Arts & Culture
7 October, 2026
Instrument library will make music more accessible
The Hume Conservatorium of Music (HCM) has welcomed State Government funding to establish a Community Instrument Lending Library.
The Hume Conservatorium of Music (HCM) has welcomed State Government funding to establish a Community Instrument Lending Library.
The $64,098 funding was announced this week by the Minister for Regional NSW, Tara Moriarty MLC, as part of the NSW Government’s $50 million Active Regional Communities Package, delivered through the Regional Development Trust Fund.
The lending library will build a shared pool of quality instruments and music stands for young people, school students, adults returning to music and people living with disability.
It will cater for students, ensembles and community groups.
Instruments will be loaned for the length of a student's lessons or a player's time in an ensemble, then returned and passed on to the next borrower.
Every instrument will come with instructions on how to look after it, and HCM will maintain the whole collection to give each instrument the longest possible life, so the library keeps working for the community year after year.
HCM CEO George Brenan said the library would remove the first hurdle faced by many families.
"Every term we meet children who want to join a band or start lessons, and buying an instrument is an additional up-front cost which makes affording tuition more difficult.
“For families on low income, the instrument library means access to an instrument no longer depends on household income," Mr Brenan said.
"It is also for the adults who played when they were younger and want to pick it up again.
“This gives people a way back into the bands, ensembles and community groups across our region.”
The cost of an instrument is one of the most common reasons people in regional NSW never start music - or stop.
Many instruments cost from $300 to more than $2,000 to buy.
In Goulburn Mulwaree, where the SEIFA index of relative socio-economic disadvantage sits at 972, below the NSW average of 1,000, that cost puts music out of reach for many families.
HCM is active across five local government areas - Goulburn Mulwaree, Upper Lachlan Shire, Yass Valley, Queanbeyan-Palerang and Wingecarribee - and works in 25 schools across the region.
In 2025 HCM supported 617 active students and 889 in-school students, ran 72 bands and ensembles and delivered 13,281 hours of teaching.
The lending library will reach across that whole network, so a student in Crookwell or Bungendore has the same access to an instrument as a student in Goulburn.
Local residents will also have the opportunity to help build the collection by donating old instruments that they have at home and that are no longer being used.
All donated instruments will be checked and serviced before being put back into the hands of a local musician.
Those people wanting to donate an instrument can contact the Hume Conservatorium on (02) 4821 8833 or visit 160 Bourke Street, Goulburn.
Details on how to borrow an instrument will be announced in coming months.
Mr Brenan thanked the NSW Government, Minister for Regional NSW Tara Moriarty MLC, Member for Monaro Steve Whan, Member for Goulburn Wendy Tuckerman and Member for Wollondilly Judy Hannan for “backing a practical project that will keep giving back to our communities for years to come”.
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