THE National Vietnam Veterans Museum (NVVM) is able to exhibit less than 10 per cent of its 40,000-piece collection in, let’s be honest, the old shed they presently occupy on Veterans Drive, Newhaven, Phillip Island.

It makes sense they’d want something better.

And the clock is ticking for Vietnam Veterans who'd like to see it, maybe have a chat about it over a coffee in surrounds appropriate for the only facility like it in the world.

For all that, though, they do an incredible job inside that shed, akin to what’s on display at the War Memorial in Canberra, with a holographic Light and Sound Show, standing displays of Vietnam War vehicles and aircraft, and changing exhibitions, both local and visiting, which tell the story of Australia’s involvement in that most indelible of confrontations.

NVVM General Manager Braxton Laine isn’t at all surprised to see visitors, young and old, reduced to tears when they come to the realisation about what occurred in Vietnam and the lessons it holds for us today.

These feelings, he says, have been intensified by what we are seeing on our TV screens daily from the Ukraine.

“By the end of October this year, we’d already had our biggest visitation for a calendar year, and we’re seeing a lot more family groups than previously,” Mr Laine said.

“As Australians, we don’t experience war in our own country, but we’ve seen the displacement of thousands of people in the Ukraine and the destruction of their homes, towns and infrastructure. How long is it going to take, and how much money will it cost to put that right again?

“The same goes for the Gulf War, and what has happened after that, and in Vietnam too; war simply is not the way to go.”

It’s one of the reasons why the museum offers free entry to school groups, even helping to finance the cost of their buses. Education is a big part of what the museum does.

Mr Laine said the NVVM was regularly visited by veterans, some of whom hadn’t previously discussed their involvement. Other veterans volunteered as guides, in maintenance or restoring future exhibits.

American Vietnam Veterans often made a special trip to Phillip Island, some of them off the cruise ships, because nothing of its kind exists anywhere else in the world.

It’s no wonder then that the museum administrators want to do justice to the only place dedicated to telling the story of the Vietnam War, before it’s too late.

“Without doubt,” says Mr Laine, when asked if the museum could expect to receive further important memorabilia.

“We’re offered things on a daily basis but we can't accommodate them. The reality is that people involved in Vietnam are getting to an age where they’d like to see their things looked after.

“It’s going to be an important decade for the Vietnam War story.”

A purpose-built facility would also be able to display important and valuable memorabilia from other museums. Closer ties with the National War Memorial in Canberra, and elsewhere in the world, would be inevitable.

In May this year, when an application from the Island's new National Vietnam Veterans Museum went before the Bass Coast Shire Council, for a planning permit to build a state-of-the-art, $50 million museum and café, on a 40-hectare site opposite the existing museum, the council gave it unanimous and enthusiastic support.

Cr Rochelle Halstead said it would be an “absolute honour for Bass Coast to have such a facility here”.

After the new museum is built, the old one will become a dedicated storage and restoration facility.

Despite the almost sacred cow status of the project, however, it does have its detractors.

The application attracted 10 objectors, four of whom have taken their complaints about the project forward to VCAT where 10 days have been set aside for a hearing in February 2023.

While all that’s going on, the museum has had to stop fundraising.

“We’ve received $5 million from the Federal Government, $10 million budgeted by the Andrews Government and there was $10 million more pledged by the Coalition,” said Mr Laine, although it hasn’t yet been matched by the new State Government.

Even if those funds are ultimately matched, there’s still a long way to go.

Among those objecting is the Phillip Island Conservation Society, although such is the sensitivity of the issue, they’ve declined to put their name to any comment.

However, in a submission to the shire’s “Unlocking Rural Tourism” strategy they objected to “the major earth works proposed” for “the Military Museum” claiming approximately 26,000 cubic metres of earth would need to be moved for the creation of the earth berms and mounds around the museum.

“This is an example of an inappropriately located tourist development which will have a negative impact on the natural environment and landscape,” they said.

The group went further saying that while they support the rehabilitation of land that is unsuitable for farming, they “do not want to have planning outcomes where large 5-star developments are approved on the basis that the developer offers to rehabilitate adjacent land”.

Another objector, who also declined to be named for fear of retribution, stressed (in capital letters) “we do not oppose a museum and café rather our concerns relate to the proposed location of the development”.

“In our view, the proposed location will result in unavoidable impacts for fragile and local wildlife habitats and the surrounding natural environment. The development threatens to negatively impact Western Port’s unique coast wetlands that feature in the nationally important wetlands directory and form part of Western Port’s accredited Ramsar Wetlands site.”

They say the line has to be drawn on the protection of Westernport, which they claim has Galapagos-like status as a world environmental treasure, and it should start with refusal of the National Vietnam Veterans Museum project.

Other objectors have raised:

* Traffic problems, excessive height (up to 12.93m), visual amenity, incompatible with Phillip Island nature-based image, inappropriate in farm zone, outside the town boundary

* The loss of wildlife habitat and fears the remaining 30 hectares will be sold off to a developer “for subdivision or another tourism venture”.

Mr Laine said the project actually offered a significant environmental dividend for the Island with the creation of a newly formed Swamp Paperbark Woodland, and the enhancement of existing wetlands.

He said the new museum would be accessible from a fourth arm of the new Cape Woolamai roundabout and presented no adverse outcomes for Westernport, located 1.5km from the subject site.

So, is it an “absolute honour” or an environmental risk?

It will be up to VCAT to decide as the project has already passed through the public consultation process.

Check out the full project report (application number 210094 24) at https://www.basscoast.vic.gov.au/about-council/council-meetings