Hidden relics of Australia's golden age of aviation are set to go under the hammer, with auctioneers opening the vaults to the Ansett family's private collection.

About 300 items of memorabilia from Sir Reginald and Lady Joan McAuliffe Ansett's estate will be auctioned next month.

The items include documents, letters, photographs and model aircraft owned by the late Sir Reginald, who founded the domestic airline Ansett, which collapsed in 2001 after 65 years of operation.

The collection is expected to fetch about $60,000 and will sold off at two auctions, the first taking place in Melbourne next week.

Janet Richards, the couple's eldest child, today said selling the family's heirlooms was a tough decision but would enable the proceeds to be divided evenly between the three daughters.

When Sir Reginald died in 1981, the collection was left to his wife Lady Ansett, who in turn transferred ownership to their daughters.

Ms Richards hopes the collection will be sold to one buyer so it remains intact, but realises this is unlikely.

She said auctioning the collection was a "diplomatic way" of dividing it among her sisters.

"We thought it was a fair way to do it, not probably ideal, but fair," she said.

"If there are things that family members want we'll attend the auction."

But former Ansett employees, who are still owed tens of millions of dollars in lost entitlements, will receive nothing. The Ansett family had nothing to do with the airline by the time it collapsed under the ownership of Air New Zealand.

Auctioneer Charles Leski said company-owned memorabilia-proceeds of which would benefit creditors-was still locked away with other Ansett assets in a storage warehouse at Melbourne Airport.

The first auction will take place on May 3 followed by a second auction in June.

Mr Leski said there had already been considerable interest.

"Our catalogue has only been available a few days but we're already getting a level of interest that we haven't seen since the Shirley Strickland collection and the sale of the baggy green cap signed by Steve Waugh."