The president of Seymour's historical society hoped the organisation's collection would be out of harm's way when flooding hit the Victorian town overnight on October 13.
"The building itself was constructed in the 1800s," Geoff Halpin said.
"I don't think it has ever been flooded."
When it was safe to re-enter the property a few days later, volunteers found water had risen more than a metre high in the storeroom and to about 30 centimetres in the main part of the building.
Everything near the floor was sodden and covered in a thin film of mud, including a Boer War nominal roll from 1907.
"It's pretty devastating some of the stuff we lost," Mr Halpin said.
"You can't just go out and replace these items, so we wanted to restore them if we could."
Conservators to the rescue
University of Melbourne conservators came to Seymour on November 10 to run a workshop to help residents save their flood-damaged photographs, books, documents and art.
A paper conservation specialist at the university's Grimwade Conservation Services Libby Melzer was one of them.
"On the day we had several members of the public come through. Most just had questions because they couldn't go back to their houses yet," she said.
"The art society and historical society both came in with materials."
The conservators usually charge a fee for restoration services, but the university decided to offer the expertise for free to help the community recover from the floods.
The team have offered several online workshops, as well as drop-in sessions for the public.
"It's been incredibly rewarding," Ms Melzer said.
"There is obviously trauma in the community, but they want to talk about their things and know that other people care about their irreplaceable objects."
Seymour's art society brought in a dozen paintings caked in mud. They were able to be fixed on-site.
"We brush-vacuumed up all the mud and swabbed them with clean water," Ms Melzer said.
"They came up really well."
The historical society brought in the Boer War nominal roll, which needed a bit more attention.
The bottom quarter had been immersed in water for days and had started to grow mould.
"My colleague Peter and I put our masks on and we took it out of the frame," Ms Melzer said.
"The whole thing was still wet at this stage; this was a few weeks after the flood."
Ms Melzer has now brought the rare 115-year-old print back to the university's conservation lab in North Melbourne so it can be restored.
Taking care to keep all the original elements, Ms Melzer has brush-vacuumed the loose mould off and will remove the stained fabric that has been used to line the roll.
"Then we will line it onto a new piece of paper, so it is supported," she said.
"To be honest, it's going to look better than it did before it was flood-damaged — it will be a lot more chemically and physically stable."
Ms Melzer hopes to return the restored roll to the historical society early next year.
Mr Halpin said it was wonderful to have the help of professionals.
"It'll be great to have the piece back, great to have people like that who can help you," he said.
