Movable heritage ranges from significant everyday objects to antiques and may be a single item, a group of items or a whole collection. It includes:

• machinery from industry, such as tractors, ploughs and the contents of sheds;
  
• furniture, domestic collections, letters and accounts books and other items in heritage places;
  
• transport items, such as trams and ferries;
  
• collections and archives relating to sporting and community organisations;
  
• religious or ceremonial objects which are important to indigenous people or other cultural groups;
  
• natural items such as fossils and botanical specimens; and
  
• museum objects and collections.
  

1. Document movable heritage
Documenting movable heritage helps us to understand an item's importance, including its relationship to people and places. Documentation creates a record of the item's location, its arrangement and details of manufacture, ownership and use. When items are moved from their context, documentation helps us to recover their history, trace their use and reinstate them when circumstances change. If you are the owner or curator of movable objects, it is important to keep copies of documentation with the site and building records and the items themselves. These are some of the things you can do:

• photograph the place in detail, inside and out, showing the arrangement of movable items in their context;
• make an inventory of the items and record their relationships to places and people;
• talk to people who used the items or remember their history. Record how the items were used, who owned them and where they came from;
• research the local history of the region, place and community. This provides a context to understand the items and the reasons they are important in local history;
• research historical changes and uses that have influenced the design or current condition of the items;
• carefully examine the items to see how they were used, looking for evidence of wear and tear, repairs and adaptation;
• assess the significance of the items
• prepare a conservation management plan and follow its recommendations before making decisions on moving, disposing, or restoring items and places.

A movable heritage item can usually survive for long periods in the place where it belongs, as long as there is basic security, protection from pests and shelter from the elements. Items can be easily damaged through hasty and poorly planned actions. Maintenance, conservation or removal should only be undertaken when the item's significance is understood. Follow the recommendations in the conservation management plan.

If a heritage place is being reused, there may be opportunities to keep movable items in use or to carefully store them in a room, roof space or shed on the site, or somewhere adjacent. The following measures can help conserve movable heritage:

• minimise direct physical access which can put items at risk of wear, damage, disturbance and theft;
• consider storing important archival records elsewhere for future research;
• secure and store items during conservation works to a building or site;
• remove small and valuable items to protect them during conservation works;
• record any conservation work in notes and take before and after photographs. Add these records to the documentation file;
• seek advice from a museum conservator before applying treatments to items. Painting can damage or destroy original materials, as can repairs, reconstruction and adding new parts to make an item operational.

Moving an item may diminish its significance and create new storage and conservation problems in another place. It is important to explore all possible options for retaining movable heritage in its heritage place, cultural group, community or region.

It may be necessary to relocate movable heritage when it is under direct and immediate threat. The conservation management plan and the wishes of cultural groups and communities should guide decisions about moving items. Even if it is necessary to relocate movable heritage from a heritage place, there may be options to retain some of the item's significance by keeping it in its cultural group, community or region. Remember to keep copies of documentation with the item.

When there is no alternative to moving items, it may be best for a local group, museum or historical society to acquire them. A good home allows community access and interprets the items' links to places, people and the region's history. A well organised museum will have a policy identifying what it is collecting and interpreting, in co-operation with other people in the region.

Museums have to be very selective about what they acquire because caring for movable heritage is a major on-going commitment. Sometimes museums will decline to acquire items. This decision will be based on the museums' collection policy and its capacity to safely store and care for the items.

Historic farm buildings and machinery reveal how people once lived and worked on the land. We usually think of historic machinery as examples of old-fashioned technology. But can you explain how and where it was used, who owned it and the stories about working with it?

Some people may remember these things, but their memories and experiences are rarely written down or recorded. In most cases, the way machinery is catalogued, labelled and presented in museums does not do justice to the stories it can tell us about people, places and the hard labour of farming life.

Historic farm machinery needs to be looked after through careful conservation decisions and writing down its history. Safe in the Shed, a joint publication by the Heritage Branch and Ministry for the Arts, provides some practical advice on how to record and care for farm machinery.