Powerhouse Parramatta

I resoundingly object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because the location and current design of the site will result in the unnecessary destruction of heritage sites in Parramatta. As well as being built on a well-documented flood zone, the new Powerhouse museum project will seen an ironic disregard for our own history which is, frankly, the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.

Incorporate the heritage or don’t build the thing. You’re wasting our time and our money.

Dear Sir,

I object to the Parramatta Powerhouse construction and the destruction of Willow Grove and St.George Terrace. These buildings are a part of Parramatta's history.
I have been fortunate to travel overseas and visit many places in the UK and Europe. The main priority is to see the heritage buildings, some of which have been there for
over 400 +years. By comparison our heritage buildings are two hundred years old and if we continue to destroy them we will have nothing to show future generations.
These buildings belong to all Australians and should not to be destroyed by politicians who have no respect for our heritage!!
I suggest we incorporate the beautiful buildings we have thereby saving money and showcasing them and making Parramatta the place to visit!! I get very emotional at the thought of
losing our heritage as we have already lost too much. My two daughters were christened in the Kings School Chapel opposite the Parramatta Stadium before it was removed brick by
brick and rebuilt on the North Parramatta site thereby preserving it!! I will never get over the demolitiion of the Parramatta Memorial Swimming Pool and the Parramatta Stadium to build
that hideous Bankwest Stadium (which I will never attend and I no longer visit the Leagues Club, of which I am a member). Millions of Dollars were spent in renovating the Stadium only
to be pulled down and more millions spent. (that is utter waste when it should have been spent on more important things.)
I cannot drive past there without crying!!
I would suggest you all sit down and before wasting anymore $milliions work out a plan to use our heritage buildings so they can be enjoyed now and in the future.
I wish to declare I have not made any political donations and never will. (That is bribery!)
I have no objection to my name being published with this submission.

Kind regards,
Jann C. Mackie

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because as I was raised in the Parramatta area I have a great interest in the historic significance of Parramatta. It seems to me the push by this current Government to destroy these buildings, build a museum on precious riverfront land, that floods, reeks of corruption and very poor standard of values.

These building, Willow Grove and St. Georges Terraces could be centres of something much more important than the planned museum building. With some good town planning, lack of developers push and thought a museum could be built in a much better place than the planned site.

I can assure you if this vandalism goes ahead I will never vote for LNP again as I will have absolutely no trust in their foresight or ethics.

Just imagine a museum in a better situation, not Parramatta Park or the riverside, that explores the history of Parramatta and it’s birth and place with the earliest European agriculture and how a city developed from an early start in our country. The role of how the Aboriginal people lived and thrived in this area could also be studied. Consider the track between Sydney and Parramatta the earliest people trod. The huge eel festival that was celebrated and how the land was managed to feed the Aboriginal people.

In the stubborn push by the Premier and unknown others great opportunities are being lost and wholesale vandalism is alive and well. Shame Premier and others we do not know.

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because..

Well its just not rocket science as the saying goes, I propose that the following be put in place immediately

There is a simple solution. A three point plan .

Keep the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo
Create a brilliant Museum and cultural destination at historic Cumberland Hospital Precinct in North Parramatta.
Save historic Willow Grove & St Georges Terraces, and realise the existing Parramatta Council vision for a public square alongside the river

I have been on many cruises over the years, and I can vouch for the fact that there will not be too many people who will venture all the way to Parramatta but who would certainly investigate the Ultimo site as time is of the essence when on a day trip to a major city.

There are so many exhibits available that it is possible to use the excess for the Parramatta / western Sydney site. Yes Western Sydney does need some investment of cultural / educational sites but Please stop knocking down our heritage sites

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because of the proposed destruction of Willow Grove and St Georges Terraces. These beautiful historic buildings should be preserved for future generations to see, appreciate and learn from. Such places are our access to our past, our link to our social and cultural history and must be respected and treasured.

To destroy these Heritage Listed buildings would be an irrevocable action - the past cannot be rebuilt. If we can’t value and learn from our past, what hope has our future? What is the point of having Heritage Listings if they can be overturned - what would the future think of this violation of their inheritance?

There is a real irony in destroying our past history to build a new museum to house future historical items!

Our history and our heritage must be preserved. Build a new museum in Nth Parramatta, and retain Willow Grove and St Georges Terraces - thus maintaining the connection with our culture and our heritage.

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because, I would like history of those buildings to be apart of the future, i look at other counties like England and love the fact they have so much history with its buildings, the future generation need to see it in person not just a photo in a book, to walk through a building with so much history is a feeling that stays with you. I have never been lucky to go overseas, let me ask you if you went over seas to any county would you like to visit the old buildings and hear the stories if so WHY? ( I would say because its HISTORY) so why knock down ours?
I look at
Parramatta now, I truly do not like what i see tall building ugly things with nothing but glass, the older buildings were built to last and stand and have stories within their walls...


I have not made any payments to any political parties.

I need to add my voice to those objecting to the demolition of Willow Grove. Why destroy such a beautiful building?

I have never made a political donation.

I do not want my name made public.

I’m greatly alarmed by the NSW government’s Powerhouse Parramatta project because a better solution is staring at you in the face and yet it’s not being acted on.

We have a historical area around the Cumberland hospital precinct in North Parramatta that has a new light rail nearby that needs restoring and with some money and vision could be transformed into a vibrant and buzzing precinct for arts, culture and museums that Parramatta desperately deserves.

In doing so the (in name only) Powerhouse relocation can be downsized due to it being in a flood prone area and Willow Grove saved - very important as we need all the preservation of history we can get.

What worries me is that developers are leading this discussion and not creative people and residents who will look back in future and ask how did we ever let this happen?

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because it is part of Parramattas Heritage. Knocking down old buildings which are part of history is a national disgrace.

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because I have long enjoyed visiting the Historic sights of Parramatta including the old cemetery , Old Government House, James Ruse Cottage etc.. I also have loved the precinct where Willow Grove is and St Georges Terrace. I particularly love Willow Grove because it is where I was born, my Mother travelling there by taxi from a 5 acre farm at Castle Hill on 11/4/1945 to give birth to me. Yes please have another museum at Parramatta but not at the expense of our historic buildings, we have so few. It is so lovely to ride the rivercat to Parramatta and stroll through these streets (depending on the tides of course where we transfer to the bus).

Thanking you for your time

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because..
I believe this is an important part of Parramatta's heritage
Our history and its links to earlier times needs to be preserved..in this case St George's Terraces and the grand Willow Grove residence
I have no affiliation with any group, but rather I'm a very concerned person who wishes for preservation of historical buildings
Originally from the Penrith area ,I worked in Parramatta for many years, and still feel the connection to it's colonial past
Please preserve..

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because, to facilitate this project, involves the permanent removal of historical buildings, Willow Grove and St George’s Terrace.

As a citizen who lives and works in Parramatta, I am connected to our city’s heritage though these beautiful structures which are a reminder to us all, of our early years and history and should remain standing for many future generations to enjoy.

It is inconceivable to me that alternative sites, which would avoid the need to demolish buildings (such as the Cumberland Hospital grounds), have been rejected and disregarded.

I request that you consider a solution for Parramatta’s proposed Powerhouse project. The people of Parramatta do not want these two beautiful heritage buildings destroyed.

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because.I believe the two buildings you wish to teardown are an essential link to our heritage and therefore our sense of belonging to Parramatta.
I want to be able to show my grand children as I have my own children, the graceful architectural features, and scale of placing a building on land that we can walk around and admire.
I believe the Powerhouse museum should stay where it is in Ultimo. It is there for a reason , showcasing the industrial history of machines that built our city.
Please reconsider, once gone you can never replace Willowgrove. I do not have any faith in the building standards of modern buildings that the proposed building will last 10 years, let alone 100+.
I was a member of The Powerhouse and regularly took my sons to the delightful exhibits and sanctury it provided busy boys with enquiring minds.
I now want to avail my grandaughter the same experience. She will hear stories about her fathers favourite exhibits and activities.
This facility provides intergenerational connections to the Powerhouse and the comfort and wellbeing of the familar in a city that is constantly being demolished.

I would like to notify you of my objection to the Powerhouse Parramatta Development which involves the demolition of two heritage listed buildings in Parramatta (Willow Grove and St Georges Terrace).

I object to the proposed Powerhouse Parramatta project because the winning proposal involves demolition of Willow Grove, its garden and St Georges Terrace.

Parramatta is a place of remarkable character and in recognition of this character the proposed museum would benefit from another siting or a serious attempt at adaptive reuse of the site.

Local architects with proven skills in sensitive design and adaptive reuse of heritage buildings should be given the opportunity to submit other options.

Development Controls appear to be somewhat ad hoc in parramatta and not based on design quality that recognises the city centre’s essential character.

Bigger is not better. Parramatta Town Hall and Anglican Cathedral have been rendered as toys in the absence of relative scale of current development.

The vertical explosion on the former David Jones site speaks of the future potential to render the riverside a "creek in a canyon”.

The Catholic Cathedral is diminished by the football arena, and local kids have lost their pool for many summers.

Give Parramatta’s heritage a chance to continue to be respected in this very important town centre. Don’t copy Sydney.

The Willow Grove Precinct offers a reprieve of calm and beauty in the midst of the development explosion that is occurring.

Don’t turn the river in to a gutter by erecting more buildings that do not offer relative scale.

Don’t let disinterested corporate money destroy what is here. Propose a desired future character and get interested local money on board.

Create a better River city and respect Parramatta’s precious character.

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because :

1. the site is inappropriate… too close to the embankment for heavy objects and no proper tests have measured the site/object ratio.

2. the site is too smaLL FOR the objects

3. the original decision to use the current powerhouse site was determined by the fact that the site itself - the built structure - would become a part of the museum collection (as in the case of the . Everleigh Art Space).

4. in heritage terms the term ‘what is of social value’ is applied when considering `the role of the present society to value and save the past, for the present and beyond.' Therefore - the powerhouse museum must remain inside the original power house as the site, the built environment structurally, plus the contents are all part of what we know as the powerhouse museum.

5. The final point I would like to raise is, in the mid nineteen eighties when the bicentennial authority began to consider the powerhouse site for a museum the demographics of the population were extremely different to the social demographics that exist in the neighbourhood today. In the year two thousand and twenty we almost total gentrification of the land space surrounding the museum with international award designed apartment buildings, blocks of cinemas, gentrified lane ways full of cafes and artists spaces and ultra modern gardens built over disused railway tracks - a la New work and aqua sports centres. I would imagine that the changed nature of the built environment has altered the statistics of the population by two hundred percent within the last decade. Or more. This is now a bright, enjoyable, new social hub housing the kind of citizens who I predict would value highly a museum like the powerhouse to exist in their vicinity.

Regarding the Parramatta museum: yes it also needs a grand museum/ arts centre. Parramatta urgently needs to throw off its mantle and become a vibrant, and exciting second city - sitting nearby another site called Sydney.

best

Margaret Helman
(deputy director of the NSW Bicentennial Authority of New South Wales - 1985-1987)

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because it is at the expense of part of our heritage. While it is admirable to be building a museum at Parramatta, it should include the historic Willow Grove and St George Terraces.

These historic buildings should not only be saved and preserved. If a museum is to be built in Parramatta, another location should be chosen and the area along the riverside become public space.

These buildings are museum pieces in themselves and our heritage cannot be replaced, once it has been destroyed. If the museum must be built in the chosen location, then these buildings should be 'exhibits' within the museum precinct.

We have lost so much of our heritage over the years. This is your opportunity to preserve our heritage in a unique way. Future generations will be able to experience and appreciate this genuine view into our past.

Please do not destroy Willow Grove and St George Terraces, they are too important to the culture and history of Parramatta.

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because Willow Grove and St Georges Terrace are unique and highly important buildings in the Parramatta CBD and their loss would have a significant impact on the community's connection with heritage.

There is a very simple solution, which I implore Planning NSW and the NSW State government to implement immediately.

This three point plan involves:

1. Keep the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo

2. Create a Museum and cultural destination on a more suitable site such as the historic Cumberland Hospital Precinct in North Parramatta.

3. Save historic Willow Grove & St Georges Terraces, and realise the existing Parramatta Council vision for a public square alongside the river which is a more practicable given the flood risk in this area.

This plan would also generate a lot of long term jobs not only in construction but also in all the professions related to museums, history, conservation and more.

This plan would also support domestic and international tourism.

Please note I have not made any reportable political donations.

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because.. I have lived in Parramatta for a great deal of my life and revel in observing and understanding the remains of our history to be found here. I have bought things from the st George's terrace and been in awe of the beauty of willowvale. I have taken my children to sunken gardens, crawled through the convict tunnels of Lennox bridge and when much younger walked the duplicate main Street that joined car parks behind the shops in church street. Do not let Parramatta lose any more of its links to our past.

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project because as it makes no sense to destroy two magnificent heritage buildings and build a truly repulsive building on the flood prone site. The NSW government is a disgrace and will be held accountable for this vandalism. There are sure to be plenty of other existing buildings to suit a proper second power house museum. Sydney has been incrementally destroyed by Baird and Berejiklian Greater Sydney Commission agendas which serve insane globalist aims and not those of the people