Video: Inside Toitu Otago Settlers Museum

For those who want to see something that moves with the times, is informative and beautiful, there will soon be a new museum in town.

The Otago Daily Times yesterday was given a sneak peek inside a new gallery in the Toitu Otago Settlers Museum in Dunedin, which will reopen in early December.

Several vehicles in the museum's collection, previously hidden away in storage, are now on display in the almost completely new transport and technology exhibition space.

From a bullock wagon used around Berwick, to cable cars, and the Tiger Tea trolley bus that operated in Dunedin until 1982, the display showed "the slow transition from the old way of doing things", museum curator Peter Read said.

A display of computers used around Otago will also join the exhibit in the former New Zealand Railways Department bus garage, which has been lined and has had a substantial ventilation and temperature regulation system installed.

The museum was busy yesterday as work continued on installation of new displays and joinery in preparation for exhibitions which will feature many items from the collection, with access to parts of the building previously off limits to the public.

Collections team leader Claire Nodder said the new displays would provide new aspects to the museum's collections.

It would be "very exciting" for visitors who come to see the changes, which were quite considerable, she said.

The new transport exhibition space was a great example.

"It's really great to get some of our biggest objects on display."

It would be "frantic", but she was confident the museum would be ready before the opening weekend in early December.