staff or not. She said the volunteers would be kept busy with tasks such as looking after incoming records, cataloguing, sleeving, filing, shelving, collecting True Tales stories, and being on duty in the reading room and reception.
The Treasury board chair Anne-Louise Robertson said the reopening was the culmination of a long and challenging journey.
“It’s a pleasure to welcome back our invaluable volunteers,” she said.
“However, while we celebrate this milestone, there is still much to be done. Financial sustainability remains a significant challenge, and we are not out of the woods yet. We are committed to seeking additional funding to keep our doors open and to continue developing the services we provide.”
Anna, a trained music teacher and specialist, and Tracey, a former librarian and Past Perfect cataloguer at the Treasury, said they were now retraining the volunteers as they got back up to speed. They also needed to get used to working in a very different environment than usual, they said, as they were sharing the Carnegie Library building with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga’s Thames School of Mines staff for a few years until restoration work is completed at their site around the corner.
“It worked out really well, because we’re short on money, they’re short on space… So to merge forces for a short time, it’s quite mutually beneficial,” Tracey said.
“But we’re used to having this building and the archive to ourselves. So that’s what we’re trying to get our heads around. It’s gonna be an interesting few weeks before Christmas. And hopefully, we’ll get things flowing pretty quick.”
DETAILS: The Treasury’s reading room is open to the public Wed-Sat, 11am-3pm. Fees apply. For more information, email ttvstracey@gmail.com or ttvsannad@gmail.com.
