Powerhouse Parramatta

OBJECTION : I OBJECT TO THE POWERHOUSE PARRAMATTA PROJECT

ATTENTION MARCUS JENNEJOHN

I OBJECT TO THE WANTON DESTRUCTION OF OUR NATIONAL HISTORY.

WE TRAVEL OVERSEAS AND WANDER THROUGH THEIR WONDERFUL HISTORICAL BUILDINGS

THESE WONDERFUL BUILDINGS BRING TOURISM TO THE COUNTRIES THAT HAVE HAD THE FORESIGHT TO SAVE AND CHERISH THEIR PAST.

MY FAMILY ARRIVED IN AUSTRALIA IN 1828 AND MOVED OUT TO THAT AREA AND I HAVE BEEN ABLE TO VISIT THE PLACES THEY WENT TO INCLUDING THE FEMALE FACTORY , I WAS PLEASED TO SEE THE WORK THAT IS BEING DONE TO PROTECT THE AREA

THE MATERNAL SIDE OF MY FAMILY ARRIVED IN 1839 AND WORKED MAKING SHOES IN A HOUSE IN THE MAIN STREET OF PARRAMATTA AND THERE IS A HEADSTONE IN THE CHURCH YARD CEMETERY THAT i WAS ABLE TO VISIT

THERE IS A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF SOCIAL HISTORY RELATING TO THE GROWTH OF THIS COUNTRY, IT IS CRIMINAL TO SEE THAT A SECTION OF THE COMMUNITY WANT TO DESTROY IT.

THE EXAMPLES OF ARCHITECTURE THAT EDUCATES OUR FUTURE GENERATIONS SHOULD NOT BE LOST BY MINDLESS MONEY GRABBING INDIVIDUALS

I AM EXTREMELY ANGRY WITH THIS MINDLESS PROPOSAL THAT DOES NOT SEEM TO HAVE BEEN ADEQUATELY RESEARCHED

I DECLARE THAT I HAVE NOT MADE ANY DONATIONS REPORTABLE OR NOT TO ANY POLITICAL PARTY AND I DO NOT MIND MY NAME BEING PUBLISHED

Dear Sir/Madam
I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project. I have lived (21 years) in the region of Parramatta for most of my life and so have my parents (57 and 55 years). My father has worked for Parramatta City Council for over thirty-five years. My grandfather walked the beat in Parramatta as a police officer in the 1950s and 1960s. My great-great-great-great grandfather is buried in St. Patricks Cemetery.
What I am saying is I have a great connection to this region and whilst it is not where I think I will live for the rest of my life; I have a great love for it. Most of my issues with this region is the lack of forethought put into development. Developers are more than happy to destroy the remaining natural and architectural beauty in this region. Mostly, because they are ruled by their own back-pocket. As are those currently in power.
I never thought that in 2020, buildings over 100 years old would be knocked down for new buildings. I would have expected this to happen in the 70s and 80s but not the 21st century. It is truly disgraceful. We have lost so much of Australian history due to the actions of our predecessors and yet the Australian government is more than happy to destroy more history. The NSW government/Parramatta City Council’s attempt at turning Parramatta into “another Sydney” is destroying its identity and its history. If you decide to go through with this decision, it will be looked upon with great regret and anger by future generations.
You are depriving present and future generations of Australians the right to their own history. I am continuously disappointed by the lack of respect for Australian history, Indigenous or colonial by all levels of the Australian Government. I implore you to reverse the decision to demolish Willow Grove and St George’s Terraces.

Dear Sir:

When the State Government fails to listen to the users and locals of a destination, especially regarding changes and developments meant to enhance their lifestyles, there are always consequences at the next election. The people of Parramatta have responded loudly to the proposal to build another significant museum and it is clear that, unlike the mayor, they are not in favour of both demolishing significant heritage buildings or locating the proposed museum on a flood plain.

Parramatta deserves another museum of consequence but not at the sacrifice of Willow Grove and/or St. George’s Terrace. You have plenty of area to work with and the ability to change your present course. Listen carefully and plan accordingly.

Is it ironic that in order to construct a building to accommodate our heritage, beautiful heritage buildings will be destroyed? What ever way you look at this, its wrong. Build a new or another powerhouse museum if you must but leave Willow Grove and St George's Terrace alone. There is so much opposition to the destruction of these buildings, why isn't the NSW government listening? Wasn't it the Premier herself who said that governments that don't listen to the people shouldn't be in government?

I wish to register strong opposition to this project in its current form.
My major objection is to the proposed demolition of the two historic buildings to make way for the project.
I totally reject the argument put forward that the economic benefits of the project outweigh the loss of these two heritage buildings. This is a very weak argument.
The EIS has not examined reasonable alternatives that will allow these buildings to be preserved while still delivering the project’s basic aims.

Dear Sir,

I implore you to reconsider the destruction of the Willow Grove. Our heritage is important. History is important today more than ever.
To know where we have been and the struggles of our ancestors.
Consider the Queen Victoria building and the Rocks and the positive impact it has had on the City of Sydney
Parramatta needs historical sites as the city becomes more inhabited, busy, noisey and polluted.

The building has a calming effect , a green space, a place of reflection.

Please please reconsider. As a fourth generation Australian the new Australians need to know the history and how we got here and how we are able to offer them the freedoms and the life they have today.
We only got here because of our ancestors. Life was tough and not forgiving.
Gladys is a new Australian I only hope she understands the importance of Heritage

Parramatta and its surrounding area is a vital part of European history in this country. It is the second foundation stone not just for the early colony but the future of the nation as we know it. It has a history of its own. A vital part of its history is its social growth and development. The Willow Grove Villa and the St Georges Terraces are monuments to the hard work and vision of a people establishing a city out of farm land to parallel the growth of prosperity of Sydney.
Rather than being shamefully destroyed in the name of progress, they should be incorporated into any proposed museum development. They are in themselves a museum to our past more than any modern facility to simply house artifacts of our past.

I am not affiliated with any political party nor a trade union. I do not live in the immediate vicinity. I am simply a resident of Sydney and NSW who has had enough of a government whose overall obsession for so called, ‘development’ is continually at the expense of our heritage and sadly of late at the ignoring of its citizens pleas for common sense.

To all sensible people, Willow Grove was designed by Sydney Moore Green, eminent architect for Thomas Francis Gallagher Esq as a family home and completed in 1891..St George's Terrace at Phillip street Parramatta was built for George Coates and family in 1881. They are standing they are a valuable part of the history of Parramatta and Sydney. They should remain for past present and future generations..The proposed Powerhouse museum additional to that at Ultimo can be built anywhere more suitable. What is the troubled background to this state of affairs. Get 'real' politicians understand your responsibility to all citizens..not just for some sleazy? money deal. Think about your legacy. Get sage advice and do the right thing....property development can happen with due respect for the best of our environment.

I wish to add to my two previous submissions (28 June 2020 and 14 July 2020) objecting to the Powerhouse Parramatta project in the light of the recent announcement by the Hon. Rob Stokes MP, NSW Minister for Planning and Public Spaces in regard to the establishment of the Placemaking NSW Advisory Committee. The Minister’s official media release, dated 16 July 2020, included the following:

“The Placemaking NSW Advisory Committee, chaired by former Federal Minister Helen Coonan, will provide strategic advice on the management of precincts including The Rocks, Darling Harbour and Sydney Olympic Park, and provide guidance on the work of the Hunter and Central Coast Development Corporation (HCCDC).

Planning and Public Spaces Minister Rob Stokes said the coordinated oversight will deliver better outcomes for the people of NSW.”

While the Powerhouse Parramatta site is not mentioned in the Ministerial release, surely best practice placemaking should apply to all NSW Government planning proposals.

When interviewed after the announcement by Josh Szeps on the ABC Radio Sydney Breakfast Show, the Minister was asked for his views on the success or otherwise of Sydney places such as Barangaroo and Darling Harbour. Josh Szeps expressed the opinion that Darling Harbour has become a place where you now only go to buy a stuffed koala souvenir. The Minister agreed that Darling Harbour had failed because the redevelopment did not respect the industrial past of the site (it had been a major railway marshalling yard and freight consolidation centre) but had had a totally new landscape imposed on it.
Project for Public Spaces (PPS), a highly respected international non-profit planning, design, and educational organisation established in 1975 and dedicated to helping people create and sustain public spaces that build stronger communities, stresses the importance of building communities around places.
PPS defines ‘placemaking’ as both an overarching idea and a hands-on approach for improving a neighbourhood, city, or region by inspiring people to collectively reimagine and reinvent public spaces as the heart of every community. PPS states that by “Strengthening the connection between people and the places they share, placemaking refers to a collaborative process by which we can shape our public realm in order to maximise shared value. More than just promoting better urban design, placemaking facilitates creative patterns of use, paying particular attention to the physical, cultural, and social identities that define a place and support its ongoing evolution.”
“With community-based participation at its centre, an effective placemaking process capitalises [my bold text] on a local community's assets, inspiration, and potential, and it results in the creation of quality public spaces that contribute to people's health, happiness, and well-being.”
The proposed site for Powerhouse Parramatta has an existing identity and value derived from its historic cultural heritage and its relationship to the Parramatta River. The local heritage items, the Victorian Italianate mansion ‘Willow Grove’ and ‘St George’s Terrace’ are important elements of Parramatta’s colonial past and its cultural heritage. Parramatta is the second oldest European settlement in Australia but has already lost much of its heritage. Many of those heritage items remaining in the Parramatta CBD e.g. ‘Perth House’, ‘Kia Ora’, ‘Harrisford’, ‘Traveller’s Rest Inn Group’, Roxy Theatre and Parramatta Town Hall have had their settings compromised by unsympathetic adjacent overdevelopment and intrusions on their cultural landscape settings. With the recent demolition of the Royal Oak Hotel, Parramatta CBD can ill afford to lose two more of its dwindling resource of heritage assets. Protests by the local community and a Green Ban imposed on demolition of ‘Willow Grove’ and ‘St George’s Terrace’ clearly demonstrate that the site and its historic, aesthetic and social heritage values are important to the local and the wider community and should be conserved.
The proposed Powerhouse Parramatta building was supposedly designed as a replacement for the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo but was always going to be a multi-purpose exhibition and events centre masquerading as a museum. It is quite clear that after years of deliberation and considerable expense, there was no clear idea of exactly what was going to be in the Powerhouse Parramatta and how it could ever be a proper museum based on internationally recognised best practice in museology. Now that the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo is staying, how can the same design for the Parramatta site be still relevant or fit for purpose as a museum of international standard. As designed, its spaces don’t even meet the standards expected by overseas lending institutions and many logistical, access and engineering issues are unresolved.
The proposal to demolish ‘Willow Grove’ and ‘St George’s Terrace’ and replace them with the proposed building is the direct antithesis of good placemaking. It is the height of hypocrisy for the NSW Government to establish the Placemaking NSW Advisory Committee and then to destroy the very elements on the Powerhouse Parramatta site that make it important to the community. The local community deserves a museum but it would be much better to spend the limited financial resources available on a properly conceived and designed museum that the whole community wants, and on a site which does not require so much flood-risk mitigation. ‘Willow Grove’ and ‘St George’s Terrace’ and their settings must be retained and adapted for sympathetic and viable new uses as part of the Parramatta River riparian corridor, with culturally appropriate interpretation and links to a revitalised ‘Eat Street’ and other heritage sites in the city once the Parramatta Light Rail construction has been completed.
There is a wealth of highly significant heritage buildings elsewhere in Parramatta, particularly in the Parramatta North Historic Sites precinct, including the former Parramatta Correctional Centre, which are crying out for conservation and sympathetic new uses that could include museum and other cultural uses. There are many successful examples in Australia and overseas where placemaking and other good planning principles have been used to adapt such historic sites for new purposes and establish vibrant and much-loved community spaces. Examples that come to mind include the following:
• Canberra Glassworks, Kingston, ACT – a former power station, converted to hot and cold glass studios, gallery, shop and cafe;
• Casula Powerhouse, Casula, NSW – a former power station, converted to museum, art gallery, café and theatre;
• Powerhouse Museum, Ultimo, NSW – a former power station and tram depot, converted to science, technology and decorative arts museum;
• Prince Henry at Little Bay – a former infectious diseases and later general hospital site, converted to a mix of residential, retail, aged care, museum and social services uses;
• Le Murate, Florence, Italy – a former prison, converted to a mix of residential, retail, gallery and restaurant uses;
• Spice Alley and Kensington Street, Chippendale, Sydney – former workers’ cottages and warehouses with sympathetic new infill for eating establishments, retail and a boutique hotel;
• Sully’s Emporium, Broken Hill, NSW – a former mining hardware shop converted to Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery;
• The Mint, Macquarie Street, Sydney – former mint converted to museum, restaurant and offices and resources centre for Sydney Living Museums;
• Balgownie Migrant Camp, Fairy Meadow, NSW – former dining hall converted to child care centre for the University of Wollongong;
• Customs House, Circular Quay, Sydney – former customs house converted to City of Sydney Library, bars and cafes;
• Langton Harbour Waterfront, Wellington, New Zealand – former wharves, warehouses and maritime authority offices adapted for new uses including museums, galleries and restaurants;
• Addington Prison, Christchurch, New Zealand – a former prison converted to backpacker accommodation;
• Miguelete, Montevideo, Uruguay – a former prison adapted as an exhibition centre for visual art, artists’ workshops, a public square and a museum of natural history.
Better than demolishing much-loved historic buildings and giving the city ‘Powerhouse Lite’ or ‘Carriageworks West’, give Parramatta a museum that celebrates its rich natural and Aboriginal cultural heritage, its European heritage values and its wonderful modern multicultural life.

It would be much better to preserve Willow Grove and to restore St Georges Terrace, both to be important features of a heritage precinct. A museum of science and technology would be a valuable addition to Parramatta but the site obviously hasn't room for a major museum. The present application should be rejected and a new plan made for the site. The plan should be for a heritage and culture precinct.

I would consider the Power House Museum should remain where it is as Sydney is the cultural centre of Greater Sydney as well as being a the transport centre of the entire city. International and Australia wide tourists primarily visit the centre of Sydney and not Parramatta and so the Ultimo location is once again preferred. The Power House Museum at Ultimo is also a heritage building which should be preserved. There are key features such as the James Watt Beam engine which should remain at Ultimo.
At Parramatta the cultural heritage there should also be preserved. This means the historic Willow Grove and the St George Terrace should be saved and kept in pristine original condition. Parramatta Council's vision for a public square alongside the river should be supported.
A new Museum and cultural destination at historic Cumberland Hospital Precinct in North Parramatta should be developed.

I OBJECT to the Powerhouse Parramatta project.
My reason is as follows:
Objection to Demolition of Willow Grove and St George’s Terrace
As stated in the Architectural Design Report attached to the application Willow Grove and St George’s Terrace buildings are to be demolished. From the report page 9:
“This application will deliver a new cultural institution for Parramatta in the heart of Sydney’s Central City. The SSDA seeks consent for the delivery of Powerhouse Parramatta as a single–stage, comprising:… …– demolition of existing buildings including the existing Riverbank Car Park, ‘Willow Grove’, ‘St George’s Terrace’ and all other existing structures located on the site;”
These buildings represent the built heritage of Parramatta. Although I currently live in Brisbane I was born and grew up in Sydney. My family were members of the National Trust of Australia and we often went as a family to visit heritage houses in Parramatta. These buildings brought to life the colonial history of Parramatta. Further, at school we learnt more about the historical importance of Parramatta in the history of NSW. Once again, seeing the buildings that were around in those times added to our depth of understanding.
To remove these buildings is to erase a sense of place and a tangible connection to the history of Parramatta. Keeping heritage buildings adds layers of depth to a place and helps keep alive the stories of the past.
I do support the building of a museum for Parramatta but not at the expense of heritage buildings. It seems absurd to demolish a Parramatta heritage building in the process of building a museum for Parramatta.

I OBJECT to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because it involves the demolition of two beautiful old heritage listed buildings - Willow Grove Villa and St Georges Terrace. While I have not been to see either of these buildings, photos show that they are far more beautiful than the monstrosity that the NSW Government wants to build in their place. Now that the Government has decided not to move the Powerhouse Museum from its present location In Ultimo there is no need whatsoever for the Government to be knocking down these beautiful old buildings. There are so few beautiful old 19th century buildings left in Parramatta that the heritage buildings that do still exist should be retained. The Government should find some other location for storing items not on display at Ultimo and any new building that it builds should not involve the destruction beautiful historic buildings like these.
I have not made any reportable political donations nor do I have any vested interest in this matter. I simply wish to see these historic buildings retained for the visual enjoyment of future generations.

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because:
- Willow Grove is important to women’s history as a maternity hospital
- St George’s Terrace is the only remaining example of a terrace row in its architectural style in the Parramatta CBD
- The National Trust has listed these sites on their register as having irreplaceable and important historical value to the story of Parramatta
- The Environmental Impact Statement did not adequately consider the overall cumulative impacts of further heritage destruction in Parramatta currently being undertaken
I declare I have not made any reportable political donations.
I do not wish for my name to be published.

If you knock down the 2 houses , I will never vote liberal again.

I send this email as a protest note in relation to the proposed demolition of the Heritage Houses in Parramatta.

What purpose does it serve to remove the houses, now that the State Government has decided to leave the Powerhouse Museum in situ? These houses are part of our heritage, and it is a condemnation on the Parramatta Council Administrators to remove them. Government are the custodians of these buildings, which means that they are to look after them for the people of the state.

It is a senseless act of violence and destruction. Some people have been charged and convicted for lesser acts of destruction.

Please do not destroy another piece of history in the Parramatta area, like the pub that was completely destroyed to make way for the Light Rail. We should be appreciating our heritage, not wanton destruction.

To whom it may concern,

I would like to express my concern and absolute horror at learning you, and the NSW government are planning to demolish Heritage listed buildings in Parramatta, to re-build or build a second Powerhouse Museum.
Completely contradicting what I believe you are trying to achieve, who in their right mind would demolish history to build a museum to contain history ????
I am an Archaeology student and believe that any history that hasn’t already been demolished by what modern people and the government like to call “progress” should be held onto, and restored for future generations and for students like me to study and reflect on days gone past.
Parramatta is a special place for me, it is where my family grew and established it’s roots here in Australia, they were there from the start in 1788.

I have taken quite a while writing this email, I wanted to do what people normally do these days and use all capitols, swear and be completely uncouth, because that is what reflects the rage I feel inside when people like you want to destroy Australian history.

But instead I hope you know that I and I assume many, many other people, are completely and utterly disappointed and ashamed to call you our government!

I strongly object to the plans to demolish the buildings known as Willow Grove and St George’s Terrace in Parramatta.

These buildings are members of those rapidly diminishing links with our early European history. There are very few of them now remaining and many, like the sandstone former Education and Lands Department buildings in the city, now have public access to them greatly reduced. Soon we will have none left.

I disagree entirely with Mr Geoff Lee’s claim that the design for the new museum building is adequate compensation for this loss. The new proposal has been loudly criticised by many experts in both architecture and museum design and will instead become an eyesore, destined to be removed in a very short time.

These historic buildings have survived for over a century and with maintenance could survive for another. They could both be used for a public purpose such as, perhaps, a museum of Parramatta’s rich history from pre-European settlement until the current time. Together they cry out for such an appropriate use.

Demolition is forever. Who would like to put their name to such a decision and take that responsibility for years and generations to come?

Please do not demolish these buildings we need them more than a new Museum, the one in Ultimo is better situated for everyone to access especially overseas/interstate visitors who would mostly stay around the City & visit Darling Harbour, Opera House, Sydney Harbour Bridge etc and not go to the Western Suburbs.