I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta Project.

I have not made any reportable donations to any political party.

I think the State Government's thinking on heritage is very old-fashioned, ... they seem to think people want Everywhere to look like Singapore or Shanghai.

I think there is a long-term financial and social benefit in keeping character and sense of place. The idea of destroying the little history Australia has in order to look ultra-modern seems absurd when Australia has space enough available, and future tourism will surely be more attracted to historical uniqueness than the everywhere-look of the Dubais and Shanghais of the future.

I find the way Windsor and Parramatta are being maltreated and destroyed in terms of heritage and history alarming, showing an utter disrespect for history.

If this destruction were being done to honour Aboriginal heritage it might make some sort of absurd sense, but even Aboriginal heritage is being ploughed under to build a Brave New World of tinsel toy modernism and highways that Jane Jacob was quite correcting railing against some fifty years ago.

I do not think that destroying character and soul of place is a good investment long-term. A museum should be keeping and preserving rather than destroying heritage.

I OBJECT to the Powerhouse Parramatta Project.

The loss of another historical building in Parramatta, and greater Sydney, is a loss for our community and for our children and descendents.

All my life I have enjoyed the sight of Willow Grove, its elegance and the peaceful expanse of its grounds.

Please allow the ultra new Parramatta that is emerging to comingle with the old historical Paramatta, and allow its residents to experience and appreciate their heritage as well as their futures.

I have not made any reportable political donations.

I object to the destruction of historic buildings for the Powerhouse Parramatta Project

Our city of Sydney is the birthplace of our country with Parramatta being the second city in the colony. The built history is therefore critical to the nation. The buildings are among the earliest in the country and show the development of the architecture and help define our history over the relatively short period of European settlement. For example, other great cities of the world (London, Paris etc.) display the history and growth of their culture and buildings. Unless we preserve this heritage it will be lost for ever with the history existing only in photographs and paintings.

Providing a museum in the western part of the city is a necessary and worthy objective, but our history does not just exist in one building. The buildings listed for destruction to accommodate the proposed new powerhouse museum are among the few original buildings remaining in our community. They are important to our history and form an important link with our colonial past; by removing these, future generations will be denied this.

WillowGrove and the nearby terrace houses together are among the few buildings of their type and need to be preserved to retain the character of Parramatta. Since WillowGrove was constructed it has had various uses which have not affected its original character – from residence to hospital and as an engineering office among others. I was an engineer attached to the Divisional Office located in the building. The beauty of the buildings and the grounds were a contrast to the encroaching high rise and a favourite lunch-time reprise.

It is crucial that a CBD, as Parramatta certainly is, does not solely exist as a group of modern high-rise glass and concrete structures, green space and historic buildings provide not only a contrast but a place of remembering the past. Progress does not require our history to be torn down it must incorporate the beauty of the past.

The museum must be seen as an adjunct to the Powerhouse. There is a huge store of artefacts that are currently in storage. These deserve to be displayed and a site in the west of the city will be a popular and valued asset. The present site in Ultimo is part of the cultural assets of the city and deserves its present place within the city where many visitors both local and international can appreciate the building and contents.

I need to declare that I am a concerned individual simply seeking to preserve our heritage. I am not a member of any pressure group or political party.

I strongly object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project on the grounds of heritage loss and do not want Willow Grove and St Georges Terrace demolished for this project.

I believe the Powerhouse museum should not be built in a flood zone.

I am writing to express my strong objection to the plan to demolish the historic buildings of Willowgrove and St Georges Terrace at Parramatta and relocate the Powerhouse Museum to this site.

My family has a long historic association with the Parramatta area. My great-great-great-great grandmother Charlotte Waring lived and worked as a governess for the Hannibal Macarthur family from 1827, while my father Dr Kevin Humphrey ran a veterinary surgery in Parramatta for many years.

As an author of historical novels for young people, I believe it is vital for Australia to conserve our important historical buildings and architecture, and celebrate our unique history.

I object to the proposed development because:

• These rare historic buildings in Parramatta should be preserved for future generations to enjoy and to appreciate our rich social and cultural history.
• Destroying these heritage buildings will further change the historic character and architecture of Parramatta.
• The development is a huge waste of taxpayers’ money. The Powerhouse Museum should be left where it is.
• If the Museum must be moved, then the there is an alternative location at the Fleet Street Heritage Precinct in North Parramatta.

I have not made any political donations.

Thank you for your consideration.

' I OBJECT TO THE POWERHOUSE PARRAMATTA' ....

Why move a museum that is already functional in Sydney.

Do not destroy an historical building - Willow grove and St Georges Terraces.Too many of our beautiful old buildings are disappearing. Become a government that NSW can look back on and say - 'what a great Government ' they did not make mindless decisions and waste the tax payers money.

Tourists who visit Sydney - stay in the city - they are not going to get on a train to come and visit a Museum in Parramatta. All the tourist attractions are in Sydney - leave them there..

Listen to the people, 95% of the people think money is being wasted relocating the Powerhouse Museum. Build a Swimming pool and leisure centre for Parramatta.

NSW is not in a great place financially due the COVID 19, do not waste money on projects the people do not need. If this government wants to stay in power, they need to listen to the people who vote and can give them another term.

Myself - I like to visit the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, as a family we make a day of it, Spend time in Darling Harbour and visit the Powerhouse and the Maritime museums. I have no interest in travelling to Parramatta, I live in Penrith - we get on a train and into the city.

Let the Voters decide, listen to the people of NSW.

I OBJECT TO THE POWERHOUSE PARRAMATTA PROJECT
For the following reasons:
1. The Heritage value of Willowgrove and St Georges’ Terraces is immense and thus the buildings are irreplaceable.
They are rare examples of architecture that no longer exists in the Parramatta CBD. It will result in the loss of sense of place and character of Parramatta.
2. It is not the Museum that Parramatta should have, and not the one promised. It looks as if it will be a flexible commercial events space with a residential floor.
14,000 people signed a petition in just under one week calling on the Premier to protect Willowgrove and St Georges’ Terraces; along with the National Trust of
Australia (NSW) and the Historic House Association.
3. A clear lack of any consultation with western Sydney communities about what cultural precinct and museum was suitable or wanted.
For half the estimated $1.5 Billion costs, Parramatta could have a purpose built museum relating to the cultural aspects of Western Sydney.
4. In 2017 Parramatta City Council developed a cultural plan which was the result of extensive consultation with the local community. It identified very clear
objectives which have been ignored. The current proposal is therefore inappropriate and needs to be urgently reviewed and preferably cancelled.
Save the existing Ultimo Museum in its entirety as there are enough artifacts stored at the Museum’s Castle Hill Storage site to create several museums and therefore an excellent museum at a more appropriate site in Parramatta which should include the saved Willow Grove house and St Georges Terraces as part of a historical precinct.

I object to the Powerhouse Parramatta project in the strongest possible terms for both personal and professional reasons. I am not an Aboriginal man but I am a Parramatta man. I was born in 1947 in 'Willow Grove' when it was the Aloha Maternity Hospital. My late father was a pharmacist in Parramatta for more than 40 years. I spent the first 28 years of my life living in Hunter Street, in the heart of Parramatta and I have maintained a strong connection to the city all my life. It is my country and its cultural heritage must be respected and conserved for all those who, like me, love Parramatta and wish to see its sense of place retained, not destroyed for a totally ill-conceived, invalid and misguided project.

In my youth and in my adult professional life, I have witnessed the destruction of much of Parramatta’s built and cultural landscape heritage, including the alienation of large parts of the former Governor’s Domain for sectional interests and the demolition or degradation of much of the city’s colonial heritage, often for ill-planned and very mediocre new development.

I started my museum career in the Botany Department of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences and have postgraduate qualifications in Museum Studies. I went on to become Specialist (Environment & Landscape), Heritage & Conservation Branch, NSW Department of Environment and Planning, then Manager (Policy and Research), Tourism Commission of NSW, Assistant Director (Community Relations), Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, and finally, Acting Director, The Earth Exchange (formerly the Geological and Mining Museum) before going into private practice as a heritage practitioner. I have multi-faceted experience in a wide range of museum and heritage-related areas. My professional practice has been involved in many museum and interpretive projects including award-winning exhibitions, displays and publications relating to places of State heritage significance in New South Wales. I place great value on museum collections and on professional curatorship and well-planned and realised exhibitions and displays that can entertain and educate museum visitors and enrich their lives. It is my understanding that many former staff, including previous members of the senior management team of The Powerhouse and many highly regarded museum and architecture professionals here and overseas are similarly opposed to Powerhouse Parramatta and the threats the proposed relocation would pose to the collection and its professional curatorship and research potential.

The proposed Powerhouse Parramatta will be just a shadow of the present museum in Ultimo, with much less useful display area and too many spaces and facilities not directly related to the serious curatorship and collection research for which the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences has been renowned for well over a century. New South Wales and Parramatta don't need 'Powerhouse Lite' or 'Carriageworks West'. They need The Powerhouse to stay where it is and to receive the Government support it so richly deserves.

A number of major museums overseas have established annexes or satellite museums in other centres, but not at the expense of their much-loved parent institutions. London’s Victoria and Albert Museum has an international design centre annexe in Dundee, Scotland. The Louvre in Paris has a branch at Lens in the Nord-Pas de Calais Region of France and a major satellite museum in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The latter museum includes material from thirteen French public cultural institutions. New York’s famous Guggenheim Museum, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, has its satellite museum, designed by architect Frank Gehry, at Bilbao, in the Basque Region of Spain. London's Tate Museum moved its modern art to Tate Modern in a former power station across the Thames but still in central London, not to somewhere like Heathrow, which would be an equivalent distance from London as Paramatta is from Sydney CBD. They didn't abandon their historic Tate Britain at Millbank near St Paul's Cathedral.

By all means, establish a world-class cultural institution at Parramatta, possibly drawing on the vast and under-displayed collections of The Powerhouse, the Australian Museum, the Art Gallery of NSW and other institutions but don’t move The Powerhouse from its Sulman architectural award-winning building in Ultimo where it is a vital part of the State capital’s cultural hub. Better still, why not give Parramatta and Sydney’s Western Suburbs a museum devoted to their own rich culture, their proud Aboriginal heritage, their European colonial past and their present multicultural life. There are many redundant Government-owned buildings in the Parramatta North Historic Sites precinct which should be adapted for sympathetic new purposes, including museum uses.

In the aftermath of the recent disastrous bushfires which burned an area of NSW the size of Wales, many regional communities are struggling, with a devastated tourism industry, and some people who lost their homes are still living in tents, cars and caravans. With the economically crippling addition of the COVID-19 pandemic, a natural disaster of unknown duration, I believe it would not only be financially irresponsible but also immoral for the NSW Government to spend an enormous sum from what will be greatly reduced public funds on a project which many in the community believe is driven by the Government's wish to sell off much of the present Powerhouse site for its development potential. Other, equally valid reasons for not moving the Powerhouse are the flood-prone site, requiring extra expenditure to reduce the flood risk, and the undeniably huge costs and risks of moving the museum's internationally significant collection, especially the Boulton and Watt steam engine, Locomotive No.1 and rolling stock and the Catalina flying boat. The impacts of the Powerhouse Parramatta project on Parramatta's sense of place and on the social significance of the proposed site have also not been adequately addressed in the Environmental Impact Statement.

I demand the NSW Government save 'Willow Grove' and 'St Georges Terrace' and have the political courage to admit that the relocation of the Powerhouse to Parramatta is a giant mistake which can no longer be justified on any grounds. The project must be removed immediately from the Government's development program which instead should be focussed on helping those fire, drought and COVID-19 affected communities most in need rather than on trashing a much-loved Sydney institution.

Chris Betteridge BSc (Sydney), MSc (Museum Studies) (Leicester), AMA (London), M.ICOMOS

Please don't waste at least one billion dollars on this project. Parramatta doesn't need it. Travel to Parramatta from other parts of Sydney is much more complicated than travel to Central, location of the current Powerhouse, and will deter people from visiting it.

I do not agree with this proposal. The Powerhouse Museum is a Sydney icon and should be left where it is. There are plenty of other programs we could use the money on. On top of that, the proposed site has a lot going for it and we do not want an out-of-place new building in this area. I do not believe tourists will come to Parramatta to see the Powerhouse. If left where it is in that wonderful historical area, it will attract more local and overseas visitors. There is too much destruction of the past for too little gain. Please leave the Powerhouse Museum where it is.