CEO, Collections Council of Australia Ltd

Margaret Birtley is the inaugural CEO of the Collections Council of Australia and has contributed to its many achievements since 2005.

Margaret's career background is in the not-for-profit cultural sector, including employment as an educator, researcher, administrator and museum practitioner.

As an educator, Margaret has worked at Monash, Melbourne and Deakin universities, teaching first the early medieval language, literature and culture of England and Scandinavia, and more recently Museum Studies. She is now a member of the University of South Australia’s advisory committee for its Arts and Cultural Management program, and is an Honorary Fellow of Deakin University.

As a researcher, Margaret directed for the Cultural Ministers Council a study into museums, galleries, libraries and archives, published as A Study into the Key Needs of Collecting Institutions in the Heritage Sector (2002). She was also a Chief Investigator with an Australian Research Council ‘Linkage’ grant that involves Deakin University and industry partner Heritage Victoria in a PhD project entitled: Making Room for the Past: Determining Significance in Archaeological Collections from Historic Sites.

Margaret’s administrative experience includes her employment as Executive Officer for the Victorian Branch of the Museums Association of Australia. In that role she helped organise a conference for libraries, archives, museums and historical collections, with the theme: New Responsibilities: Documenting Multicultural Australia. She has served on many voluntary committees, including as the Secretary of a specialist committee for the training of personnel within the International Council of Museums, and as Vice-President of Museums Australia.

In the museum sector, Margaret was employed as Manager of Visitor Programs at Scienceworks, and has subsequently undertaken numerous voluntary roles. She was a founding Director of the Ford Heritage Trust that operates the Ford Discovery Centre in Geelong. Her life-membership of the Friends of the Grainger Museum recognises her work in inaugurating and assisting that group. She served on the Education Advisory Group for the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne, and the Museum Committee of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists. In 2002 Margaret was honoured to receive a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ though the Museum Industry Recognition Awards program of Museums Australia (Victoria).

While employed by Deakin University, Margaret participated in a number of consultancy projects relating to heritage collections, including short courses for volunteers and military personnel, and the facilitation of change-management processes. She also advised Deakin on the ethical deaccessioning of its Australian House Museum.

Margaret has provided advice to governments through appointment to several committees, including the National Collections Advisory Forum (for the Cultural Ministers Council)  and the Heritage Collections Advisory Committee (for Heritage Victoria). She was Museums Australia’s representative on the Advisory Committee for the Return of Indigenous Cultural Property program, an initiative of the Cultural Ministers Council. For Innovation and Business Skills Australia, she is currently a member of the Cultural Sector Advisory Committee.

Margaret is a member of several professional associations in the cultural heritage field, including the Archivists Society of Australia, Australia ICOMOS, Australian Library and Information Association, Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material, History Council of South Australia, International Council of Museums, Interpretation Australia Association, Museums Australia, and the National Association for the Visual Arts.

Educational qualifications

1998	Graduate Certificate of Management, Deakin University
1978	Master of Philosophy, University of Oxford
1975	Bachelor of Arts (Hons), University of Melbourne