"Times are a changing in the wide world of Coal, as New Zealand's Premier Coal Museum goes forward."

The Waikato Coalfields Museum in Huntly has a new Director at the helm, Elizabeth Cotton has recently been appointed to the role, and is looking forward to working with the community to grow the existing museum, and with developing a new museum in the town.

"Times are a changing in the wide world of Coal, as New Zealand's Premier Coal Museum goes forward."

The Waikato Coalfields Museum in Huntly has a new Director at the helm, Elizabeth Cotton has recently been appointed to the role, and is looking forward to working with the community to grow the existing museum, and with developing a new museum in the town.To coincide with Elizabeth Cotton's appointment, Waikato Coalfields Museum has just launched its own dedicated website to promote current exhibitions, programmes, and document progress on the New Museum Project.

The website can be viewed at www.coal.net.nz

Elizabeth Cotton
Elizabeth has been employed at the Museum since August 2004 as Registrar, and says that the move from collections management to managing the whole museum business is proving a welcome challenge; "It is interesting to put the theoretical knowledge I have from my studies with regard to fundraising, and working with our Museum Committee and other Museum stakeholders into practice. There are a lot of people out there who believe very firmly in the excellent work that the Museum is doing to preserve our coal-mining heritage, and I am looking forward to continuing and constantly improving this role in conjunction with the community".

New Museum Project
The new museum development will ensure the survival of the Museum's collections, which are currently housed in unsuitable conditions and in some cases scattered around the region, being stored through the goodwill of Solid Energy North and Genesis. Once these collections, which include mining machinery and equipment, the old Huntly railway station, a steam engine collection and a miner's cottage are housed on the same site, the Museum will be able to tell the full story of coal - from the formation of coal within the earth's crust through to extraction, the environmental issues of mining, and uses of the raw material in industry and in everyday products. Exhibitions and interactive experiences will also tie in with the school curriculum for geography, social studies and science.

The Waikato Coalfields Museum is located at 26 Harlock Place, Huntly.
Open seven days from 10am to 4pm

For more information contact;
Elizabeth Cotton - Director
07 828 8128
waikatocoalmuseum@paradise.net.nz