PIONEER Settlement volunteer and Swan Hill local Don Brown says if "we don't embrace change, we could still be in the pioneer era".

The 81-year-old has spoken out in support of the placement of the proposed Our Place building inside the grounds of the Monash Drive settlement, arguing the contrast of past and present could deliver a "wow" factor that keeps the tourists coming.

Mr Brown has been a volunteer at the settlement for the past three years, after finding in retirement there was only so much time you could spend around the home, watching television or "digging the garden".

He also attended the recent council meeting where councillors voted to consider a secondary location, in front of a gallery of ratepayers.

"People thought that everybody was there for the petition (against Our Place in the settlement), but I knew a lot of people there, staff, volunteers, people I knew were certainly against it," he said.

Mr Brown volunteers in the drapery in the settlement, where he and another volunteer run people through the history of instruments such as the barrel organ, pianola and busker's piano, as well as dressing visitors up in wardrobe from the era.

He relishes the interactions with the visitors and added "we have some wonderful experiences, they keep you alive".

It's an experience he said would not be diminished by the co-location of an art gallery, tourist information centre, entrance and Aboriginal interpretive space inside the attraction grounds.

"I was really impressed, I saw the plans and a lot of the projected ideas, and I thought 'wow this is great, we can make this into a world class place'," Mr Brown said.

"Everybody's competing for tourists, and now to have a beautiful, new modern building, to me, is important.

"If you go to Flagstaff Hill at Warrnambool, Sovereign Hill, even Wauchope Timbertown, they have a really nice entrance and things like that, here we have a tin shed, virtually, a glorious tin shed."

Mr Brown said a new entrance aside, it was also a huge opportunity to have a cultural centre and large art gallery.

He adds this kind of controversy is something he has seen before.

"I first retired up on the coast near Port Macquarie, at a place called Laurieton, when I got there, there had been this big stink because they were building this huge place in town which was going to be an information centre, an art gallery, a theatre, and people were writing to the paper saying 'We're never going to go there, they're spending too much money on it," he said.

"After it was built, it suddenly became the most wonderful place in town, it had a thousand seat theatre and a smaller one for about 100, a two storey mezzanine art gallery where they were getting shows like the travelling Archibald Prize.

"We were getting the Melbourne Symphony, we were getting plays, Shakespeare, comedians, the comedy festival.

"Suddenly, the place was alive."

Having experienced that, Mr Brown was undeniably optimistic about what the proposed building could mean for Swan Hill.

"To me, people are going to see this building and go 'wow, this is great', they'll come in, see all the things they can see, and then they will walk out and go 'wow, what a comparison'," he said.

"I think the comparison would be really startling, and I think we need a 'wow' building."

Mr Brown said progress did not mean letting go of the past but ensuring it lasts into the future.

"If we don't embrace change, we could still be in the pioneer past," he said.

"The important thing is we have to keep our section of the tourist market, we can't just let things go on, we have to modernise and move with the times.

"I don't know why people are scared of change."

Mr Brown said the current location of the information centre was awkward to access, especially for visitors towing caravans and added combining the facilities' locations would save ratepayer in the long run.

"I believe it would boost our numbers here, boost the revenue from it all -- it just has to be a plus for the whole town," he said.

"If you look at this town, there are three caravan parks, there's a caravan park out on Pental Island, there's all these motels in town, if we don't keep going and modernising and bringing people in here, those places are not going to have the numbers.

"We're not just here as the settlement, we're here for the whole town."

Mr Brown said this would not be the first time the settlement had incorporated a modern element, and the success of the light show showed it could be done to the attraction's benefit.

"The light show, it's been here for three years and it has now paid itself off, it's modern," he said.

"We have a modern grandstand built there, it still fits.

"Over the holiday period, some nights they have two shows, because we're filling the place, so I don't understand the negativity."

Mr Brown said he believed a lot of people had made their minds up, without knowing much of the detail around the project.

"I do wonder how many people who have signed the petition have really seen the plans -- and it's not all finalised yet, it was a concept," he said.

Mr Brown said he would be surprised if councillors elected to go with the secondary location raised at the meeting, but noted it was a possibility.

"But whatever happens, you have to accept it and move on, not get up in arms about whatever the final decision is...the people that work here, the volunteers, I don't know all of them but I would think the majority are in favour of this thing.

"And that's because we're here, we can see the benefits.

"There are still things to be decided, about the train, about the Gem, but it's all going to fit together eventually.

"I just think people are up in arms and saying things, before they have really been finalised."