Quoting from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-03/planning-under-way-for-redevelopment-of-broken-hill-archives/8321368
Planning underway for multi-million-dollar redevelopment and expansion of Broken Hill's archives
By Declan Gooch
RELATED STORY: BHP 'comes home' to Broken Hill with $5.7m gift http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-28/bhp-billiton-donates-5.7-million-dollars-to-broken-hill-heritage/7120838
RELATED STORY: Broken Hill becomes first Australian city to join National Heritage List http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-19/broken-hill-poised-to-be-named-on-national-heritage-list/6024346
MAP: Broken Hill 2880 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Broken+Hill+NSW+2880,+Australia/@-31.958038,141.465138,5z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x6aef3360de52c2cd:0x40609b490440170!8m2!3d-31.9539135!4d141.4539396
A major project to digitise and display Broken Hill's history is underway as the council of the far west New South Wales city appoints a firm to design its new archives.
BHP Billiton donated $5.7 million dollars to the city for specific projects in January 2016, and $3.4 million of that was allocated to the redevelopment of the archives facility and the digitisation of archival material. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-28/bhp-billiton-donates-5.7-million-dollars-to-broken-hill-heritage/7120838
The mining company was founded in Broken Hill in 1885.
The archives are currently stored on the top floor of the city's library, but council said that location was not purpose-built and was unsuitable for preserving fragile historic documents.
Instead, the archives will be moved into two floors of the council administration building, which will be completely redesigned to allow public access and interactivity.
Council appointed designer Sue Hodges and her team to lead the design of the new facility this week.
"We're aiming for the end of June for final designs and technical drawings so it's about a four-month turnaround, which is very tight ... for museums and archival builds and so on, but we're confident we can achieve it," Ms Hodges said.
"We think of ideas to begin with, then essentially we come to site and test them, and we take away to design and develop what works for everyone."
Broken Hill became the only entire town or city included on the National Heritage Register in January 2015. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-20/broken-hill-first-australian-city-to-join-national-heritage-list/6027878
Ms Hodges said the team envisioned a flexible space where the city's history would be on display, and linked to the modern day.
"[Visitors] will be seeing maybe people that they know in there, through we're thinking large video screens or large screens that may show some of the stories of Broken Hill [and] some of the people from the town talking about the history," she said.
"They'll see a very flexible space where the traditional walls between different service areas are probably not going to be there.
"It's going to be one large space."
She said the project would contribute to increasing Broken Hill's profile as a tourism destination.
Council said in conjunction with the redevelopment, significant historical documents and photographs would be digitised and stored in an online archive accessible by anyone in the world.
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