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).

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.