THE Clifton Historical Museum has been forced to close for good after the Toowoomba Regional Council deemed the building unsafe.

Clifton and District Historical Society president Dave Burns said members of the community were 'grieving' after the shock announcement was made last week.

"There was a lot of anger when we were told and it's taken about a week to come to terms with it," Mr Burns said.

The Toowoomba Regional Council Property Services portfolio leader Cr Geoff McDonald said the findings of a recent engineers' inspection gave council no other option than to close the facility in the former butter factory.

"Council's first concern is for the safety of the people who use and visit its buildings and facilities," CrMcDonald said.

"Structural engineers advised that the current condition of the building posed a serious safety threat and the council has acted to ensure the building is closed to the public."

Mr Burns acknowledged that the aging building had a number of problems, but he was more concerned about the exhibitions it housed.

"The guts of the story is they've locked (the building) up with all the collection inside apart from the research documents," he said.

The museum is currently surrounded by a large, metal fence, and Mr Burns said there was no way for museum volunteers to enter the building.

A spokesman from the Toowoomba Regional Council said the building was closed down with little notice

"It will be February before the engineers are allowed back in, and then we can remove the collection," he said.

Mr Burns said the 83-year-old butter factory that was the museum's home was riddled with problems, including cracks and asbestos.

"Unfortunately repairs haven't been allocated in council's budget," he said.

The future of the building will be decided by engineers in February.