Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Paul Goldsmith has toured Invercargill's nearly finished Te Unua Museum of Southland, with the Invercargill City Council confirming the $76.8 million building is in the final stages of construction ahead of a public opening in 2027.
Goldsmith and Invercargill MP Penny Simmonds were shown through the site on Monday 5 October by Mayor Tom Campbell, council chief executive Michael Day and museum director Eloise Wallace.
The visit gave civic leaders a chance to press the case that the museum matters well beyond Southland.
Campbell described Te Unua as one of the council's most significant infrastructure investments in a generation, and said the project offered a significant opportunity for both the region and the country. The respective roles of central and local government in the museum were worth discussing, he said.
Goldsmith commended the council on the facility and said heritage, arts and culture were "very fundamental basics" for a successful city. The museum would help Southlanders understand their own history, draw visitors to the city and form a vital part of New Zealand's tourism offering, he said.
A long wait
Simmonds said the community had waited a long time for the museum and that she had been impressed by the construction and the scale of the building.
She expected it to attract families, school groups and tourists, with flow-on benefits for the city's hospitality and tourism businesses. The museum would "be a real tourist drawcard" once it opened next year, she said.
Invercargill has been without a museum since April 2018, when the former Southland Museum and Art Gallery at the Gala Street entrance to Queens Park was closed because of earthquake risk. The pyramid-shaped building was demolished in 2024 to make way for Te Unua, which is rising on the same site.
Wallace said the new museum would connect the region's nationally significant collections with schools, researchers and visitors, and give Southland a strong platform from which to tell its stories.
What it will cost to run
The council has put the estimated completion cost at $76.8 million. Once the doors open, it expects to commit a further $5.9 million a year to operating Te Unua and the city's art gallery.
Campbell's comment about the roles of central and local government echoes a long-running question in Invercargill over how much of a regional facility city ratepayers should be expected to carry on their own.
The council has not yet announced an opening date beyond 2027.
The tour took place in the final weeks of the general election campaign, in which Simmonds is seeking re-election to the Invercargill seat she has held since 2020.
