Officially opened on Tuesday, Wodonga Historical Society's headquarters at Bonegilla Migrant Experience brings together the group that preserves Wodonga's past with the site that was the first Australian home for more than 300,000 migrants.

Wodonga Mayor Kev Poulton said the temporary home offered a chance to grow history tourism through the synergies of basing the society at a major visitor drawcard.

"As part of our ongoing advocacy for our city, we'll be looking at long-term options for the society's home but in the meantime, the move to Bonegilla provides a great opportunity to showcase the society's amazing collection to visitors from around the nation and overseas - people who come to Bonegilla to experience one of the great stories in Australian migration history," he said.

WHS members are now using the renovated caretakers' huts to preserve, catalogue and audit their collection of more than 4000 artefacts, documents and other items.

Wodonga Historical Society (WHS) president Marie Elliot said the move from their South Street base was a major undertaking.

She said society life member John Flower was instrumental in it.

"There were two furniture vans filled with 423 boxes, which was the equivalent of three-and-a-half shipping containers," she said.

"John Flower and the movers brought all of our treasures to our new home at Bonegilla over a 16-hour day with only one small breakage."

Mrs Elliot said the group hoped to harness the popularity of Bonegilla Migrant Experience to expose the collection to more history-minded visitors.

"We have a vast collection of memorabilia that will help trigger memories of yesteryear," Mrs Elliot said.

"All of this is worth it because it's bringing back memories for people.

"Some of the people who've been through came to the camp as children and some have come back and expressed what it was like for them."

Having grown up on a farm on the Kiewa-Bonegilla Road, Mrs Elliot was familiar with the district.

"It was before electricity and my dad would go down to the Bonegilla hall to light the lamps and boil the copper and he'd pull me around the floor in a small, wooden box to polish the hall floor," she said.

"He sprinkled the floor with sawdust and kerosene and I was the weight in the box that had bags under it!"

WHS will open daily except Tuesday and Friday, 10am to 1pm.

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