Centre chairman Bill Lang said the relics needed to be "consolidated and cleaned'' off-site while a new 274sq m "L-shape'' building was being built behind the centre.
A item moved from the shed yesterday was a "remarkably light'' wooden turnout buggy made by a carriage factory in the United States.
The buggy had a rear seat "turnout'' for children to sit on and could "go like the clappers'' with a single horse, he said.
The speeds it was capable of would scare a novice rider.
Mr Lang and three volunteers pushed the buggy down SH1 to a storage shed in Waikouaiti.
The buggy was built some time between 1865 and 1875 and was bought new by an Invercargill company.
It had been stored in the shed since the Dempster family gave it to the centre in 1967.
Construction of the new building was expected to start in September.
When it was finished, the R. A. Lawson-designed bank chamber, which opened in 1869, would be restored, Mr Lang said.
About $140,000 had been raised for the project, mostly by selling firewood, he said.
