Dear Sir,

I object to the proposed development on three grounds:

First, the loss of heritage and archaeological value: The proposed development is located on a site that contains the significant 1870s two storey Victorian Italianate villa - Willow Grove and significant archaeological site; and the 1880's row of two storey terraces - St George’s Terrace and also significant archaeological site. This development site is also in the vicinity of a number of heritage properties, both locally and state listed, including Lennox Bridge (SHR 00750).
Second, the consequent loss of the existing Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo which is also a significant heritage building; with the potential for damage of numerous priceless exhibits.
Third, the enormous cost to the taxpayer of the transfer of exhibits from the existing Powerhouse Museum to the proposed development.

This development, including closure of the existing Powerhouse Museum and transfer of numerous priceless exhibits appears to be an ill-conceived plan to monetise the existing Powerhouse Museum site while at the same time destroying key elements of existing remaining heritage architecture in Paramatta. It defies belief that these proposed actions could be considered in the best interests of past, present and future citizens of Sydney, NSW and Australia. I humbly suggest that the NSW government abandon this plan in its entirety and instead consider a plan that preserves the existing Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo while build a complementary new museum in the Parramatta area on a site that does not destroy important heritage and archaeological sites.

Yours
Paul Ettema
33 Yallambee Road
Riverview NSW 2066

The proposed Powerhouse museum is a monstrosity.

To take our invaluable museum from its historic and gorgeous location in Ultimo, and turning it into this monstrosity is heart braking. I grew up in Ultimo and taking our museum away makes me so sad and angry - it's just crushing.

To make matters worse, priceless historic buildings are proposed to be demolished. The hypocrisy of a museum - a place of history and culture - destroying a number of Parramatta's historical sites for its construction, says everything about this project. Just think about it, the complete destruction of history and culture (both in Ultimo and Parramatta) to create something supposedly designed for the preservation of culture and history - it is so, so dumb and hypocritical.

Parramatta deserves it's own wonderful museum. This proposal is not that. Stop putting the argument as an either/or - Ultimo and Parramatta can both have wonderful institutions.

Go and have a look at the Tate Modern, or any museums in Amsterdam and learn how museums should be done. Bigger is not better.

You are destroying my city, our city - and it is breaking my heart.

I have been attending exhibitions at the powerhouse since it opened . It is the one Sydney museum where my children and then grandchildren were talked to and interacted with . It has been a wonderful Sydney asset .I do think we need a new or second museum to hold the growing exhibits that can’t all be held at castle hill and to give a museum to the west . However, I am concerned that we will have to live without this for 5 years while the parramatta museum is built. I am concerned that the static exhibit will not be present again in its current form , i.e the steam engines. I totally object to heritage buildings being lost to provide a new site. Why must we lose willow grove in the name of progress . Why can’t we have both . Why must the new museum share so much commercial space . I am concerned that if an exhibition area is also a for hire venue that the museum will lose out very time. It feels like it is being rushed . A rush to close down the existing museum , a rush to destroy heritage buildings . All without enough detail to the public. My grandchildren were devastated when they heard that they could no longer go to the powerhouse museum . My concerns are that the project should stop while all the questions that the public have can be answered .

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project. As a child I remember going to the Powerhouse as a big part of my education, it partly led me to be as innovative as I em today.
I have since become an Architect and an Urban Designer.

The thought that this place will not only be moved, but mostly packed up and stored, is just terrible.
How are the children in the future meant to experience the museum the same way?
Not only does this loses the Architecture of the Powerhouse museum, it also destroys the heritage of Willow Grove and St Georges Terraces where it is proposed to be moved to.

More so, where is the business case for this?
- How does moving a museum to a smaller space and losing a lot of its large main attractions make for a greater financial benefit?
- How does destroying a few of Sydney’s heritage buildings and making them into CBD apartments make a profit from the costing that are currently proposed. Even if we take the ethics out of this, the cost benefit does not add up. How is this a benefit to the taxpayer?
- How does this cost benefit justify selling the Power house museum site to a developer for far less than this cost of this project make sense? A corruption watchdog needs to oversee this.
- How does building any museum in flood plan make any sense at all? This is a clear-cut failure of planning.
- How does moving the Powerhouse museum to Parramatta benefit Sydney as a whole? The current Powerhouse museum as enough in storage to fill a second museum in Parramatta. Why was this not considered?

I hope these points are considered, some of them are very serious possible corruption and incompetence of planning.

Regards,
Liam Filson

From the day the proposal to move the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta was announced I have had serious concerns. Nothing that has been said or done by any NSW Government representative since then has allayed those concerns. My objection is not to the establishment of an institution in the west of Sydney. The local community there has a valid right to an attraction of the kind proposed. Rather, my objection is to the willful destruction of an existing institution at Ultimo for no good reason that has yet been published by the government. I am afraid that justifying it on the basis that the people of the the western Sydney region deserve it is not enough to warrant the vandalism that is being proposed in both Ultimo and Parramatta.
From my perspective the ideal solution would be to retain the museum at Ultimo and develop an appropriate satellite facility at a more suitable location in the western region of Sydney.
I have seen the comments today from the President of the board of trustees of the museum. The most charitable interpretation I can put on his comments is that he is obviously devoted to the museum's collection. However, to say that two of the main items currently on display at Ultimo will continue to be on display at the proposed Parramatta facility is simply sophistry. He compounds that by saying there will be another facility at Castle Hill, virtually acknowledging that there is already a demand for two separate locations. If that is the case, why not spend the money on bringing Ultimo up to date and building a new satellite institution in the west?
I can't help but feel that there is some other reason for what is being proposed which, if revealed in detail, would prove to be absolutely unacceptable to the majority of voters in NSW. So, either reveal the full details or go back to the drawing board and come up with a proposal which can be accepted by the majority of voters. The current proposal does not stand up to scrutiny on either environmental or moral grounds for either of the locations which will be impacted. My fervent hope is that sanity will prevail and the current proposal will be dumped.

I object to this project for many reasons. 1: it is totally unnecessary. The existing museum is popular and nobody in the general public has asked for the move. The government has made no serious case for the move or said what will happen at the Ultimo site. Many people fear that the whole motive is to destroy the existing buildings and to sell the site to some kind of commercial entity for building of more tall buildings that will have a deleterious effect on the precinct. 2. Even as proposed, it would be ridiculously expensive - especially in such drastic economic circumstances as we now face. From experience, we can be absolutely certain that the cost will be vastly higher than suggested by the government. 3. It would be cheaper to build a new museum in Parramatta from scratch, possibly as a branch of the Powerhouse or fully independent. That would have the virtue of saving some historic Parramatta buildings from destruction, while also making a new institution directly relevant to the history of Parramatta and the broader region of western Sydney. 4. The proposal has been criticised severely by very many acknowledged and outstanding experts in the fields of architecture, urban planning, history, public finance and others. Their views were not sought at the outset and have not been given enough weight since. It would be good if the government followed the experts as they did with the Covid-19 pandemic.

I strongly oppose the closing down of the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo and its relocation to Parramatta. It is a monumental desecration of a Sydney cultural icon by a tone deaf NSW Government, more concerned about appeasing property development interests. There is no reason why Parramatta cannot have its own cultural facilities without having to put at risk priceless exhibits, a curated experience and decades of history in the collections at the Powerhouse museum.
For the budget specified - build Parramatta its own cultural facility and leave our Powerhouse Museum alone.

This project is unsupported by any substantive business plan and appears to be a grossly expensive demolition of an established and world famous industrial museum which could be called Australia's mini Smithsonian.
There is no doubt that Parramatta deserves a substantive museum as has been requested by many Parramatta community organisations along the lines of the history of the early colony , in which the local area played a vital role and which could be located in colonial buildings of that time. Consideration ot our First Nation peoples would also suit the needs.
The proposed building has little archictural merit and also fails many of the features required of a a substantive museum including permanent display area ( 10% -25% of the existing Ultimo building, storage areas, airconditioning and design appropriate for an industrial museum

The claims of two million visitors is ridiculous , given the remote location from Sydney based tourists and the easy access of the Ultimo site to all of the Great Sydney area and its location close to the tourist/entertainment area of Darling Harbour. The number claimed cannot be supported , given that annual visitors to the Art Gallery of NSW is only one million a year and 750,000 to the Ultimo site.
Schools across Sydney use excursions to the area where the two accessible museums of the PowerHouse and the Australian Maritime Museum can be visited in the same day

Spending well over one billion dollars at this period is clearly stupid given that the end result is the destruction of a unique accessible museum and its replacement by a glitzy pleasure palace without any serious heritage or conservation prospects. This project is almost universally condemned by museum administrators and conservators.
The people of Parramatta were given no choice in the decisions leading to this monstrosity given that a non local administrator made the decisions!

I object to the Powehouse Parramatta.I have two reasons for making this objection.Firstly,personal regarding the loss of Willow Grove.Secondly,cultural regarding the loss of the Powerhouse Museum from its Ultimo site.My family have lived in historic Sorrell Street in North Parramatta since 1937.Two of my three siblings and myself still call Parramatta home.That beautiful Italianate villa has always been part of old Parramatta,along with Hiawatha and Subiaco,two outstanding buildings of great quality now long lost to seemingly relentless development.We really need to take a stand before this villa two is lost from Parramatta's ever dwindling cultural history.There is a personal connection also to Willow Grove.Both of my sisters entered the world there when the villa was functioning as a maternity hospital.Along with so many local residents,none of us want to see the building reduced to rubble,trashing both memories and streetscape.

As for moving a world class museum from its own historic site,it defies comprehension that any government would even consider breaking up and moving irreplaceable exhibits like a complete,working steam engine,with all the great expense and risk that move would incur.In none of the papers released so far is any credible case made to support this government's claim that it makes both financial and political sense to demolish a complete,functioning museum and move a colossal collection out to western Sydney.Yes,Parramatta could use its own museum but it is hardly an urgent priority and can wait until another site is found,away from a flood prone riverbank,and not necessitating the loss of one of our few remaining historic gems.

Firstly I will state I have not made any political donations of any kind. I am a Sydney resident who has resided in Parramatta and now lives within close proximity of it.
And I OBJECT to Powerhouse Parramatta Project.
I do so for a number of reasons:
• I object due to the unnecessary destruction of heritage in Parramatta. The heritage of Parramatta is integral to the story of our nation and of our state. We need to preserve these places and buildings of historical significance in order to preserve and share that story with future generations. As a young family we use our weekends to explore such places with our children to give them a connection to the past that was built for their future. When you destory these places, you destroy peoples understanding, knowledge and experience with the history of our people and our country.
• As a former maternity hospital, the destruction of Willow Grove shows the governments innate disregard for women's history and the important role such homes and hospitals played in the lives of women throughout history. Women are already underrepresented in the history of this nation. Both in records and in academia. To destroy one of the few existing places that are a poignant reminder of women's history in our nation speaks volumes about our state government. I personally believe that to destroy such a unique place would only show how little regard our government has for the place and contribution of women to our nation.
• The beauty of Parramatta is found in the history still preserved there. There is no justifiable cause to destroy that heritage in order to build a museum space that will not provide adequate museum opportunities for the community. In addition, the powerhouse is ideally situated in the city, incorporating a heritage building. I object to taxpayers money being used to unnecessarily move a cultural space that is in an ideal position currently. Once heritage is destroyed it cannot be rebuilt or reclaimed. However, a new build can be constructed anywhere. LEAVE OUR HERITAGE BUILDINGS ALONE!
• I object because I believe it will have a detrimental cultural impact by destroying significant cultural pieces in order to build not a museum but an event space that is unnecessary. The character of Parramatta will be irrevocably reduced by this project and as a supporter of the arts, I would have no desire to support the museum any longer should it proceed.
• As a descendant of a former midwife who worked in hospitals such as Willow Grove, I value that it is one of the last remaining examples of this most important work in our nation. WE NEED OUR HERITAGE AND WHEN YOU DESTROY THESE PLACES WE LOSE OUR SENSE OF PLACE, OUR SENSE OF HISTORY, OUR SENSE OF WHO WE ARE. Please do not do this.