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

The Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo is one of the iconic museums of the world. It is unique in demonstrating how technology, engineering, science and design have impacted Australia and the world. It is recognised worldwide for the magnificent layout and collection. With origins dating back to 1879, moving to Harris street Ultimo, then in 1978, Premier Neville Wran announced that the decrepit Ultimo Power Station, several hundred metres north of the Harris Street site had been earmarked as the museum's new permanent home along with the adjoining former Ultimo Tram Depot. A wonderful museum opened in 1988, in time for Australia's Bicentenary and has been attracting Australian and overseas visitors in their millions ever since.

With half a million items available for display, this museum should stay where it is. The huge objects - locomotives, steam engines, aircraft should not be moved. Many of the displays are fragile, and would be damaged if moved.

To move this museum and its collection anywhere else is beyond reasonable thought.

To move it to a flood prone riverbank in Parramatta, destroying two of the most beautiful and culturally valuable buildings in the city is nothing more than vandalism.

I do not believe that a complete case has been presented to the public on the matter of the site planned for the "Powerhouse Parramatta" move. The destruction of Willow Grove and the St George Terraces is unbelievable, and shows an insensitive and vandalous attitude on the part of the state government and the local council.

I have been a resident of the Parramatta for 40 years. Whilst in Merrylands, Dundas and North Rocks I have enjoyed the historical sites of Parramatta as a young person, right through to my retirement. Countless hours of enjoying the wonderful places (many now gone) in my city, The Memorial Swimming Pool is gone, the hotels have gone, the trees have gone. Real history is being destroyed to make way for plastic and glass high rise, a light rail that the public did not want, and now a set of milk crates forming a conference centre and movable displays, called a museum.

The impact of losing our history and the sense of the character of Parramatta have not been properly studied. The Environmental Impact Study lacks any empathy towards the feelings of the locals. Our sense of place in this city and this country are being ignored for a project that is opaque and hides the reasons for the move in the first place.

Our willow Grove and St Georges Terraces are rare examples of architecture that no longer exist in our city. They must be preserved for our future generations.

The reasons behind the move of a beautiful and functional museum must be made public, and any monetary contracts must be made visible. There seems to be a great deal of detail that nobody in government or council are willing to speak about.

I ask that the Powerhouse Museum be left operational in Ultimo, and that if Parramatta is to get a museum, it should be our own, and be where we want it to be built.

I object to the project firstly in its direct destruction of sites of cultural and historical significance at Parramatta. I further object to the sell-off of publicly owned land at 500 Harris Street, which has been a place of significant experiences and memories for generations of my family.

I further am disappointed that the destruction of the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo is to occur well in advance of the construction of the Parramatta version resulting in many children, families, visitors being robbed of the opportunity to visit a museum celebrating the progress of Australian society.

Even if the two sites cannot be saved from destruction, it is sensible to have the museum ready to receive the artefacts from Ultimo (by completion of the Parramatta site) prior to the closure of the current museum.

Any other order is illogical, and a planning failure unless there is an ulterior motive of the NSW Government.

I request that the Government desist from its planned closure of the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo until such time as they can demonstrate its plans for that site and show how exhibitions will be saved from the historical dump (such as the iconic Wiggles Exhibition which celebrates a home-grown icon).

Yours sincerely

Phil Grindley

I think it is a big waste of money.
The old powerhouse is a great place, quirky, intimate, a place to explore and be amazed by.
For the amount of money being spent on the project, the existing location could be provided with the most fabulous updates for a hundred years.
Also I object to the demolition of the heritage buildings already on the Parramatta site. It is completely unnecessary.
Please simply stop this project entirely.
Thanks
Chris Thompson.

I object to the closure of the Powerhouse museum and its removal to a site at Parramatta. The proposal will remove the amenity of the existing outstanding museum, without its replacement providing a similar value to the public. The announced proposals for the Parramatta site will not allow adequate provision for a number of larger exhibits on substantial technical and historic significance, and the apparent emphasis on entertainment and retail elements with 'dumb down' the cultural values embodied in the museum. The dispersal of larger exhibits to other venues will mean a fragmented approach to our technical heritage. Also, the removal of heritage properties at Parramatta in order to build the new museum is a negative outcome that should not occur. The absence of any information on the future of the Ultimo site leads many observers to conclude that the move is prompted by the intention to raise revenue from its sale, rather than the specious rationales provided by the government . A suitable cultural/event facility at Parramatta could be provided at a lesser cost than that proposed to destroy and partly re-locate the Powerhouse museum.

The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the “Powerhouse Parramatta" project, currently on display, reveals numerous fatal flaws. Some of these are –

SPACE
- the project is now completely different from what was approved by Cabinet in 2018
- not a single space in either of the two buildings is specifically dedicated to museum exhibitions or the collection.
- the total public “presentation” space has shrunk from an initially stipulated 18,000m2 to 12,000m2 (compared with 21,400m2 in Ultimo), with a massive increase in commercial space. Every so-called presentation space is available for commercial hire, and designed to facilitate events and performances.
-there is only 25% (5,200m2) of the climate controlled exhibition space that the Powerhouse has in Ultimo.
- no way has been identified for moving precious large objects into the building(s)
- there is no storage space for (any of) the collection
See Museum Expert Kylie Winkworth analysis http://tiny.cc/c0d6qz for details

COSTS
Project costs have blown out from $200M (2015) to $1.4 billion - $1.8 billion (and rising!) http://tiny.cc/67d6qz
- the building cost alone is now approaching $1 billion
- unbudgeted future project costs include
- creation of storage space at Castle Hill because the “Milk Crates” cannot accommodate the Powerhouse’s unique large objects.
- the Ultimo precinct.
- the Parramatta River bridge.
- the whole collection move.
- marketing, exhibition design/installation, public relations.
- staff acquisition and training.
- conservation and restoration of objects for both move and display purposes.

BAD PLANNING
The proposed structure is NOT a recognisable museum, CAN’T operate as a museum, and it would be impossibly costly if this were attempted because
- the flood amelioration budget has been cut, increasing risks for contents and for visitors.
- almost entire loss of functional office space for staff, of back-of house working space and adequate “vertical transportation” (lifts and escalators) for visitors, staff and materials.
- a single loading dock (down from two) for all commercial and cleaning activities will destroy the high sanitation standards required by museological functions.
The dock must serve two buildings, events for up to 10,000 people, 10 cafes and bars, a retail hall, 40 apartments, a school boarding house, the bump in bump out for concerts, a cinema, conferences and commercial hire, museum objects on hire rotation and international traveling exhibitions, along with food waste, laundry and rubbish...
There is not one parking space, and not even a loading zone.
In summary, this proposal is a sick joke and an insult to both Parramatta and Inner Sydney. It’s NOT A MUSEUM - not even the “museum” initially promised.

Dear Premier,
While you have inherited this poisoned chalice from your predecessor, you now have the chance to show your leadership in bringing this double vandalism to an end.
In a time when we are calling out for young students to study STEM subjects and follow a career in this needed field, you are planning to remove an existing physical database of our engineering and technological history.
Those who don't learn from our history are often the ones who repeat the same mistakes and, in my mind, moving the Powerhouse collection is an expensive and wasteful mistake.
I believe that the people of Parramatta and the West are entitled to a museum and have heard that there are plenty of items at Castle Hill to equip such a museum thereby getting more of the collection out on display.
Demolishing the heritage building 'Wattle Grove' and St George's Terrace would be another example if vandalism of our disappearing history. Repeated mistakes?
Surely by now we are an educated enough society to have at least learnt something of previous mistakes.
Sure, it is important to digitise the collection, that is what STEM is all about. Share the knowledge widely on the internet to encourage visitors to come and see it for themselves.
Now is your chance to listen to the wider community, to save the horrendous expense of moving and storage (including potential damage) and help bring the budget back closer to a surplus.
I am a great great grandson of Sir Henry Parkes, who helped stage the 1879 International Exhibition at the Garden Palace. When that burnt down, one of the few surviving objects was the carbon elephant which became the symbol for the Sewerage and Drainage museum (later to become the Technological Museum in Harris Street) which has then morphed into the wonderful Powerhouse Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.
All I ask is that you take the leadership, leave the Powerhouse and its collection in place, put the cost of moving it towards another museum in Parramatta, and equip it from the Castle Hill collection.
To me that would be a win win situation for North, East, South and West as well as the budget of NSW.
Electorally it is also a winner for you. Strong leadership wins votes.
Regards
Ian Thom

“I (we) object to the project…”
The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the “Powerhouse Parramatta" project, currently on display, reveals numerous fatal flaws. Some of these are –
SPACE
- the project is now completely different from what was approved by Cabinet in 2018
- not a single space in either of the two buildings is specifically dedicated to museum exhibitions or the collection.
- the total public “presentation” space has shrunk from an initially stipulated 18,000m2 to 12,000m2 (compared with 21,400m2 in Ultimo), with a massive increase in commercial space. Every so-called presentation space is available for commercial hire, and designed to facilitate events and performances.
-there is only 25% of the climate controlled exhibition space that the Powerhouse has in Ultimo.
- no way has been identified for moving precious large objects into the building(s)
- there is no storage space for (any of) the collection
See Museum Expert Kylie Winkworth analysis http://tiny.cc/c0d6qz for details
COSTS
Project costs have blown out from $200M (2015) to $1.4 billion - $1.8 billion (and rising!) http://tiny.cc/67d6qz
- the building cost alone is now approaching $1 billion
- unbudgeted future project costs include
- creation of storage space at Castle Hill because the “Milk Crates” cannot accommodate the Powerhouse’s unique large objects.
- the Ultimo precinct.
- the Parramatta River bridge.
- the whole collection move.
- marketing, exhibition design/installation, public relations.
- staff acquisition and training.
- conservation and restoration of objects for both move and display purposes.
BAD PLANNING
The proposed structure is NOT a recognisable museum, CAN’T operate as a museum, and it would be impossibly costly if this were attempted because
- the flood amelioration budget has been cut, increasing risks for contents and for visitors.
- almost entire loss of functional office space for staff, of back-of house working space and adequate “vertical transportation” (lifts and escalators) for visitors, staff and materials.
- a single loading dock (down from two) for all commercial and cleaning activities will destroy the high sanitation standards required by museological functions.
The dock must serve two buildings, events for up to 10,000 people, 10 cafes and bars, a retail hall, 40 apartments, a school boarding house, the bump in bump out for concerts, a cinema, conferences and commercial hire, museum objects on hire rotation and international travelling exhibitions, along with food waste, laundry and rubbish...
There is not one parking space, and not even a loading zone.
In summary, this proposal is a sick joke and an insult to both Parramatta and Inner Sydney. It’s NOT A MUSEUM - not even the “museum” initially promised.

I am against the moving of the powerhouse museum. It is costing way too much money and it belongs where it is. It is a beautiful heritage building and should not be torn down for more ugly apartments just to make the nsw gov more money

I strongly object to the removal of heritage buildings to make way for the new Powerhouse building. Consider what the Rocks would look like today if heritage buildings had been demolished. Future generations will not look kindly on this government. You can find a solution.