My wife and I wish to register our strong objection to the relocation of the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta.
The stated cost is already exorbitant and, on the record of this government's projects so far, will undoubtedly be overrun. The move will divorce the museum from its present historical link to Ultimo. It will endanger particularly the very large, rare and precious objects, which can currently be seen in working order at Ultimo. The dispursal of the currently-displayed collection is cultural vandalism, especially since the proposed new museum has a smaller display area.
As with the unforgivable sale of the Land Titles Office, it is purely based on greed, short-term gain and the ideology of privatisation at the expense of commonsense and thought for the future. This action would shame any city in the world.
That Western Sydney is entitled to a great museum is not at issue. It should have a purpose-built institution, which could focus on a separate theme, such as indigenous history, art and culture or the immigrant experience. It should NOT involve the demolition of any heritage-listed buildings, such as Willow Grove, which could be a further attraction for visitors to the area. Building such an institution could be done without the enormous expense of the relocation project, and still provide jobs.

I object to the Parramatta Powerhouse for the following reasons
- The economic EIS states that the Powerhouse in Ultimo is past its usefulness. This is not true because the report states the numbers of visitors have doubled in the last five years and continue to increase. Visitors will continue to increase. It is unlikely there will be 2 million people annually at the Powerhouse Parramatta. The economic modelling based on this assumption is floored and should be redone with a more realistic number.
-The Powerhouse Parramatta cannot house all the heritage items in the powerhouse ultimo. This is a significant loss of culture and a social benefit that cannot be fixed when these items are in storage. These items should be on display.
-It is dangerous to move the items out of the powerhouse into the Parramatta powerhouse due to the size of the buillding, location of the loading dock.
-The Parramatta Powerhouse is located in a flood zone. The risk that this holds to the museum items is too great and the damage would be significant or catastrophic. I object because the risk with suggested mitigation measures is not minimal.

I wish to submit my objection to SSD-10416 Development.

Firstly, its situation. As a regular visitor to Sydney I often enjoy visits to the current Powerhouse but in its new proposed location I will not have time to travel out to Parramatta on the train. In Sydney City I can include a visit to the Powerhouse with other sights and activities across the city. I will not be doing this in Parramatta. If I believed the new Powerhouse would be of equal worth and interest to its current form I would happily make this journey, however from all information gathered I cannot see they are of similar value. In London I enjoy hopping over to the Victoria and Albert Museum, taking in a selected wing for an hour or two. I can also visit it for a blockbuster major exhibition. This is what I want to do in Sydney but will not longer do so if the museum goes to Parramatta.

Secondly, I am very concerned about the removal of heritage buildings at Parramatta for the new museum and I believe buildings such as these are essential to our social fabric, both culturally and visually. Their removal is unacceptable. We cannot get them back. Less heritage buildings will ensure Parramatta will grow to look more anonymous, without a rich story mixed in with our present buildings. A balance needs to be retained between new and old.

Thirdly, the storage of the body of material of the museum away from the display and curatorial team is incongrous with a living and functioning museum. Not only does it make transporting problematic, but creates a serious disjunction between study, conservation and communication. A living and vibrant museum should not be broken up from its storage and should not exist in a stand alone sense. When all together, research, discussion, study, teaching and administration all meld together to create this vibrancy.

Fourthly, I object to the cost required to move and establish the current collection to Parramatta and believe this cost is not justifiable in the current climate. This cost is particularly objectionable as the current museum does not need moving.

Lastly, the original Ultimo site exists on the edge of a fast changing and growing precinct which will only make the Powerhouse in Ultimo even more visited in the future. All NSW residents can see through the State government’s shallow reasoning to move the museum. It is just a short sighted venture for financial gain under the pretext of having a better museum elsewhere.

The artefacts in the existing Powerhouse belong to all of NSW. It is our heritage, our history, our stories. It is more than the sum of its parts and by breaking it up, we all lose.

Yours sincerely,
Elizabeth Stock

I am formally writing to object to this project. It is a travesty that to build this building which is a sham of a ‘museum’ and shouldn’t even be given the title as it doesn’t even meet the requirements of a basic museum and while new it cannot hold even a small percentage of the original archives of the powerhouse in Ultimo, heritage buildings are meant to be knocked down to build it. I cannot believe we a student of history that this could even be contemplated. The powerhouse should not be moved and THAT building, if it did need to be moved, SHOULD NOT be built. If you were too got replace something like the powerhouse which is a perfectly functioning building in itself you cannot replace a museum with something that cannot even support the workers or the archives. A museum is not a hotspot for bars. A museum is a place where history and the growth of humanity can be appreciated and studied. I object to this project as it does not respect anything of what a museum should be.

I object to the project on the grounds that the 1.6bn cost will merely yield a mini museum.
Government receipts on the sale of the land will not meet this cost in the current climate. The net result will be another soulless unit/office block and an entertainment venue for Paramatta which few people want.
The concept was brought about by greed to fill various coffers and snare the swinging voters in Parramatta. Neither of which will be achieved and Sydney loses out as a world class city, again.
Think Darling Harbour which was sold for a song to give jobs for the boys and a poor result.

I strongly object to this project.

LOCATION

I live on the Central Coast and the museum is currently very accessible for us. To move it to Parramatta extends our journey and makes a visit far less practicable. Transport links to the west of Sydney are not as extensive and regular as they are to the City. We would not travel as regularly as we do to see exhibitions if the museum was moved completely to Parramatta. To move to this location excludes regional users such as ourselves.

WESTERN SYDNEY

I am very disappointed that some politicians have used the lack of amenities in Western Sydney as an argument for the move. It is entirely possible and indeed worthwhile for the creation of an additional better designed facility of the Powerhouse to be built in Parramatta (and the Central Coast). The Smithsonian in Washington has, I understand 35 facilities, across the US capital. There are enough artifacts for such a additional facility and this argument is highly spurious.

PARRAMATTA LOCATION

The new location isn't suitable and isn't well designed. The destruction of historic buildings is unforgivable. Parramatta has so much history and we must stop this pattern of destroying our heritage. This is not progress and subsequent generations will wonder why we have treated our historic buildings and sites as irrelevant.

To move the current museum to an unsuitable site and attempt to put it in a configuration that clearly doesn't allow for presenting all the museum's objects is untenable .

The design is poor and is focused on retail and food. It would not be the world class Museum that the current facility provides.

COST

The money could be better spent elsewhere and to better effect.

EXISTING SITE

The existing site has considerable appeal and works well as a Museum site. There has been considerable investment in it. We have gone to many great and unique exhibitions. The facility has been poorly managed under the current government but this should not be an excuse to move it. What will happen to it? Selling to developers will create an unbalanced precinct in the area. We need these amenities in this location.

I OBJECT to the Parramatta Powerhouse Project. The plans show it will be utterly inadequate for displaying works of artistic and historical value. In addition the demolition of heritage building Willow Grove is not justified by the projected economic benefits. It is hard to see how these proosed econoc benefits will materialise. The project will leave Parramatta residents with a gigantic white elephant and still lacking a credible museum.

I object to the Parramatta project. Leading cities of the world protect and cherish their heritage buildings and museums. Why is Sydney not doing the same? What would Sydney be without the Queen Victoria Building, a building which came close to demolition in the 1950s before its value was recognised? Can one imagine London destroying the Tate Modern? The proposed destruction of Willow Grove and St George's Terrace in Parramatta, and the loss of the existing museum site in Ultimo would be acts of cultural and heritage vandalism second to none. The Powerhouse Museum belongs to the people of NSW. It does not belong to the Liberal Government of NSW for the purpose of flogging off the Ultimo site to developers, which is clearly the real intention behind this proposal. The proposal contains so many flaws (an outrageous waste of taxpayer money, poor location on a flood-prone riverbank, the loss of the heritage buildings in both Ultimo and Parramatta, the lack of comparable exhibition space to fit the current exhibition, the risk of damage caused by relocating priceless museum pieces) as to demonstrate its real purpose: the sale of the Ultimo site.

This planning proposal reflects the ideology of a political party which knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

I strongly object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project in its current form.
The proposed Parramatta Powerhouse is in no way suitable to house the current priceless historical and technological objects housed in Ultimo that the people of Sydney, Rural NSW, interstate and overseas have come to love. The current proposal is destructive, poorly conceived, dreadfully expansive and frankly an outrageous act of vandalism and Western Sydney will not be served well by the pretense of a ''museum'' proposed by the NSW Government. Not only that, but the huge expense means that Rural NSW will continue to be deprived of funds badly needed for existing museums.
The proposed destruction of Willow Grove and St Georges Terrace is also thoughtless and destructive. Museums are supposed to preserve our history and growth, not eliminate it.
Please leave the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo, save Willow Grove and St Georges Terrace, build a beautiful museum (properly) in Parramatta and help Rural NSW to preserve their museums as well - you could do all of this with the money you propose to waste on this project as it stands.

I am a retired teacher of History and Economics and am most distressed about the dismantling of the current Powerhouse in Ultimo and partial relocation to Parramatta, with accompanying destruction of heritage buildings there.