Powerhouse Parramatta

Strong objection attached.

As a long term resident of Western Sydney I think the relocation of the museum is a great opportunity for the greater western area to have access to cultural events without the extended travel into Sydney CBD. It was also attract other businesses and much needed employment to the area. I fully support it's relocation and can't wait to be accessing it's treasures.

I OBJECT to the Powerhouse Parramatta project being built upon the lands which are Heritage Listed for the following reasons:
a) The destruction of these historic buildings are totally unnecessary; what makes this destruction so wrong is that there are lands in the Parramatta area which have the space to build another Powerhouse Museum eg the previously demolished Parramatta Golf Club or within the grounds of the Parramatta Female Orphan School or (if permissible) Parramatta Park, just to name three.
b) T he meaning of the word “Museum” is:
“A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these items available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. The largest museums are located in major cities throughout the world, while thousands of local museums exist in smaller cities, towns, and rural areas. Museums have varying aims, ranging from serving researchers and specialists to serving the general public. The goal of serving researchers is increasingly shifting to serving the general public. (Wikipedia)

I therefore submit that by demolishing the “Historic” buildings in Phillip Street Parramatta is pure unadulterated destruction as they all should be kept for all future Generations to visit (as an Historical site) the same as people do in Museums. It is completely ironical and wrong for the NSW Planning Department to be demolishing Historic buildings to place in it’s stead a Museum of Historic importance !!
Willow Grove, at 32 Phillip Street, was built in the 1870s as a private villa, and later became a maternity hospital called 'Estella' Private Hospital, Parramatta 1920 -1953 This Victorian Italianate house was registered as a private hospital when a Mrs E.E. Davidson, a matron and midwife purchased the property in 1919.1 This was the same year the world-wide pandemic of influenza struck Sydney and Parramatta. When Estella Private Hospital opened there were 129 private ‘lying-in’ (or maternity) hospitals recorded in Sydney in 1920. Majority were conducted by trained midwives forming a private maternity hospital system in New South Wales. Estella underwent a name change to Westcourt Private Hospital and it had a telephone number U8503.
1. Office of Environment & Heritage. (n.d.). Willow Grove and potential archaeological site. Retrieved October 4, 2013 from http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=2240440
2. History of 'Willow Grove': 34 Phillip Street, Parramatta. (n.d.). Parramatta, NSW Parramatta Heritage Centre. 'Willow Grove' Vertical File.
c) Willow Grove has been looked after as a private home and then as a Maternity Hospital for over three decades which is of great importance for Australians /women generally.
d) Willow Grove and St.Georges Terraces are absolutely vital to retain for the Community and future Generations because of the character and rare examples of architecture that no longer exist in Parramatta; would any NSW Planning Department agree to demolish any Historic buildings which have been Heritage Listed in the CBD and surrounding areas eg The Rocks, Balmain, Glebe, Leichhardt ?…..I am sure the answer is NO and should not be allowed to happen in Parramatta !!
I PLEAD THAT THE NSW PLANNING DEPARTMENT IMMEDIATELY TERMINATE THE CURRENT WILLOW GROVE AND ST.GEORGE TERRACE BUILDING PLANS AND RENEGOTIATE ANOTHER AREA IN PARRAMATTA AS I HAVE SUGGESTED.
Thank you for reading my Submission and I look forward to a favourable decision.
Yours sincerely
Mrs Lorraine Grindrod
.

Think it is a great idea to have another museum built at Parramatta but would like to ensure ongoing Government consultation with the local community, preserving Parramatta’s irreplaceable heritage buildings, especially Willow Grove and that the new museum reflects the area’s unique aboriginal, colonial and immigration history.

The proposed location of the Museum is prone to flooding as can be seen during the Feb 2020 storms. It is an irresponsible use of public moneys to build a Museum in an area which often floods. That is my main reason for objection. It is simply the wrong location.

I object to the project in its current form, of most concern is the loss of heritage buildings Willow Grove and St George’s Terrace these buildings hold significant meaning to Parramatta's history and sense of place. and provide rare examples of architecture no longer found elsewhere in the city.

I stridently object to this project for the following summarised reasons:

1) It does not represent value for money for the State of NSW. If all the costs are taken into account then a figure much closer to $1.6 billion or more is likely to be the end Total Project Cost which itself does not account for Total Project Lifetime Cost.
2) It does not have demonstrated Community Support- witness, for example, the thousands of Signatures supporting the retention of Willowgrove and St George's Terrace submitted by NPRAG and the countless objections in every medium and format to the destruction of the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo
3) The recent 4 July and subsequent Government announcements while leaving a planning and fiscal chaos clearly will result in a necessary downscaling of this grandiose and abysmally designed proposed facility as revealed in the documentation in the EIS. As a museum Director, with over 40 years' experience, I am happy to go through the many faults and failings of this design if you wish. It cannot be described as a 'museum' and that nomenclature has quietly been dropped from the project's public descriptions
4) The social impact in a number of ways is just missing in this EIS. For example there is no way that the developed site can be made safe for visitors in the event of a 1 in 100 years flood under the increasingly extreme climate conditions now advancing. Once again- and taking into account the broad and deep objections to this totally sub optimal proposal, I would be happy to provide detailed comments to the appropriate officers.
5) This EIS bears little, if any, resemblance to the winning design of the international competition and Design Brief II; any Business Case cannot support its scale and cost [2 million visitors claimed is an hallucination, especially now that the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo is to be continued and rejuvenated]. Operationally this nightmare cannot sustain itself fiscally or logistically especially after COVID 19 impacts which, while impossible to predict out over 5 years, will almost certainly all be negative in this experiential domain.
6) A core failing of the EIS is that no alternative has ever been seriously considered since the completely sub-optimal thought-bubble was announced by then Premier Baird in late 2014 and more formally in early 2015. Since then the so-called 'planning' process is a superb example of how NOT to plan such a massive and complex range of linked projects starting with the shape-shifting 'Brief' and its ever metastasising protocols and desiderata and the completely sub-optimal so-called Business Cases.
7) Below is a first pass through a possible multivalent solution which is an approximation of what might succeed in terms of new and renewed facilities, subject to a redefined Brief
8) The first challenge is to get a real sense through an extended interrogation of previous community consultation, focus groups and visitor/market research work which has been carried out in respect of the project in Parramatta. If the MAAS regime was wisely flexible and agile in this suite of issues they would release all this data including all the questionnaires, focus group videos and so on. Then to critique the process and results so as to undertake an honest and transparent process of genuine consultation with a vast range of communities and potential visitors across NSW and the Sydney basin.

I feel in my bones- with 40 years at least of big cultural project development experience- that there is a planning process and suite of outcomes which, if the Brief is correctly re-crystallised, can provide a powerful win-win result for all interested parties, including communities in Western Sydney, Treasury, Government, MAAS and supporters of our irreplaceable heritage in Parramatta and in Ultimo.

My London Science Group experience in the noughties included planning five much larger sites around the UK including marrying the worlds of media, photography, art, design, engineering, railways, and so on across the full range of STEAM subjects including the rapidly impacting power of the internet.

Integrated operational planning is crucial as has been recently pointed out.

Given the Post COVID 19 world which is emerging heroic assumptions made in Business Cases need to be analysed very carefully which takes us full circle back to community consultation and effective market research.

Given the Post COVID 19 world which is emerging heroic assumptions made in Business Cases need to be analysed very carefully which takes us full circle back to community consultation and effective market research.

Are you in the planning team, in the context of the critical age group 16–28, familiar with Science Gallery, Dublin, whose model Rose Hiscock is now developing in Melbourne to meet our own conditions? Some very interesting options begin thereby to suggest themselves of new creative syntheses in Ultimo and in Parramatta.

Equally, the world heritage values embodied in Parramatta’s Female Factory/Cumberland Hospital site- encompassing up to 30 hectares and more- are part of a complex yet highly creative solution.
The Parramatta riverside site could do exactly what is required by saving Willowgrove [boutique hotel of great elegance?] and St George’s Terrace [expanded retail?], providing a scaled back but still wonderful version of Carriageworks West in a complex which fits into Parramatta Council’s original 2016 riverwalk cultural precinct vision.

And in Ultimo the aspiration for a reasonably scaled white box/ fashion/design/art installation set of spaces [part of a pre, present and post digital experience which is majestically larger than just fashion and design] can be seamlessly delivered without destroying the unique, very large object displays which themselves could be wondrously reinterpreted utilising modern experiential techniques and family-friendly interaction.

And let us not forget that fashion tells both social and human stories in which design, style, technology, sustainability, equity, colour, bravura and so much more are commingled across the millennia. Nor that perhaps the only museum in the world that can fully tell that STEAM story is the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, familiarly known as the Powerhouse Museum.

The MAAS collections could fill three museums alone, yet access to all the other great NSW State collections would help create a phenomenal Museum of NSW in the Cumberland Hospital/Female Factory cultural precinct along with a recrafted Parramatta Riverside/Carriageworks West site and a rejuvenated Ultimo museum precinct. And all within a budget which the State can afford spaced over six to eight years, but starting soon in the Cumberland Hospital precinct. Not forgetting the need for commercially astute and effective elements and programmes.

In Ultimo, then, real objects, not digital screens, for real people engaging with brains and hands-on in a three-dimensional world within magnificent, historic, variegated spaces we cannot afford to create now.

As was the case in 1980.

The equation though, the stories, the engagement technologies, the exploration of the full STEAM spectrum is now much enhanced by new, reprogrammable exhibition and learning techniques.

And the compelling, overarching narratives have evolved and changed, deepening in the last decade with global challenges unlike any we have seen before. Still, that thread of human innovation stretches right back to the Boulton and Watt 1785 beam engine: fossil-fuelled machinery in a world of 1.5 billion people helping create the major industrial revolution has quixotically led to the climate crisis we now confront in a world with nearly 8 billion people and climbing.

Yet, paradoxically, it is that very human creativity in design, engineering and evidence-based societal and political change which may lead us back from the abyss of a world warmed by 4 C and more.

Time thus for the Ultimo and Parramatta complexes to become core engagement centres for all communities and publics- especially for shared intergenerational experiences between the mature and the young.

With that said we should all remember that 38 years of museum experience in these reinterpreted buildings [Stage I opened in 1982]and about twenty million visitors +, cumulatively, are now an incredibly deep part of Sydney’s recent and earlier, yet rejuvenated cultural heritage.

Anyway, let’s start a dialogue with open minds and an overarching desire to help solve these complex issues in a sophisticated and creative fashion.

Thank you for reading this far,
Dr Lindsay Sharp

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because I do not feel that its design and site location reflects the best outcome for the local community. The proposed site is inappropriate due to risk of flooding and the destruction of heritage buildings. The overall design of the museum does not reflect the unique place-based culture of Parramatta and I believe that its development will result in the loss of sense of place and character for the local community.

I would like to state that while I am supportive of an increase in museums generally, and this project in principle, I find the irony of destroying real heritage (in the form of historic buildings) to create a building to recognise our heritage just too crazy to contemplate.
There must be a way within the wit of our planners to create a museum as desired without bulldozing our real history.
These buildings are not only historical, but unlike museum displays, they are in their original context- a crucial additional value.
If these historical buildings can’t be saved then the project should be scrapped.

Willowgrove and its associated curtilage should never have been included for demolition within the brief for this proposal. As a landscape designer, I believe that the location of Willowgrove and the trees surrounding it provide a perfect opportunity for heritage interpretation and a green entry to the proposed museum, and connection to the riverbank which conserves the connection of Willowgrove to the river. A creative design team can work with site constraints and the government should require this. The community expect this part of our heritage to be protected.
Keep Willowgrove.
KEEP THE HIGH RETENTION VALUE TREES and the Medium retention value trees wherever possible.

I object to the demolition of the heritage buildings in Parramatta in order to make way for the Powerhouse Museum. I support the museum going ahead - public museums are very important - but the heritage of the area is important, and should be maintained.

I support the CFMMEUs green-ban of the site, and will join any pickets that the union establishes, and will be prepared to take any (peaceful) action that the CFMMEU asks me to take at that picket.

I am happy to answer any questions you have on this matter.

Thanks,

Shane Reside

I object to the loss of the social history and the loss of sense of place and character of Parramatta, which have not been adequately studied and reported on in the Environmental Impact Statement.
Willow Grove has unique importance to women’s history in Sydney as a maternity hospital for over three decades for people of Parramatta to the early 1950s.
I am deeply concerned at the overall cumulative impacts of further heritage destruction in Parramatta currently been undertaken, this makes Willow Grove and St Georges Terraces vital to retain for communities’ sense of place.
• Willow Grove and St Georges Terraces are rare examples of architecture that no longer exist in Parramatta CBD and should be retained.

I would like to strongly object to the current proposed development which will result in the demolition of Willow Grove and St George Terraces to build the Powerhouse Museum. I am 60 years old and my Great Grandparents and Grandparents on both sides of my family were all born in Parramatta. I went to school in Parramatta. I am emploring that the Government look closely at just how impractical this site would be for a museum. To begin, the river and the flooding. It has flooded since I can remember and still in 2020 in February it floods. Parramatta in my memory has already changed so much with so much of it's original historic buildings demolished to make way for new. To have a Powerhouse museum in Parramatta would be wonderful, however, it is the choice of the site that is just so wrong. The opportunity is there now for Parramatta to celebrate it's history by creating an area which could become something like the Rocks is to Sydney, by utilising the Fleet Street Precinct, to show everyone the history of the Cradle City. To destroy Willow Grove and St George's Terraces would be devastating. Recently I went walking and stumbled across Kelly's Bush at Hunter's Hill. I had never walked there before and after having the most beautiful outing with many other people, I just thought of how lucky it was that some people fought back then to stop it being destroyed. Please, I urge anyone to go and walk around Parramatta. Feel it, and look at the history that is still there. It was our second City and now has the opportunity to be celebrated as such, if the right choice is made to keep these beautiful historic buildings and locate the Powerhouse elsewhere safe from floods that can become a wonderful tourist meca. Just imagine how great it could be if located near the historic Parramatta Gaol, Female factory etc.
I hope that my submission will be considered. I normally am not one to protest to things, however, my heart will always have a part of Parramatta in it, and I can just see such a wonderful opportunity here for something great if the people who make the decisions take a moment and look and think before destroying something that we can never get back. Thankyou

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project for the following reasons:
1. While not a resident of Parramatta, I have often visited and marvelled at its historic sites and have been so grateful that they have been preserved, including Willow Grove and St. Georges Terraces. They are irreplaceable.
2. The Premier indicated that if these historic buildings had a significant social history, this would have been raised in the EIS. It obviously wasn't even though they are significant buildings and visible reminders of our past history, including Wattle Grove's use as a maternity hospital for many years. This is so important for a community's sense of place.
3. As the photographer, Bill Henson said, the destruction of yet more of our precious historic buildings shows little regard to our prior heritage. Our arrogance is such that everything will be removed and scraped flat, denying our history and acting as if it starts at ground zero. Our cultural cringe is accelerating at such a rate of knots that we cannot wait to pull down the very last of what little history we have left. We don't have to rely on being bombed by an enemy, we're doing it ourselves.
4. The continuation of the destruction of our heritage at Parramatta is truly distressing and must cease.

I strongly object to this project. In it's current proposal this new museum is not suitable as it provides a museum not fit for purpose & allows the destruction of 2 very important historic buildings in Willow Grove & St.Georges Terrace.
I object to 2 historic buildings being torn down to build a place to ostensibly display historic artefacts. I would rather have the buildings remain in place being used as examples of the types of architecture that existed as typical for their period. I want my great grandchildren to be able to see and visit these buildings and appreciate the history of both the buildings & early Parramatta.
As residents of western Sydney, we have suffered the destruction at the hands of this Government of the historic hotel, The Royal Oak. This precious piece of not only Parramatta's heritage but of Australia's heritage was torn down over the very loud objections of the residents, voters & taxpayers of western Sydney. It seemed only the NSW government wanted to tear down that historic hotel to build a light rail system which could have been slightly relocated to avoid the loss of this historic pub.
The cost of this new museum is mooted to be in the region of 1 billion dollars. Surely with the NSW Treasury looking for any money it can find to fund the ongoing support of the state during this Covid 19 Pandemic the spending of this much money on an architects whimsey is ludicrous. The building will not be a true museum rather an exhibition space featuring "many" cafes & restaurants and providing space for "street festivals" & "eat festivals" which will make it a psuedo museum at best. The exhibition of historic articles and relics will no doubt be compromised because of this.
There is a perfect opportunity to enlarge & enhance the existing Powerhouse Discovery Centre at Castle Hill as a major museum for western Sydney. At a lot less money than a new useless edifice in Parramatta that will flood, destroy history & provide very little as a museum for the VOTERS, TAXPAYERS & residents of western Sydney.
In closing I very strongly object to the new Powerhouse Museum at Parramatta

Please see attached document

I grew up and worked in Parramatta so have a place in my heart for the old historical gem.
I feel the government is missing an opportunity to really create an interesting historical and teaching space
the old houses willow glen and the terraces should be saved for future generations not torn down to produce a entertainment space that unless you can walk on water you will not be able to view.
I notice the premier did walk along the narrow parkland that is by the creek but she must have missed the hundreds of flats built right in the front of this space which will be inundated with noise!!
The carpark is the better choice for that site. Better for the businesses on Church Street(eat street) and less impacted by the floods. I have experienced many along the river.
The museum should have a prominent position and the old parramatta psychiatric hospital is an ideal space many buildings are already there
why not use the old Parramatta Gaol. Jails all over the world are fantastic places for museums. the hospital site is next to the amazing Parramatta Park and can accommodate many concerts.
Give Parramatta its own identity. It has heaps to offer open it up to the people and let them OWN it, then it will truly be a world museum and much loved!!!
Also rebuild the swimming pool

I am very glad that the original Powerhouse in Ultimo will no longer be demolished. I strongly believe that this new building in Parramatta could never replace the original (after all the Powerhouse was named for a reason) and think that if a new museum must be built, it should embrace its unique local community and culture. I feel that this new proposed museum should take into account the history of the local area and incorporate the Darug Indigenous history, including workshops for local schools and community - how fortunate that the proposed site lies on the river to which the city was named e.g Parramatta- 'Place where the eels lay down'. I also feel that Willow Grove is a superb monument to the area’s history and should be incorporated into the Museum. It could be used like other museums in the Rocks area and incorporate colonial Australian history. Schools and the community could visit the old building as it would have appeared in colonial times and immerse themselves in the history of the area locally, rather than travelling into the city. The historic building would juxtapose well with the modern architecture and allow the city of Parramatta to showcase and embrace its origins as it moves to become the second CBD of Greater Sydney. The proposed design doesn't cater to Parramatta's multifaceted and intricate history at the moment and the design that must adapt and embrace the history of the area as the the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo once did.

I object to the project - as it currently stands. Being a long term resident in the vicinity of Parrmatta, I am very pleased for the proposal to build a significant cultural edifice here. I am also particularly pleased to read of the intention to focus on our Indigenous history, arts, crafts and sciences. Most importantly, and the reason for my objection, is the threatened demolition of two important local heritage sites – Willow Grove and St George’s Terrace. I stand with City of Parramatta Council’s continued advocacy for retention of these buildings for the benefit of future generations.
I believe it will be possible for the architects to achieve this if they put their minds to a design which melds the old with the new.
Thanks for the opportunity to make a comment on this EIS. We are looking forward to the new affiliated Powerhouse Museum in Sydney’s geographical centre!

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project.
My first job was at Parramatta in the mid 80's. I didn't grow up in that area but I soon learnt & saw what a significant part Parramatta played in the history of Sydney. I was surprised at the number of beautiful old building that depicted a certain time in history. It would be a crime to demolish or even alter in anyway, the the places in Parramatta that portray to the public that part of our history. We are losing far too much of our wonderful past, I sincerely hope that you retain what little historical buildings that are left, not only for their beautiful appearance, but for the stories they tell. I hope my grandchildren will be able to hear the stories & see the wonderful old buildings of Parramatta. To look at a photo doesn't have the impact that actually viewing a property or structure has.