New Wheatbelt Regional Musuem and Heritage Brochure launched

Yesterday the Cunderdin Museum played host as we launched the new updated Wheatlands Museum and Heritage Brochure.

Ms Mia Davies, MLC, Member for the Agricultural Region for the National Party officially launched the brochure at a function attended by the local Shire of Cunderdin, the Cunderdin Museum Committee, the Cunderdin Historical Society, and members of many of the Musuem and Heritage organization in the Wheatbelt region.

Mia has a strong interest and commitment to the agricultural region, having lived and worked in this area for many years. Her family roots in the agricultural industry of Western Australia go back for many decades and, along with other pioneering families the Davies family has contributed a great deal to the development and success of the Wheatbelt. Her interest in arts, and culture as well as heritage was revealed in her maiden speech to Parliament where her preferences for art and music shone through. This interest is perpetuated as Mia is a member of Country Arts WA and takes every opportunity to promote the importance of a vibrant arts and cultural community in regional areas. We were delighted to have Mia launch this Wheatbelt brochure

The promotion of our heritage is one of our key objectives at Museums Australia WA , and this Wheatbelt Museum and Heritage brochure, is the latest in a series of publications designed to do just that. Heritage and Cultural Tourism is a growing industry and this brochure assists in the promotion of a region’s museums and heritage places as community assets which contribute to the development of sustainable regional and local economies, and in enhancing community pride and sense of place, and develops the profile of museums and heritage places generally.

The idea of producing a regional brochure to highlight all their museums, galleries and heritage places originally came from our mid-west chapter in 2003. The inaugural Mid-West Regional brochure was released in 2004 and has become the template for a successful series of regional publications. Both the inaugural Mid-West brochure and the 2008 Metropolitan edition received awards in the WA Business and the Arts Partnership awards.

Since 2004 brochures have been produced for the Peel, Wheatbelt, Mid-West regions, and the Perth Metropolitan area. These publications have been a joint project of the state branch and our individual regional chapters with various sponsorship and support arrangements.

In 2007 we received the support of the Heritage Council to assist with a number of regional brochures, including the Wheatbelt. The Heritage Council is a natural fit as a partner for Museums Australia, as many of the museums and galleries featured are housed in Heritage buildings.

Of course printing costs continue to rise, and the project costs continue to move just out of our reach. So the launch of the Royalties for Regions program was great news, and we successfully applied to the Wheatbelt Development Commission for further funding to assist with this Wheatbelt brochure.

The brochure is available from participating sites, Visitor Centres, and Museums Australia WA branch office. An on-line version will shortly be available.