Revamp for Mercury Bay museum

A 3m-high moa is part of a $2.2 million redevelopment of Mercury Bay Museum in Whitianga.

The moa will feature in the new natural history interactive exhibition to be officially opened in November.

The Thames-Coromandel District Council has given $31,000 for concept designwork on a regional museum, hoped to be open by the end of 2006.

The museum, which is run by the Historical Society and attracts about 6000 people a year, opened in an old dairy factory building near the wharf in 1979.

Project director Grant Collie said a second level would be added to the building and another area built for maritime artefacts and Maori treasures (taonga).