Over the past three weeks, contract museum technician John McGann has been hard at work building a series of open-sided crates to better protect a wide range of large artefacts which have been stored in the museum's former bus station garage.
These include Humpty Dumpty, one of the museum's Pixie Town exhibits, a skiff once owned by Sir Truby King, and a large agricultural plough.
As the museum's more than $30 million redevelopment project continues, these artefacts will soon be moved elsewhere.
Some items are likely to be shifted into offsite storage within a few days, and some artefacts will be transferred from the garage to the museum's new specialised storage building, which is within a few weeks of completion.
Francois Leurquin, the museum collection and conservation manager, said the crates had been fitted with wheels, enabling them to be easily moved, and could also be easily stacked for more compact storage.
Project development manager Bronwyn Simes said that as part of the second stage of the redevelopment next year, a new garage roof would be installed, and the garage space upgraded and redeveloped into a big new exhibition area.
