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.

Mark Griffiths
171 Alt Street
Haberfield 2045
Phone: 0418 621 920
Email:
[email protected]

Date: 30 June 2020

Re the proposed translocation of the Powerhouse Museum to Parramatta


Dear Sir/Madame

I wish to protest most strongly against the NSW Government’s plan to close the Powerhouse Museum at Ultimo.

The Powerhouse Museum is a magnificent example of the re-purposing of a heritage listed building. Being part of the industrial heritage of NSW it is ideally suited both in structure and its historical significance to be the home of a museum of our state’s technological history.

There has been a shameful lack of consultation around the move of the museum to a site at Parramatta that is questionable both because of flood safety and the need to destroy historic buildings. I grew up in the Parramatta area and I strongly support the idea of a cultural/museum project for the district. However I cannot imagine a less appropriate plan than the one being proposed.

The scant information made available about this plan would indicate that the current museum’s collection will be scattered with experts even indicating that some of the collection will not survive. The proposed facility at Parramatta does not even appear to be a replacement for the Powerhouse but more of a cultural/convention centre. This is cultural vandalism. It shows an extraordinary lack of respect for the culture and history of both NSW and Australia. Museum experts and historians are being ignored and it is completely unclear why the State Government is pressing ahead with this patently flawed plan. Surveys also indicate that there is little public support for the plan although many people feel as I do, that a new cultural centre at Parramatta is a worthy idea and should be promoted.

It has been claimed in the media that the motive behind the move from the Ultimo site, is the value of the real estate. Personally, in view of the lack of information from Government justifying the move, I suspect this could be true. What a sad statement about the current Government and their respect for our history.

I visited the Powerhouse Museum this week and it was a distressing experience to feel that I was seeing the last of a great institution and its collections. It is not too late to change course and I believe the current government would be admired for listening to the community and having a change of mind.

Leave the Powerhouse Museum where it is and give the people of Western Sydney something they can use and be proud of, including a world standard technological museum in Sydney at the Powerhouse.

Yours sincerely

Mark Griffiths