They chose an iconic old shop in the middle of Smithton, which was soon filled with photographs and relics of bygone eras.

The Circular Head Heritage Centre was born.

Fast-forward a quarter of a century, and a team of hard-working museum staff have finished up moving some of the thousands of items in the museum's collection out of the old wooden shop and into their new, freshly opened space - the Duck River Pavilion.

At the multi-million dollar building's soft launch on Wednesday morning, Circular Head Heritage Centre Committee president Patrick Bakes said it had taken months to pack up all the gear out of the old site.

"They moved it all in two Saturdays, but there was a lot of preparation," he said.

He said it had been bittersweet to leave the original building, but that moving into a portion of the Duck River Pavilion on the former Agritas College site came with its own advantages.

"Where we were, buses couldn't stop, and there was no parking," Mr Bakes admitted.

"This is brilliant, we'll be able to take lots of school groups, which is really important."

He said, under the watchful eye of CHHC volunteer Elayne Blake, the new museum space had been designed to tell a story, beginning with the prehistoric skeleton of a giant wombat named Zyggy, flowing through to Aboriginal artefacts donated by the Circular Head Aboriginal Corporation, through to European settlement in the area and modern life.

The Pavilion is also host to a theatrette and cafe, as well as the Circular Head Visitor's Centre.

Project building liaison John Dabner said the cafe lease had not yet been filled.

The visitors centre, formerly housed in Stanley, is also in the process of moving in.