Immigration Museum begins imagining its next chapter after strong community turnout

The Immigration Museum has taken an early step towards reimagining its future, with more than 650 people attending a recent community open day as Museums Victoria begins work on a new long-term vision for the Flinders St institution.

The free event, held on April 18 under the banner IMagine, invited the public to help shape what the museum could become in the years ahead. Cultural performances, story-sharing stations and creative activities were used to draw people into the conversation, with visitors encouraged to contribute ideas about the museum’s next chapter.

According to Museums Victoria, the turnout exceeded expectations and reflected the depth of affection many Melburnians still hold for the museum nearly three decades after it opened.

Tracey Taylor from Museums Victoria said the organisation was still in the early planning stages of the process, but that community involvement needed to start from the beginning.

“It’s very early, and that’s the reason why we did the open day when we did,” she told CBD News.

“That kind of engagement and welcoming the public to come in and tell us, for us that’s really crucial to have that really early on.”

Ms Taylor said Museums Victoria was working towards a new strategy and, ultimately, likely a new master plan for the site, but that the current phase was about visioning rather than fixed plans.

“We’re just in that early visioning stage of, what do we imagine it might be in the future and how the community imagine that with us,” she said.

The process comes as the Immigration Museum approaches a milestone. Opened in 1998, the museum is now nearing its 30^th anniversary and, according to Ms Taylor, has reached a natural point for renewal.

“It’s just at the point now where it’s needing to be reimagined for the next couple of decades,” she said.

While no detailed design or operational changes have yet been flagged, Museums Victoria says the early response from the open day points strongly towards a people-focused future for the museum.

Ms Taylor said one of the clearest messages emerging so far was that people wanted the Immigration Museum to remain a place where stories could be shared and communities could see themselves reflected.

“It’s really just about wanting the Immigration Museum to be a place where people can come and share their stories,” she said.

That diversity, she said, spoke directly to the museum’s continuing relevance in contemporary Melbourne.

Located in the historic Old Customs House on Flinders St, the museum occupies a distinctive but somewhat tucked-away position in the city, close to the market precinct and the Yarra. Ms Taylor said it remained deeply tied to Melbourne’s civic fabric and to the lived experiences of migrant communities.

“I think people have such a passion for it,” she said. “You start talking to anyone and it kind of comes out of the woodwork, how much they love it, and they see their own stories there and they see their family there.”

Museums Victoria has indicated the April open day is only the beginning of what will be a longer community engagement process, with more consultation expected over the coming months and years.

For now, the message from the Immigration Museum is simple: its future is being imagined, and the public is being invited to help shape it.