Rows of items in State Library Victoria's current storage facility.

Rows of items in State Library Victoria’s current storage facility.

Local tradespeople will be the winners when work begins next month on a second state-of-the-art storage facility for State Library Victoria in Mount Helen near Ballarat.

Australian building company Hansen Yuncken has been appointed to deliver the $21.4 million Victorian Government funded project, with a commitment to using local tradespeople and suppliers throughout the construction works.

Hansen Yuncken has a long history of delivering major projects throughout regional Victoria dating back to 1925. The company is currently working on projects in Bendigo, Castlemaine, Shepparton and Euroa.

State Library Victoria’s existing storage facility at Federation University’s Mount Helen Campus already holds more than half of the library’s extensive collection.

This includes items of national significance such as the waistcoat worn by Captain James Cook, as well as precious local history like rare glass plate negatives that reveal early images of Ballarat.

The new facility will provide additional storage capacity of 25-30 linear kilometres, the equivalent of driving from Ballarat to Clunes or running 175 lengths of the MCG. It will further protect the Library’s important collection by incorporating advanced bushfire protection technology across the whole site.

The project also includes the creation of a digitisation studio on the site to enable the Library to make more of its collection material accessible online.

The project is funded by the Victorian Government and managed by Development Victoria. Work is expected to start on site in later this month.

This article has 2 comments

  1. Good to see taxes and philanthropy work together for all Victorians

  2. Jennifer simmknds

    Please lead me to the digitisation employment! I’d love a job like that! Wow!

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