Now, the University of New England (UNE) archives sit on shaky ground; as a restructure and voluntary redundancies threatens the future of the past.

A university spokesperson refused to comment on the potential shutdown of the archives which has caused a stir with local community group New England Visions (NEV) chair Maria Hitchcock.

"The university has a lot of financial pressures so they are trying to divest themselves of institutions or parts that they don't feel are essential to their business case and aren't bringing in revenue," she said.

"Bill Oates the senior archivist was asked to apply for redundancy and that's a huge loss to the community.

"They aren't just UNE archives, the collection covers the whole of the north of the state so we feel the state government should have some responsibility."

Inside the archives stories and photographs of the New England Light Horsemen; who fought in the Battle of Beersheba.

There's microfilms of the Armidale Express, more than 25,000 images; historical mining records and the papers of local pastoral families.

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NEV has asked Armidale Regional Council for in-kind support for a public meeting.

Ms Hitchcock said the community needs assurances that the archives will be staffed by trained archivists.

"I know the community will come out in droves and they are all terribly concerned, we are writing to Northern Tablelands MP Adam Marshall to see if he can come up with a solution," she said.