Sydney’s half-hearted heritage tourism reopening

World Heritage listed Hyde Park Park Barracks (1819) in the centre of Sydney, is still only open 4 days each week, 6 months after the reopening of international borders. © Mark Bowyer

Six months after the reopening of international borders, many of Sydney’s heritage and historical museums are still struggling to resume normal opening hours. That puts them out of step with the rest of the country and out of reach for many international travellers.

Sydney opened borders to international tourism back in February. The city has hosted big events like Pride, VIVID and the Writers Festival. Big money is being spent by Destination NSW and Tourism Australia promoting Sydney to the world. There are more major events in the pipeline. But unlike other Australian cities and towns, many of Sydney’s heritage tourism sites are still operating to a limited closed-border era timetable. These restricted opening times mean many of our cultural tourism destinations are out of reach to international travellers and tour operators.

Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney’s main World Heritage Listed convict site opens just 4 days a week. Even with a prime city location, and after a recent $18 million upgrade, it’s open less to tourists than other smaller and more remote World Heritage listed sites around Australia.

Cadman's Cottage, the oldest residence in the centre of Sydney, sits closed and unused right by the harbour at Circular Quay. Not far away in The Rocks, the Susannah Place museum is open just 12 hours per week, in one of Sydney’s most famous historic precincts.

Even the iconic views from the Harbour Bridge's Pylon Lookout are only accessible 12 hours each week. 

Hyde Park Barracks is the only World Heritage Listed site we know in Australia, still operating a COVID lockdown era closed-border timetable - it’s located in Sydney’s tourism heart. © Mark Bowyer

In Parramatta, long Sydney’s heritage poor relation, Elizabeth Farm, the oldest colonial building in Australia and residence of coup-plotter and wool pioneer John Macarthur, opens just two days each week. 

Vaucluse House, the beautiful former residence of another complicated colonial, William Charles Wentworth, opens four days a week.

These small museums are fantastic Sydney assets. They add storytelling substance to the city beyond the glamour of the harbour, beaches, casinos, and major events. But they're effectively off the radar to all but the most highly motivated visitors. Their value to Sydney’s tourism economy is underestimated. They should be enriching the Sydney experience with insights about our history.

Australia’s oldest colonial residence (1793) and home to dubious coup plotting colonial, John Macarthur, only opens 2 days per week in Parramatta. © Mark Bowyer

Vaucluse House The residence of William Charles Wentworth © Mark Bowyer

This is a Sydney problem. 

Lesser heritage sites and small museums I checked are fully operational in other Australian cities and towns. They open six or seven days a week - normal opening times for major historical sites.

The Sydney sites in question are mostly run by Sydney Living Museums (SLM), a NSW state government body formed to operate historic buildings and smaller museums. I asked SLM when normal hours would resume and was told no decision had been made. I couldn’t get a clear answer as to why these assets are not more available to city visitors?

Sydney’s biggest cultural travel destinations, the NSW Art Gallery, the Australian Museum and others, are operating normally. 

It's the important small stuff that's languishing.

So what's Sydney’s problem with promoting and operating small museums and heritage locations? 

Is there a funding issue at Sydney Living Museums? We can only assume so.

National Trust managed Government House in Parramatta the oldest public building in the country, seems to be operating normally. But visiting Sydney’s historical sites is a hit and miss affair.
© Mark Bowyer

There’s no shortage of other investment in Sydney cultural institutions at the moment. The state government is putting $450 million into the Sydney Modern project, an expansion of the NSW Art Gallery. $500 million is going into a controversial renewal of the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo - a museum that was facing closure two years ago. $800 plus million has been earmarked for a massive ill-defined Parramatta Powerhouse Museum. 

That's more than $1.5 billion in the new cultural project pipeline. But the city doesn't seem to have the cash to market and operate the rich cultural assets it already has.

How much could it cost to open these small existing heritage assets to normal hours, enabling their inclusion in international tour plans? What’s the cost to the travel experience from their closure?

The lucrative heritage tourism market doesn’t seem to hold the sway it should in Sydney.

None of this bodes well for the future recurrent funding of the enormous new cultural projects in development. 

These are the observations of an interested outsider returned to Sydney with a long history in cultural tourism and tourism product in South East Asia and Asia. I’m now adding Sydney and Australia to my tourism focus. I'd be delighted to hear from those with an inside perspective (and anyone else).