Putting aside the compromised design of the planned museum, that the demolition of Willow Grove and the Terraces with such unique, irreplaceable heritage value would even be CONSIDERED in order to construct it beggars belief.

One of the charms of Parramatta is its embracing of its history in its architecture, the side-by-side of the old and the new. Why would Parramatta want to repeat the mistakes of Sydney city in the 1960s-80s when so many beautiful, important buildings were lost?

The irony of a museum showcasing artefacts from lost times being the impetus for the demolition of- and being built on the fresh grave of- a piece of Sydney's history is so mind-boggling that it raises serious questions about the entire governmental decision-making process that led to this point.

How is this the only way Parramatta can have a museum? Why must it be constructed on that site? How wasn't this dismissed out of hand years ago, before the proposal got this far and cost the state so much money? WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?

I urge you to find a different solution and give Parramatta a true world-standard museum (with at least a storage and conservation area!) that honours history instead of destroying it. I will be following the Sydney Morning Herald's continuing coverage of this debacle with great interest.

I wish it noted that I strongly object to the relocation of the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta. This is an act of cultural vandalism that will not be forgiven by the people of New South Wales. The Museum is currently located in an award-winning building and is recognised internationally as an outstanding and unique collection of science and technology with a unique focus on applied arts. It has become clear to the people of New South Wales that the relocation jeopardises the integrity of the collection.

This is because the proposed new site can house only about 25 per cent of the display area of the existing museum and will instead focus on entertainment areas. Apart from the fact that the proposed museum cannot house or store the current collection, it will not meet the necessary minimum requirements to allow for loans from overseas institutions. This really matters to Sydneysiders who want to be proud of this city and its institutions.

The new museum will not be taken seriously by international institutions and therefore, by international visitors. Parramatta needs, and should have, an internationally recognised arts precinct. The proposal for the new venue does not satisfy this need. For this project to be an economic success for Parramatta, there needs to be a museum that genuinely attracts international visitors for the unique artefacts on display. This could be achieved by focussing on the history of the area, historical indigenous and contemporary art, arts and crafts of the colony and so much more.

I have until now been very happy with how the current Liberal government has steered us through the pandemic and I’ve admired our Premier’s leadership. But I will be truly horrified (and in future opposed to the Liberal government) if my tax dollars go into this project and it turns out to benefit developers of more Sydney apartments or, simply removes this brilliant museum from my local area.

Yours sincerely,
Jo Lockwood

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta proposal. I object strongly to this proposal. I have grown up in this neighbourhood, I have attended church across the road from st George’s Terrace and Willowgrove for many years. Parramatta has a very important part in the history of white settlement in this country. We should be celebrating and maintaining our built heritage because it is important to the culture of not just Parramatta but of NSW. Instead I have watched the beautiful old buildings of Parramatta being bulldozed into the ground and replaced with architecturally bland high rise eyesores. This attitude to our history needs to stop now. Willowgrove must be kept ! Listen to the people if Parramatta! Stop destroying our history!
The proposed site is a known flood plain and the proposed building is not a proper museum space. Find somewhere else to put your building and leave Willowgrove alone!

There are strong objections to this project from the local communities in Ultimo and Parramatta about the destruction of historic sites; from the Arts community that the move is cultural negligence; from visitors throughout Sydney and country NSW who find a location close to Central easier to access than one in Parramatta; from planners who state that the proposed new site is inappropriate due to flooding; from architects and museum designers who state that the proposed building could not house the current collection; from the donors of exhibits who do not want their donations transferred to a building that does not reflect the value of the exhibits; from the business people and accountants who do not see how the project can be financed; from the people throughout the State who would benefit from the money that is to be spent on this project when their communities are still suffering from natural disasters and cultural neglect; from the previous Board who are fearful that this prized collection will be broken up or hidden away in the Castle Hill centre; from the curators who cannot understand how the proposed building is anything more than a shopping centre with a few temporary artefacts; from much of the conservative media and I understand several members of the Coalition - all these people and groups are against the move.
Who is for it - to date - the Premier, the Mayor of Parramatta (but not the people of Parramatta ) Geoff Lee and Barney Glover?
For the cost, the Powerhouse could stay in Ultimo and a new museum appropriate to Parramatta could still be built with funds left over for the regions.
So I ask two questions to which I have not seen a satisfactory answer?
Why destroy an existing institution?
Who really benefits with the Government’s proposed scenario?

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.