Parramatta Powerhouse - an inauspicious start to Sydney’s big new museum
Work on Sydney’s controvesial new Powerhouse museum gets under way with the demolition of a late 19th century villa.
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.
Check out the video on Rusty Compass.
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
Hobart's MONA Museum takes a stand on mandatory vaccination
David Walsh from MONA in Hobart has taken the lead in mandating vaccination at the popular museum.
MONA Hobart, leading the way on staff vaccination @ Mark Bowyer Thinking Travel
In the absence of government leadership on mandatory vaccination for the tourism and hospitality industries, David Walsh, maverick founder of Hobart's incredible MONA museum, has taken a stand, dabbled in a persuasive piece of philosophy, and mandated vaccination for staff.
In a memo, since shared on the MONA blog, Walsh reminds his staff that mandates and constraints on freedom for the public good, are everywhere. And that mandatory vaccination is no different.
Walsh’s arguments are refreshingly clear and straightforward and they’re resonating with a battered travel industry anxious about vaccine hesitancy among staff and looking for precedents for mandating vaccination.
He leads his piece with a quote from dissident author Alexander Solzhenitsyn "A society with unlimited rights is incapable of standing to adversity."
The memo goes on to say, "What happens when we want to undertake a journey, but a government-mandated intervention delays it, because, they say, it serves the greater good? Is that an infringement on our rights?
I’m talking about traffic lights. Today, while taking the kids to school, I had to wait for a total of six minutes while cars went somewhere else."
And concludes, "A few staff might think we are trampling on their rights, but the one right they think we are restricting doesn’t exist. Our staff don’t have the right to trample on the rights of their colleagues."
MONA’s David Walsh is leading the vaccination conversation @ Mark Bowyer Thinking Travel
Australia has been dancing around the issue of mandatory vaccination for workers and customers. Some countries have openly embraced vaccine passports - making life more straightforward for business.
With COVID outbreaks in Sydney and Melbourne continuing to grow, there isn't a day when the Prime Minister and state premiers don’t implore Australians to get vaccinated. The word “mandate” is the problem. The PM, who has deftly perfected the art of vacating thorny pandemic questions, from quarantine to vaccine procurement, has now expressed a reluctance to make a call on government cover for companies mandating vaccination.
This is especially difficult for tourism and hospitality businesses - the smaller the business, the bigger the issues with legal implications. What is the local cafe supposed to do?
It’s easier for the big guys and first to buy in was Qantas, announcing that vaccination would be mandated for staff and passengers. Qantas followed up with its beautiful Fly Away ad.
Qantas Fly Away vaccination ad
Other major businesses in travel and tourism have bought in with decisions to mandate vaccination.
Running one of the coolest tourism venues in Australia gives Walsh special authority.
As vaccination rates rise, and the day of a national opening draws nearer, the mandate questions (and vaccination passports) will become more pressing. Walsh has taken us a little step closer but a lack of clarity for small business remains.