THE Hamilton Gallery is set to get a significant upgrade in its internal ambience with the Southern Grampians Shire Council (SGSC) voting last week to install both modern lighting and climate control systems midway through this year.

Discussed as two separate items in the scheduled February 8 meeting - the first for 2023 - the need to address the ageing installations in the building and the limitations they create for the resource, was recognised as evidenced by the unanimous votes to award tenders and allocate funding for the improvements.

SGSC infrastructure and sustainability director, Marg Scanlon, presented the case for the works and highlighted recent “collaborative work with Creative Victoria” to get the projects underway in both design and funding.

First addressing the lighting, the agenda described one of the inadequacies of the present 50-year-old system was its incandescent globes - which are no longer able to be replaced when they fail and also use more energy (and create greater heat) than modern LED globes.

The lack of illumination adjustment level controls was also seen as problematic for exhibitions involving light-sensitive material.

ERCO was identified as a German-manufactured lighting system that has become industry-standard in galleries and museums in Australia and has the advantage of being modular with more lights able to be purchased and added at any future time.

These LED lights are highly versatile and can be clipped in and out of tracks when required as well as lux levels being controlled by staff from a tablet via wireless communication.

“This project will mean that lighting will be upgraded to meet … industry standards … not only protect (our collection) but also extend our exhibitions further,” Ms Scanlon said.

Similarly, the 20-year-old air-conditioning system had been assessed in 2021 by a mechanical engineer specialising in building services as no longer able to adequately control climate.

The report into the system revealed that there were a number of fundamental problems contributing to the spikes in temperature and humidity, including age and condition of the existing plant and ducts, gallery roof and wall leakage, and the open nature of the stairwell and void between floors.

The unregulated entrance from Brown Street was also a contributing factor.

The National Gallery has ‘red-flagged’ the Hamilton Gallery and advised Council no travelling exhibitions will come until the climate control system is upgraded to ensure temperature is regulated within a range of 16-25 degrees Celsius, and humidity is kept within 40-60 per cent.

Ms Scanlon said the new installation “certainly enables better control of the environment, which then protects the assets - both ours and from other exhibitions” and the need for the upgrade had been a known issue to Council for some time.

“The air control has been an item … the service team have raised that for a number of years now, so it was certainly on our long-term program,” she said.

During discussions, Cr Greg McAdam and Cr Helen Henry questioned Ms Scanlon about both projects, asking respectively whether the new installations would be state-of-the-art (no pun intended) and able to be reused in the new gallery.

Ms Scanlon was pleased to affirm this for both items and added “we will optimise the functionality of the system we’re installing”.

Cr Albert Calvano and Cr McAdam heartily endorsed both projects with the latter having an expectation the standard of future exhibitions at the gallery would go even higher.

“One of the problems we’ve had for some time with our gallery is the inability to attract major exhibitions because of their lack of effective climate control and lighting, and I think these two items will both, hopefully, settle that problem,” he said.

The recommendation for the lighting was to award the contract to Comtek Electrical at the price of $298,535,21, funded by the Creative Victoria grant of $279,404 plus a draw-down of $19,131.21 from Council’s Capital budget sourced through uncompleted projects.

The contract for the new climate control system was awarded to D&E Air Conditioning for both the ground floor and on level one at a price of $459,000 (ex GST), including a provisional item being potential structural modifications for $25,000 after removal of the old system.

Funding will come from a Creative Victoria grant of $263,500 plus $195,500 from Council’s Building Renewal Program’s uncommitted funds.

Council is expected to close the gallery mid-year via public notice with the intention to coordinate both projects to minimise the disruption required.