The group was formerly based at the Inverell Library before moving to the Byron Arcade about 2001, where the bulk of the collection was lost in the building’s 2010 fire.

They then relocated to their current Otho Street rooms. Group president Kathy McLeod said they approached Inverell council about shifting the resources back to the library for sustainability and preservation reasons.

“Twelve months ago, we started looking at long-term sustainability for the group and there were a couple of issues,” Kathy said. “One was financial pressure, and the other one is volunteer hours; having volunteers available to come and help.” 

She said interest from the community and visitors in exploring their histories was growing, but the group thought in 10 years time, they may not be there.

She expressed an urgency to find a permanent, accessible home for the resources, and felt the library would provide more public access to the community and especially young people, curious to explore local histories.

Council’s Economic and Community Sustainability committee endorsed the move in early March, and the matter was passed at the March 22 council meeting. 

“It would be kept in controlled conditions, and kept in a good state,” Cr Di Baker said at the committee meeting. 

“At the moment, there have been issues with the actual keeping with the records, because they’re just not able to do it properly.”

Director of corporate and economic services Ken Beddie said the critical factor was ensuring safety of the assets. 

“There have been other locations across the state where family history groups have folded and and all those records have ended up in a rubbish tip,” he told the committee.

Council voted for the formation of a sunset committee to explore the next steps toward the move’s viability, agreements, spatial and technological impacts and funding, which was passed at the general council meeting. 

Inverell library services manager Sonya Lange said they would be happy to give the history group resources a home. 

“It’s got to be about ensuring valuable resources and information remain accessible by the community,” she said.

 “And the members of the family group having a wealth of knowledge and skills that they want to volunteer to the community, and the best way forward may be for them to do that here, so that they don’t have the onus of maintaining a separate premises.”