Parramatta Powerhouse - an inauspicious start to Sydney’s big new museum
Parramatta heritage and breathing space destroyed for a new museum. Willow Grove before the demolition got under way. ©Mark Bowyer
Late in August, the commencement of the demolition of a quaint 1870s heritage building, Willow Grove, marked the ignominious beginning of the controversial Powerhouse Parramatta museum project. The state government hails the $800 million project as the biggest cultural investment since the Opera House. It has quite a job ahead to win over a sceptical community.
Willow Grove, an Italianate villa, has occupied a modest patch of Parramatta turf, not far off the Parramatta River, for at least 130 years. In late August, the dismantling of the charming heritage building commenced. The demolition marks the first serious construction work on the controversial $800million Powerhouse Parramatta project.
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Willow Grove’s demolition comes after years of protest by local community groups. They oppose both the demolition of the villa and the planned new museum. At one point, a sign was left on the front fence of Willow Grove that read, “museums should not destroy heritage.” It’s a sentiment that most advocates of cultural institutions would relate to.
An inauspicious start to a museum project - big crowds gathered at Willow Grove (shrouded in funereal black) in May to protest its demolition. Protestors were locked down when the demolition work began. ©Mark Bowyer
The Powerhouse Parramatta project was conceived in 2015 to provide cover for a property deal that would have seen the development of the site of the original Powerhouse, on prime real estate in Ultimo. A clever fix was concocted that would relocate the museum to culture-starved Parramatta, Sydney's second CBD and a major population centre. Willow Grove would need to go too.
Another public campaign was organised to save the Ultimo museum. The government faced a battle on two fronts.
In 2020, the government backed down on the closure of the Powerhouse in Ultimo - the original basis for the project. Somehow it was decided that the Parramatta project and the Willow Grove demolition would proceed anyway.
Sydney would end up with two Powerhouse museums, the original, in a superb old tram powerhouse, and a new unpopular Powerhouse on the Parramatta River. Hundreds of millions of extra dollars were provided to smooth the way for the changed plan.
How grafting a museum ageing badly in Ultimo onto the shores of the Parramatta River will suddenly transform Sydney’s west has not been explained? There has not been a case made as to why two Powerhouse museums will somehow be better than one?
Nor was a coherent case ever made for the original idea.
Money seems to pose no constraint in COVID-struck Sydney. A combined budget of $1.4billion has been allocated to the rejuvenation of the original Powerhouse in Ultimo and the creation of the new Parramatta Powerhouse.
That such a flimsily argued project could attract $1.4 billion of public money during the COVID crisis is breathtaking.
Parramatta has the heritage goods to underwrite unique museums and cultural spaces - that truly could transform Sydney’s west. The Powerhouse, oblivious to Parramatta's heritage, is not the right project.
Australia’s oldest public is among Parramatta heritage assets in need of a landmark institution with a Parramatta connection. ©Mark Bowyer Rusty Compass
The Female Factory site - Australia’s least-known heritage landmark, should be the location for Parramatta’s transformational cultural institution. Property developers may have other ideas. ©Mark Bowyer Rusty Compass