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.

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

Read more about Parramatta history and heritage here. Read more over at Rusty Compass here.

Australia’s tourism industry faces a fractured post-lockdown outlook

© Mark Bowyer - Sydney’s COVID crisis is deepening - Australia’s borders are hardening

Australian tourism businesses may face fragmented borders as the COVID crisis moves towards its second anniversary and tensions rise between COVID-zero States, NSW and the Commonwealth.

As the COVID pandemic charges towards its grim second anniversary, and tourism tentatively reopens in many parts of the world, the outlook for most of Australia's tourism industry is uncertain.

Australia’s federation is fragmenting. Contrast Western Australia and New South Wales. Business is booming in zero-COVID and quick-to-lockdown WA. Tourism businesses are being smashed in slow-to-lockdown New South Wales as we head in to the 9th week of lockdown, with soaring case numbers and tightening restrictions.

Check our video on Australia’s complicated tourism future.

There is a real risk that New South Wales’ policy failure will take down New Zealand, Victoria and the ACT. Other states will battle to keep the Delta variant at bay as the New South Wales outbreak spreads.

The long nightmare of tourism businesses - especially those focused on international markets, drags on.

The Prime Minister is pushing states to agree to the plan to open when vaccination rates reach 80% nationally. Western Australia and others say the situation in New South Wales may change previous commitments.

Last week, WA Premier Mark McGowan, announced the harshest restrictions of the entire pandemic on travellers from New South Wales. It will likely be a long time before normal travel resumes between these states.

The impact of COVID in four of Australia's six states has been wildly different to the impact in New South Wales and Victoria - our two biggest states.

Some tourism businesses in the zero-COVID states, especially WA, have enjoyed record turnover.

The Project gives some deeper background

Western Australian Museum - gonna be a while before Perth’s new museum sees big crowds from Sydney. © Mark Bowyer

New South Wales and Victoria have been less fortunate. Victoria's prospects of containing its NSW-inspired outbreak are looking doubtful.

Meanwhile, New South Wales has surrendered to the idea that COVID will not be eliminated. Premier Berejiklian, with the support of the Prime Minister and Treasurer, seems to be demanding other states follow her dubious lead. This will put other states in a tricky position.

Mark McGowan is not leaving much doubt about the direction he will take WA. When New South Wales feels ready to open up, WA (assuming it's still Delta-free) will be balancing the upside of opening against the lost lives, sickness, hospital strain and economic harm an opening will entail - even with high rates of vaccination. WA's large and vulnerable Indigenous population will further complicate McGowan's decision. Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia will end up juggling similar issues.

It's possible to conceive of a scenario where residents of COVID-normalised NSW (and possibly Victoria) are closed out of zero-COVID states for a protracted period.

Should New South Wales surrender to the current outbreak when vaccination targets are met, and relax restrictions, it may be positioned to tentatively open to some other COVID normalised countries (and states if there are any), while zero-COVID states remain closed to the world and NSW.

It’s a nightmare scenario for the tourism industry - a secession in reverse where NSW (and possibly Victoria thanks to NSW) is isolated from the rest of the Commonwealth.

It’s too early to speculate on that divided scenario. But tensions between zero-COVID premiers, the PM and Gladys Berejiklian are growing.

The New South Wales Premier, who, along with the PM, owns this carnage, insists that there is no such thing as zero COVID. That may be true in a global sense. But the evidence is in. States or countries that can hold the line against COVID until vaccination rates are high and treatments improve, will be saving lives and economies. The longer you hold out, the better the health of your people and your economy.

China has again reminded us of this as it looks to have vanquished a recent Delta outbreak across multiple cities.

Until the recent New South Wales debacle, all Australian states accepted this idea. There are thousands of Australians alive today because the first COVID wave in 2020 was contained.

The NSW outbreak has claimed more than 70 lives to date, will leave thousands with “long COVID” and is causing terrible stress in the hospital system. The delayed lockdown is having wider impacts on community health and well-being.

The experience around the world confirms that high vaccination rates significantly reduce death and serious illness. But vaccination does not stop transmission, deaths and illness - especially among the unvaccinated. COVID will still be a killer when Australia belatedly achieves its vaccination targets. The UK has a high vaccination rate and is still recording more than 100 deaths per day.

© Mark Bowyer New South Wales opted out of an unofficial lockdown orthodoxy adopted by other states. Now borders are hardening.

With most of his economy firing on all cylinders, and few days lost to lockdown since the start of the pandemic, WA's Mark McGowan won't be easily persuaded by team Berjiklian and Morrison that he should risk opening up his state to COVID.

Tourism businesses, especially those in long-suffering NSW and Victoria, will need to think about a complicated situation across the country - no matter how successful NSW and Victoria are in reversing the current crisis.

Australia may even be divided between COVID and zero-COVID bubbles - domestically and internationally.

Our sluggish vaccination rollout means that we are able to learn from a world that is well ahead of us in dealing with post-vaccination COVID issues. If the coming weeks bring good news from abroad in jurisdictions with high vaccination rates, our zero-COVID states may be more ready to open up.

Otherwise the tourism industry may face the nightmare of a nation fragmented well in to 2022.

Parramatta - Australia’s great heritage tourism failure

Parramatta was at the centre of the development of the British penal colony of New South Wales from its beginnings in 1788. Right now it’s at the centre of a property development boom that includes the controversial $800 million Powerhouse Museum project. Despite the bucketloads of cash pouring into Parramatta, the rich heritage tourism opportunities of Sydney's second CBD have never been properly recognised or realised.

A few years ago I was working on a heritage tourism project about Parramatta in Sydney's western suburbs and I asked the concierge at a local international hotel if there were any local historical sites I should visit? She politely advised that there was nothing of historical interest in Parramatta but The Rocks in the city was a great place for history and heritage seekers.

A few days later, I asked one of the staff in the tourism information centre in The Rocks whether there was anything to see in Parramatta. I got the same answer. In The Rocks, I was told, I had Sydney's history at my fingertips. No reason to travel to Parramatta.

These answers were unsurprising. There's a good chance this is what most Sydney residents would say - including a good many Parramatta residents.

When Australians think convict history and heritage, they think The Rocks, Hyde Park Barracks, Port Arthur, Macquarie Harbour, Fremantle Western Australia and other destinations. The international tourism industry thinks the same way.

All of these places have built tourism visitation and a tourism economy around their heritage sites.

Parramatta rarely makes the cut.

Yet Parramatta is equally significant, and has equal or better heritage assets.

Most Australians are unaware of Parramatta’s penal colony history and the remnants of that time, and even less so, Parramatta’s important role in the frontier wars as the British took their colony deeper into First Nations territory.

Missed opportunity - part of the Female Factory precinct © Mark Bowyer

One of Australia’s most impressive heritage sites lies unknown in Parramatta - The Female Factory © Mark Bowyer

Parramatta's failure to establish its deserved position as a heritage tourism destination has many causes. But as record amounts of money flood into the booming city, a fresh and focused effort needs to be made to ensure that heritage opportunities are a fixture in Parramatta's future.

I've visited and photographed all of Parramatta's major heritage properties many times. They include Old Government House, the oldest standing public building in Australia, and Elizabeth Farm, the oldest standing residential dwelling in Australia and the former residence of the Macarthur family.

They’re the best known destinations in Parramatta, well managed and well presented. But I’ve seen few indications that they receive the visitor numbers they should - during or before the pandemic.

Old Government House Parramatta © Mark Bowyer

The Macarthur Family residence, Elizabeth Farm, Parramatta © Mark Bowyer

Recently I've taken an interest in two Parramatta heritage locations that are begging for proper recognition - St John's Cemetery (1790) and the Female Factory (1821).

They should be among Australia's best known convict history sites. But they're virtually unknown. In any other place in Australia they'd be well managed and resourced heritage tourism destinations. But not in Parramatta.

St John's Cemetery is the oldest European Cemetery in Australia (1790), home to the oldest original European grave (1791). It’s the resting place of more than 50 First Fleeters, and other notable figures in the early penal colony. But it's neglected, and doesn't even have the most token signage and presentation, to match its obvious significance (the bit of paper hanging from the noticeboard doesn’t count). It's no different to any abandoned, neglected cemetery anywhere in Australia. But this place is important. And most Australians know nothing of it.

St John’s Cemetery Parramatta - a picture of heritage neglect. ©Mark Bowyer

The oldest original European grave on Australian soil - you’d never know…. St John’s Cemetery Parramatta. ©Mark Bowyer

The lost opportunity at the Female Factory precinct in North Parramatta is more serious. This is the largest and oldest female convict site in Australia with many original structures. What makes this site different is its potential to become a multi-use landmark in Sydney - events, exhibitions, markets - a real community heritage asset. Yet it remains neglected, undeveloped and mostly unknown. It is one of the most impressive and wasted heritage sites in Australia.

The neglect of the Female Factory is a major economic loss to Parramatta and New South Wales.

In Hobart, a later, less significant Female Factory, has few structures on the site. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage listed convict site and a major tourism destination in the city.

Hobart created a World Heritage site out of a lesser remnant. Cascades Female Factory. © Mark Bowyer

Why not Parramatta?

The new Parramatta metro will link the Female Factory site to Parramatta station and the public transport network - a perfect opportunity to finally bring this site and its stories to the world.

Parramatta's heritage assets have long been undervalued and lacking a coherent management and tourism strategy. The creative development of The Female Factory precinct as a community and tourism site would create an anchor heritage destination that would bring benefit all of Parramatta. This should be a priority.

There’s been enough excitement about shiny skyscrapers in Parramatta and enough built. It’s time to put some serious energy into community spaces and Parramatta’s long unrealised tourism potential.

The State Government seems hellbent on its curious $800 million Powerhouse Museum plans. The Female Factory should take precedence.

Too much tech - a visit to Sydney’s upgraded Hyde Park Barracks museum

Sydney's Hyde Park Barracks (1819) is one of the city's most important heritage buildings. In 2019, the World Heritage listed former convict barracks closed for an $18 million bicentennial renovation. It’s open again and we recently headed back for a look at the upgrade.

World Heritage listed Hyde Park Barracks in the heart of Sydney, is a striking piece of early 19th century architecture connecting with the city's early convict past, women in the colony across the 19th century, and the dispossession of the city’s indigenous people.

I've visited Hyde Park Barracks numerous times in the past and was excited to see what $18 million would look like as an investment in a museum upgrade - especially in one of Sydney's most precious heritage assets.

Sydney Living Museums, the people who run Hyde Park Barracks and other historical sites across Sydney, brought in exhibition and media designer, Local Projects, to design the new experience. The New York based firm was commissioned to bring "contemporary interpretative techniques, immersive installations and unconventional interactive elements."

Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Sydney

Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Sydney - superb original features.

I came away from my recent visit a tad underwhelmed by the upgrade.

At the heart of the new “experience” is a high-tech audio guide that tracks you through the museum. Sensors detect your movement and automatically trigger audio presentations in each location.

The first rule of fancy tech is that it must work. In my case, the audio presentation kept jumping from one exhibit to another if I took a step back or forward. And the devices, that looked like iPhones, had no manual controls. So I couldn't manually return to a particular segment in a presentation, or repeat something of special interest. It felt a little too clever and not as functional or flexible as I would like. I mentioned this to staff as I left and their reaction seemed to indicate that other visitors had encountered the same issues.

Had the technology worked smoothly, I would still have been frustrated by the rigidity of the experience. There are almost no written words in the museum. This was a design decision of big consequence. Visitors follow a course set by the audio guide and the visual experience - minus text.

Author and Sydney historian Ian Hoskins told me, "The first thing that struck me was the absence of text, whether in the form of interpretative panels or object labels. With little or no context the objects - tools, clothing, clay pipes - become props in a narrated 'experience' rather than centrepieces in themselves."

The best museum experiences allow for both superficial skimming and deep dives, depending on the interests of the visitor. Museums can't hope to be able to adequately cover the range of visitor expectations from school groups to educated history buffs, in a single narrative. But that's what the new barracks fitout seems to be attempting.

Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Sydney

Nothing in my decades of visiting museums across the world has convinced me that it is time to remove text from the museum experience. While I don't doubt that the appetite for text may be decreasing in many traveller segments, I still see museum visitors of all ages devouring text panels. Text enables museums to broaden their outreach to different traveller interests.

I'm reminded of a developing world museum that recounts a traumatic story, the Tuol Sleng genocide museum in Phnom Penh. Tuol Sleng operates on a modest budget, but the core buildings and displays are impactful. It's not uncommon at Tuol Sleng to see tourists of all ages engaging for long periods with text-intensive panels. My experience is that when the story is compelling, there will be an appetite for text and depth. Text provides a better means of retention of information - assuming that is a priority. Like Hyde Park Barracks, Tuol Sleng is a deeply atmospheric setting that provokes engagement. Unlike Hyde Park Barracks, a lot less than $18 million was spent on creating the visitor experience.

Reading panels of text - Tuol Sleng Museum, Phnom Penh

Reading panels of text - Tuol Sleng Museum, Phnom Penh

The languages of Australia’s key international tourism markets are overlooked in the audio tour as well, negating the obvious advantage that audio tours provide for multilingual presentation. How can Australia in 2020 be producing big-budget museum upgrades that are not multilingual? (Sydney Living Museums advises that a Mandarin version of the audio tour is in the pipeline).

The thematic emphasis taken in the new presentations - convict life, indigenous dispossession and women, all work well. The presentations are fine too - as far as they go. The display installations in some rooms felt heavy handed and unaware of the untreated quality of Hyde Park Barracks as a setting.

I don't want to be too negative. I enjoyed my visit and love the Hyde Park Barracks structure and setting. The $18 million price tag created an expectation that I felt went unmet. I recommend you check out Hyde Park Barracks for yourself. Tickets are $24 with a discount for residents of New South Wales.