Ann Fairbanks and a small team called the Emmaville Community Trust has finally finished restoration of what was just a decade ago a condemned, white-ant-infested dump.

The historic Federation-era courthouse will reopen as a museum, open by appointment, on March 16.

When termites were discovered in the walls of the building in 2009, the building was left abandoned, complete with a "condemned" sign out the front. With whiteants literally dropping from the walls the childcare centre was quickly driven out ("it looked like the walls were going to cave in," said Ann: "it wasn't in a happy place").

The Glen Innes Severn council, the trustee managing the property on behalf of Crown Lands estimated it would cost perhaps $275,000 to restore the building.

"We decided that we would restore it ourselves, my husband being a builder," said Ms Fairbanks.

"My idea was to turn it back into what it was when it was originally built in 1920."

The damage was primarily surface-level, and the building's 'bones' were still solid (that said, it did need a new roof, costing $30,000).

Financial liability or not the group applied to become the trustees of the building. The Emmaville Community Trust, which has a maximum membership of 7, but never more than 5 and an average of about 3-4 set about the massive project.

"We took it on and never had a cent to our name," said Ann Fairbanks.

"After crown lands said 'yes it's yours' we thought oh what the hell are we going to do now.

"It has been a challenge. I just look back at photos from when we started and i think holy hell what we've achieved is incredible.

"A lot of people in the community were saying they'll never get it done and I was out to prove a point that it was going to get done."

It took the first twelve months to clear up all the mess. But the group decided they didn't want to just repair the damage - they wanted to fully restore the place with period materials, including skirting boards and even original paint colours.

The courthouse is the fourth and last Emmaville courthouse, replacing a bigger building which burned down in 1913. As Anzacs returned to the mines, they started getting married, having kids and dying - and committing crimes. The demand for law returned.

Ann explains that the courthouse design is unusual. Built in the art deco period of 1920, it's in anachronistic federation style because that's the building materials that had been left lying around.

It ceased to be a place of law in 1976.

They had to rebuild the dock, but the witness box was still there. They had to source historic skirting boars and architraves; the period lights are from Victoria. Many of the old fittings had been retained by council; other stuff had been flogged off to townsfolk who donated it back. They found the old law records at the Glen Innes courthouse, in the garage out the back, including old Chinese signatures and historic mining licences.

"So many people said - our marriage was registered there, my grandfather's mine was registered there. It just went on and on and on.

"There was hardly a person in town who had not had some connection to the courthouse

"So to me it was basically the heart of the town, where everyone had some connection to it.

"Nobody really wanted to see it got rid of."

The Trust raised money through the Emmaville sheep races, which started in March 2012 . They were such a success they were actually raising too much money and the bottlekneck became things to do; they eventually netted an eye-popping $120,000 over seven years.

The court is now set to be a museum. Ann's dream of children performing mock trials in a 1920s courthouse will be a reality.

"A town like Emmaville it doesn't have anything else going for it. All we have left is our tourism, because there's really no employment out here other than the hospital. So you've got to have tourists come out here or the town's just going to die."

Opening night is set for March 16 with an open day on March 17.