Premier Gladys Berejiklian rejects questions about Parramatta’s heritage
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian deflected questions about saving a heritage-listed Parramatta building despite talking to students about the suburb’s rich history.
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NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian deflected questions about saving a heritage-listed Parramatta building despite talking to students about the suburb’s rich history.
Ms Berejiklian was visiting Parramatta Public School yesterday when she spoke briefly about Parramatta’s past while the students stood near cellars which had been preserved from a historic cottage.
“Parramatta’s one of the oldest parts of NSW where people settled,’’ she said.
Before that, while on a tour of the new three-storey school, Parramatta state Liberal MP Geoff Lee pointed out a view of the 201-year-old Lancer Barracks and Museum.
The buildings are Australia’s oldest continuously used military barracks and where British regiments were stationed in convict days.
But the irony was lost on the premier when the Parramatta Advertiser asked about the future of heritage-listed Willow Grove and whether the government would consider building the Powerhouse Museum around the 1870s-built former maternity hospital.
“Why don’t you send something to my office,’’ she said, noting she was only fielding questions about the school.
Parramatta’s landmarks have taken a battering under the Liberal Government, which will also demolish the 197-year-old Royal Oak Hotel at Parramatta to make way for the light rail.
The Valvoline Raceway at Clyde will also be compulsorily acquired to make way for a Sydney Metro West stabling yard and the popular Parramatta Pools were razed to make way for Bankwest Stadium.
After Ms Berejiklian left the school, Mr Lee defended his party’s actions to demolish Willow Grove for the Powerhouse.
“It is disappointing but at the end of the day we’re going to have a world-class museum,’’ he said.
“The two things that will promote Parramatta are the light rail and the Powerhouse Museum.’’
He said the government had invested in North Parramatta’s Fleet Street heritage precinct.