The appeal is being driven by Beechworth's Old Cranks Motor Club and its heritage society and has more than 200 signatories to date.

The groups want the council to allow the horse-drawn vehicles, now at Billson's Brewery at Beechworth, to be housed at the shire-controlled goods shed.

Brewery boss Nathan Cowan said the building containing the carriages, an 1870s lemonade factory, had a leaky roof in need of repair and was required for storage.

The National Trust, which owns the assortment, accepts the vehicles need a new home, but its chief executive Simon Ambrose notes there are arguments for and against moving them into the goods shed.

He pointed to a reluctance from some councillors and council staff to use the shed for such a purpose.

Indigo mayor Bernard Gaffney was unwilling to say if he supported the display being in the old rail precinct, but noted "there's a lot of support in the Beechworth community for the carriages to go to the goods shed".

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Petition organiser and Old Cranks member Leigh Privett said he hoped to amass 1000 names for the change.org and paper petition before it was presented to council.

He said the collection included "a beautiful old hearse, a horse-drawn bus that came out to Stanley" and he does not believe "there's anything better in Victoria".

Heritage society president Elizabeth Mason pointed out the council had undertaken two failed expressions of interest processes to unearth tenants for the shed.

"The council has a responsibility to look after heritage items and it's not acceptable for them to turn their backs on those carriages," she said.

A $590,000 refurbishment of the goods shed, funded by the council and federal government, was completed in 2020.

The carriage collection was originally located where Bridge Road Brewers is based before shifting to the goods shed in 1988 and then the brewery in the 1990s.

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