00:02A ghost town since February, Moonta's famous Cornish mines have seen their first visitors in many months.
00:08The inquiry isn't just about Moonta, it's really about the National Trust as an organisation and how we can make
00:15it fit for the future.
00:17At the town hall, a parliamentary committee heard the closure, sparked by a feud between the trust and volunteers at
00:23the site, has driven away tourists.
00:25Look, I honestly believe that our tourism has had a knife in the back and it's been twisted.
00:31When all this was closed down, this town, you could see it was hurting, it was crying.
00:37Volunteer leader Sharon Ward was suspended but reinstated last month after community outcry.
00:43She told the inquiry the organisation needs to modernise.
00:46The most critical element at the moment is they're like the lord of the manor and we're like the servants.
00:51And there needs to be a relationship that's a positive working relationship between us.
00:58Calls to for parliamentary change to the trust's powers.
01:02Our understanding is that they can seize assets and collections and sell them.
01:07And that's what is maintaining keeping their office operations going.
01:11One council suggesting ombudsman oversight.
01:14I feel like they are the custodians of a very vast asset book and there's a very significant public interest
01:24in what they do.
01:25Notably absent from the witness list were members of the National Trust executive in Adelaide.
01:30They'll appear before the committee next month, no doubt, with a very different version of events about what's unfolded here.
01:36In the meantime, the trust says all parties are taking steps to improve their relationship and reopening eventually.
01:44Yeah.
01:47The only 14 cent considering is extended during the snippet.
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