Powerhouse Parramatta

I object to the project, the Powerhouse Museum should remain in Ultimo and new museum should be created in Parramatta

Attached is my detailed Objection to the Proposal of MAAS Parramatta

I hereby object to the proposed "Powerhouse Parramatta" project, for the following reasons:

Cost: The original cost to "relocate" the museum to Parramatta was announced by then NSW Premier Mike Baird to be in the order of $100-200M. The projected costs are now closer to $2B, and likely to be far greater knowing the present government's track record in delivering projects within budget. Proceeds of sale of the Ultimo site will not come close to the "relocation" costs, and patronage at the museum in Parramatta would certainly be less than the existing Ultimo site. From a financial point of the view, the museum relocation is a gigantic stinker -- and a massive slap in the face to NSW taxpayers.

Planning: There could not possibly be a worse site for a museum than the proposed site. It is a flood prone riverbank which has flooded as recently as earlier this year. The proposed museum is therefore effectively designed on "stilts", making it near impossible to move large exhibits into the museum. The latest is that $500,000 would have to spent on a crane, just to lift the train into the museum! The present museum had a railway running right up the museum! There is not even a single parking spaces nor a loading zone at the proposed museum. What a joke!

Space: The proposed museum will be substantially smaller than the present museum. Recent analysis by Museum Expert Kylie Winkworth suggests that climate controlled exhibition space at the proposed Parramtta museum will be 86% less than at the current Ultimo site. In short, the proposed museum was never going to be a museum at all, but rather, it's all about cafes and bars, apartments, commercial hire space for conferences, concerts and events, a cinema, and almost anything else you can imagine EXCEPT a museum!

I object to the closing of the much loved Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo. I have been a frequent visitor since I was a child and would like to continue to take my children there. Please do not demolish this heritage building. Please keep the museum in Ultimo. Parramatta is too far for my family to take a day trip. There should be two Powerhouse Museums.

The power house museum is supposed to display humanities past, present and future and is supposed to represent innovation and inspiration. What an inspiration it would be to integrate, encompass or even showcase these buildings within the power house... now that would be powerful!
I'm a designer and I do not believe for one minute that this is not possible or even achievable. Find a better architect or simply make it a mandatory requirement to keep these buildings.
Greatness isn't achieved by doing something because it is easier, on the contrary it is achieved by accomplishing something through hard endeavour. An architectural icon isn't achieved through conception alone, it achieved through the endeavor of design.
Demolishing our heritage buildings must stop here and now! Get out of the way and do the right thing not the easy thing.

The move of irreplaceable historic object from Ultimo will see them damaged or stored out of public view. The proposed building at Parramatta is not suitable as a museum, exhibition space inadequate and not high enough.
Flood prone and not hermetically suitable for fragile objects.
The demolition of the award winning buildings in Ultimo is universally abhorred. our world respected Museum destroyed for a government land grab is unthinkable. The cost of the move at B$1.4 a despicable waste.

I object most strongly to the Powerhouse Museum being moved to Parramatta .
To much destruction has already been done to this City . I OBJECT IN THE STRONGEST TERMS to the destruction of Willowgrove House and St George’s Terraces tri facilitate this proposed building.
My little poem expresses my sentiments.

Farewell Parramatta .......

It’s almost lost, this famous town,
The place where the eels lie down.
Skyscrapers scream into the air,
Cars, noise, and people, everywhere.

Our first ten Governors lived in this town,
The laws for all, here, were written down.

The place, so central to our Nation,
Is now Units, Shops, and a huge Railway Station.

Lennox’s Bridge is hard to find,
dear St John’s is, well just never mind,

The town hall is lost in a spiralling maze,
Church Street disappears, into a noisy haze.

I see another Sydney rearing its head,
Rushing and writhing, Oh lord I do dread.

The old rivers course is reduced and directed,
By outsiders I feel, whose minds are infected.

I hope all these units, developers are adding,
Conform to “rules,” especially the cladding .

So I’ll go to St Johns, then offer a prayer,
To the Dharug spirits, and First Settlers there.
I understand progress, and all it entails,
Yes I understand greed, and it usually fails.

Opinions are mine
I don’t really matter,
But it’s the end of the beginning....of my Parramatta.

M G Stanley 2019.
And now we have the Powerhouse debacle to add to all this..... where is the humanity?

I strongly object to the Parramatta Powerhouse project.
The current Powerhouse at Ultimo is a great facility and has more significant items on display than the new museum will have. It seems ridiculous to me that the government would spend taxpayers' money to build a new museum that displays fewer significant items than the current museum.
The cost of moving the displays and the risk of damaging such historic items as Locomotive No. 1 is completely unacceptable.
Also completely unacceptable is the demolition of two heritage sites - Willow Grove and St George's Terrace - to make way for the new facility. Why do we have to destroy our heritage buildings to make way for new ones?
I think it would be great to have a world-class facility in Parramatta, but the Powerhouse is not it and the proposed location is not where it should be.
Please reject this project.

Please accept my objection to the Powerhouse Parramatta Project.
Please do not demolish our history with a bulldozer. The government should respect and take our history seriously.
I have no personal connection but only a love to the history of this beautiful building. It's important for us all & future generations to understand & have an insight to our history & to be able to visit these places.
After all a museum is a building in which objects of historical, scientific, artistic or cultural interest are stored and exhibited.
A musuem should not be built by deliberately destroying the history it will be placed on.

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta on several grounds.
The Parramatta CBD has already suffered a great loss of heritage buildings and so every effort should be made to keep and value what is left.

Parramatta has the potential for a new and unique museum precinct in the Fleet Street site. The heritage buildings and their stories combined with indigenous history and culture would attract Australian and overseas tourists in far greater numbers than the relocated Powerhouse. Museums explore people’s sense of place, spark interest in the generations of people who have gone before us. The Powerhouse at Ultimo is there because the area was Sydney’s industrial heartland. Parramatta needs and deserves a museum that enriches our knowledge of the place, the people, their work and social context. There are no other sites left that can tell the indigenous and colonial story of NSW as well as the Fleet Street area and this opportunity should not be ignored in favour of a project that destroys our heritage.


Understanding our history is crucial for social well-being and learning through material culture often makes more of an impact than reading alone. Instead of spending money trying to ameliorate a flood prone site and destroying the last remaining buildings of their styles, funding should go to a Museum of NSW at the Fleet Street site.

I hereby formally lodge OBJECTION to the proposal to demolish the “Willowgrove” & “St Georges Terraces” (see below) adjacent to the Parramatta River, Parramatta, & I also object to creation of the proposed Museum on the proposed site.
Certain of my objections include the facts that the mentioned buildings are HERITAGE & significant to the reality of Parramatta as the earliest base of power in NSW; the area currently occupied by the former DJ’s carpark is a flood zone (witnessed by myself on more than one occasion,) & this is unlikely to change, even though not a regular event; & the whole of Parramatta is a lack of parking nightmare, and has huge, poor traffic flow issues, which are clearly not going to improve as our population continues to grow with more & more high rise residential accommodation, & the introduction of the light rail/tramway may well add to the current, ongoing traffic & parking issues.
The proposed project, clearly will NOT allow even reasonable displays of “Museum” items, as shown in the available papers.
The “Powerhouse” needs to stay where it is in the short term, & if a move is essential, ANY new site needs to be elsewhere other than in a FLOOD ZONE & well away from an already heavily compromised Parramatta CBD.
Regards, BobM. (cc).

I would like to submit my objection as a long time Sydney resident and visitor to the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and also Parramatta. I do not agree that the Powerhouse Museum should be moved to the location chosen in Parramatta for the following reasons:
The museum should be further developed on site in Ultimo as it is a great location for all visitors to access
I object to the plans for the new museum as it will not provide sufficient space for the display of the current collection
I object to the plans for the new museum as the risk to the collection being damaged in the process of being moved to the site is too high
I object to the plans for the new museum on the grounds that its a flood zone and housing a museum of priceless artefacts in this location is too high risk
I object to the plans for the new museum as they currently involve the destruction of two important local heritage buildings - Willow Grove and St Georges Terrace should be saved for future generations.

I object to the Parramatta Project. To me, it is inconceivable to demolish Sydney's current powerhouse museum in Ultimo and move it to Parramatta, where more heritage buildings will be demolished to make way for the would-be museum. We already have a top class museum operating in central Sydney. It has served Sydneysiders and visitors alike for generations. I remember going there on excursions several times throughout primary and high school. Each time i was exposed to and reminded of the innovative world of power, electronics and technology, and how these things have shaped our current world. These experiences are hugely influential and inspiring for a young person. This is an experience lost for many if the museum is moved, and I fear that the experience replacing it one of less calibre. I highly doubt, as somebody who grew up in the Northern Suburbs of Sydney, that these excursions would have taken place for my schoolmates and I if the museum was in Parramatta. It is utterly important that our central precinct of the city retains its cultural precedence, so that people from all areas of the city can find a shared cultural space. The lockout laws and other licensing restrictions have already taken away a lot of the character this area once had. Endless high-rise and motorway development through this area has had its part as well. Now, with the current pandemic affecting our livelihoods, we are seeing the cultural impact to be even more devastating, losing many more venues, establishments and art precincts across the city; most notably and recently, Carriageworks. To voluntarily remove one of our remaining institutions and place it (in a much lesser and inferior form) in Western Sydney during this time would be a complete disaster of a decision. It is disappointing that, in order to have a cultural precinct formed in Parramatta, we need to take away from already formed precincts to justify the developments. I have spent most of my adult life working in the arts, most recently as a technician at Carriageworks. I know first hand what institutions like these mean to the people of Sydney, and the significance of the work undertaken in them. I also know what it's like to lose your job because of the ruthless decision making of a government which values big money and urban developmental opportunities over art and culture. Please don't go through with this.

The project is misleadingly described. It is not now about relocating an existing museum. The more we learn the less the project seems to have to do with preserving the historic collections and developing the modern collections of the Powerhouse Museum, Ultimo, on a new site. It seems about providing a cultural and entertainment facility for Parramatta. As the project has developed NSW is to lose a centrally located museum and gain a differently focussed regional facility. The Ultimo museum has the capacity to show historic collections. The proposed facility seems to be envisaged as a site for changing exhibitions and use without much relevance to these collections. Developing a a cultural and entertainment facility in Parramatta may be a good idea but the idea should be evaluated on its merits not in misleading terms of the transfer of the existing museum and its collections.
Discussion of the storage facility at Castle Hill is also misleading. Why Ultimo has to close to extend Castle Hill is not clear. In addition reports are that the storage facility at Castle Hill is difficult for the public to reach and will not be effective if that is where the collections from Ultimo are to end up.

Other objections:
The Parramatta site is flood prone and not suitable for whatever cultural objects are to be shown there.
The Parramatta site has heritage buildings that will be lost in the new construction.

The original proposal was rushed and misconceived. It is developing in a way very different from the original proposal.

Please find attached my objection to this project. This replaces the previously submitted version dated 28th June which I am advised was not in the correct format. I have now included my address details and the Application No. The rest of the document is unchanged.

To whom it may concern,
I am writing in support of the move of the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta.
As a resident of Parramatta, I am excited about the redevelopment that has been occurring in Parramatta over the last few years, which has shifted the view of many on their perception of Parramatta as a city.
Growing up in Sydney’s east, Parramatta had seemed almost foreign to me and I must say it was a big move for me to buy a property in Parramatta in 2015, but I did this because I could see the potential. It was obvious to me that Parramatta was a booming city and will become the central city of Sydney.
For this reason alone, our Central City deserves its own museum!
We deserve more than only 1% of Commonwealth arts program funding.
Art should not be centralised to one region, it should be widely accessible to all and to further this point, if any art is going to be of relevance to Western Sydney it will be art of popular culture, which the Powerhouse Museum has featured through its exhibitions over the years, including those of Harry Potter 2012, Star Wars 2019 and Kylie Minogue 2006 etc.
As noted by Jennifer Sanders “It is unknown if the population of the region will be a major source of visitors to a relocated Powerhouse”. While, this project will cause doubt in many minds, the population of Western Sydney continues to grow, we represent 1 in 10 Australians, we have the population to make this a viable success and while Western Sydney continues to grow as a tourism destination, this will only encourage domestic and international travellers to choose Western Sydney as the place to be.
There is no time more crucial than right now to boost tourism domestically, we need to change the thought pattern of our country and encourage our people to spend their money within Australia. COVID-19 has closed our international borders, there is no time better than now to build Western Sydney’s profile as a tourism destination for the future. The Powerhouse Museum will be a game-changer for other Western Sydney tourism destinations such as Sydney Zoo and Sydney Coliseum Theatre West HQ and together they can build Western Sydney to be a world class Central City.
Parramatta and Western Sydney need this project to proceed for so many reasons, we are speaking up because we are proud to live in Western Sydney, Sydney city has been the central district for art for too long now and we as a state need to move with the times, we need to evolve and most importantly we need to grow!
Kind regards,
Lauren Rountree

I object to the project of relocating The Powerhouse Museum from its current location at Ultimo to Parramatta. The proposed design for the building in Parramatta, in my mind, will not be a Museum but an exhibition space and recreational facility. The specificity and appeal of the current Powerhouse Museum will be lost in the proposed usage at Parramatta. I have no objections of such a facility being built in Parramatta but not at the cost of destroying what I hold dear in the Powerhouse at Ultimo.

Good morning

I wish to voice my dismay at the closing of Sydney's Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo.

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project on several
levels and request the whole project to be re-assessed.

I find it disgraceful that the Power House Museum at Ultimo will close
next week, when no final decision has been announced on the proposed
replacement building. We (the public) are being sent mixed messages as
to the final draft of the replacement building in Parramatta, and what
will or won’t be demolished to accommodate it. I understand that Willowgrove
and St Georges Terrace will be demolished in order to accommodate a new 'token' museum.

There has been no public consultation on this matter and I (one of
many), am furious that our heritage will be sacrificed to accommodate
the ill-thought-out proposal to move the iconic Powerhouse Museum from
its present site to a flood prone, inadequate piece of land.

I do not understand the logic and timing of the closure and removal of the
Powerhouse Museum from Ultimo to Parramatta. I can only see greed as
the driving force for this ridiculous project. When first proposed, we
were told the move would make the museum more accessible to the
people. How will moving this world standard museum to Parramatta, make
it more accessible to residents of Hornsby, Sutherland, Eastern
Suburbs and those in between? The result will be fewer visitors and
less revenue. The obscene expense and great risk of damage to these
iconic artefacts when moving, makes the whole project illogical. I understand
that a portal for the steam engine has not been allowed in
the proposed building. Did the architects look at the collect before
designing the building?

Why are exhibits closing now, when it will be years before the new
building will be ready to receive the artefacts? The museum has been
closed for months due to the virus, has just reopened to restricted
access and time limit, and the main exhibit is closing four days
before school holidays. Is there a plan to partial demolition of the building
is intended in order to ensure the project is irreversible – as was
done with the stadium? I would like an explanation as to why this
exhibit must close now, years before the artifacts will be required in
the new site, and what will happen to artefact on display in the
meantime. The timing of the decision is illogical and lacks explanation.

The Australian Museum is currently closed to prepare for a major new exhibit.
From next Tuesday, the main exhibit in the Powerhouse will also be
closed for no apparent good reason. Where does this leave schools
wanting to organise educational STEM excursions for their pupils?

The present museum site and building are perfect for a technical
museum. The building was born in the steam age as are so many of the
displayed items and it is within the precinct of the first Museum of
Applied Arts and Sciences. Why not leave it where it is, respect the
few remaining heritage items in Parramatta and develop a new
multipurpose museum/exhibit space on the Parramatta site.

Please use your influence to have this decision urgently reviewed.

I object to the removal of the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta and the destruction of Willow Grove Villa and the Terraces.
These are significant historical buildings that reflect the early times of Parramatta. They provide an insight into life of the times, peoples way of life, how they were occupied and by whom they builds up an appreciation of a world before a technological society. Knowing our history helps to know where we have come from. They are gracious and stylish, contrasting with the dominance of high rise.
The proposed relocation will not give a true Museum. The location is flood prone and will require a huge cost to overcome this problem. The entire cost of the project and inability to display the working steam engine and other significant itemsis another objection to the proposal going ahead.