Locals Herman Kreller and Warwick Schofield have proposed to build a cheaper opal and fossil centre than the previously planned structure.
The new proposal would only cost about $1 million, instead of $6.5 million.
The new proposal will be presented to the Rotary Club as part of its community self-help project.
Mr Kreller feels there is an obvious need to offer visitors more than just a little country "tidy town".
He said the mining fields had moved too far away from town for most tourists to be able to visit them.
But Mr Kreller said the previously considered opal and fossil museum multi-million dollar proposal may take longer to become reality than had been anticipated.
"It (the centre) would have been an ideal attraction to keep tourists in town for another day."
Despite this, Mr Kreller feels there is a growing reluctance within the various government departments to supply funding for more museum buildings, because they tended to require continuous financial support.
"There are at least four large museums, depicting various topics or subjects in NSW alone, all requiring financial government subsidies," he said.
Because of this he feels it would be near impossible to obtain funds for a project as such in the near future, and that is why the alternate proposal had been made.
"Our proposal is self-fundable and sustainable," Mr Kreller said.
The new centre would be about 1500 square metres, and built on one of the previously preferred sites.
It would be constructed from concrete slabs and steel girders, similar to Khan's IGA Supermarket.
He said a building similar to the supermarket could be built for around $1 million.
"We want to house it with large displays of old and new mining equipment, starting from the old pick-shovel-candle days and show the development of the windlass to the automatic hoist, dry puddlers and wet puddlers, to today's modern techniques of digger-blower-agitator," he said.
Mr Kreller said the new idea would also include taking some of the old camps from the fields and reconstructing them in the centre.
"Simply put we want to create an educational program encompassing the complete history of opal mining."
However, the Opal and Fossil Centre committee's secretary Barbara Moritz said the committee that had formed five years ago was making steady progress and their proposal was no longer for just a museum.
Ms Moritz said the Australian Museum and NSW Ministry for the Arts both fully supported the committee's approach to this project
She said the original proposal had been for a national mining museum, but Kalgoorlie in Western Australia had received funding four years ago to have the icon, so the committee changed its focus from museum to an opal and fossil centre.
But she said the structure housing the centre needed to be built as an icon, such as the Stockman's Hall of Fame in Longreach, Queensland.
"We don't want a great stone monolith, we want something that would blend into our environment, and that is ecologically friendly.
"Every other community has a 'tractor shed' full of equipment that is too hot in summer to visit and too cold in winter," she said.
Ms Moritz said they liked the idea of using corrugated iron, but wanted the centre to be partially built underground for security reasons and temperature control of opal and fossils housed.
Ms Moritz said their proposal also included using local labour and familiar materials such as opal clay and corrugated iron.
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