RISING damp problems have been addressed after recent work at Chifley Home and Education Centre and the garden at the property is a potential project for the future.
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Bathurst Regional Council museums manager Janelle Middleton also says a move to self-guided tours at the complex has been popular with visitors.
The Busby Street site reopened to the public only recently after a closure for conservation and remediation work that included fixing problems with water getting into Ben and Elizabeth Chifley's historic home.
"It's like any old property in Bathurst - it [damp] comes up," Ms Middleton said.
"When they built these properties, they never really thought much about rising damp.
"It's just slowly come up through the bottom and also through the guttering.
"But we've eliminated that now, we're just waiting for the building to dry out and then we'll start tackling some of the patchy areas that need to be done.
"It's an ongoing task with any old property.
"But, because Chifley Home is such an asset to this community, we want to make sure that we look after it.
"The home itself is an object as well as everything that is contained within it."
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Ms Middleton said council was considering the garden as a potential project and might be looking for volunteers, "but that's probably a good six months away at this point".
"We're very lucky that we've got some amazing neighbours that are really invested in Chifley Home and we've had a few meetings with them and they're expressing that they're keen to help out with the garden, so we'll be calling on them, if they are still interested, to help," she said.
"But we'll form an official volunteer group for that to happen."
Since work at the Busby Street site was completed and the home and education centre reopened, Ms Middleton said there had been an average of about 20 people a day visiting.
She said a popular addition had been the audio devices that allow visitors to take a self-guided tour through the education centre.
"I think people like to be self-guided," she said. "They can sort of pick and choose what they're interested in.
"They don't have to read all the [information] panels, but they can highlight what they want and then they can come and have a look at the home.
"But doing that in the next door [the education centre] it takes the pressure off here [Chifley Home], too.
"You don't have a lot of people just being here for a long period of time and they get to learn about Ben and Elizabeth and then they move through this space."
But she said both the Chifley Home and the education centre still have a staff member in each, and special guided tours are still available by request.
Ms Middleton said a particular focus for Chifley Home and Education Centre was local schools.
"We would like, ultimately, to have every primary school child in Bathurst come through this house at some stage while they're at primary school," she said.
