Powerhouse Museum: Willow Grove Parramatta plan sparks backlash

Details have emerged over plans to relocate a heritage-listed villa in Parramatta to make way for the $767m Powerhouse Museum. But the plans have been labelled a “bogan brain fart” idea and act of vandalism. FIND OUT WHY.

An artist’s impression of Willow Grove when it is relocated.

• Private hospital, five-star hotel for Parramatta
• Powerhouse could be used for shops, cafes

Relocating the heritage-listed Willow Grove to North Parramatta so it can make way for the Powerhouse has been labelled a “bogan brain fart” by “flabbergasted” MP Julia Finn.

The State Government announced plans on Thursday to relocate the 140-year-old heritage listed Willow Grove at Phillip St Parramatta, to North Parramatta to make way for the $767 million museum after years of the community fighting to save the former maternity hospital.

Arts Minister Don Harwin revealed the 1870s villa would “be restored to its former glory’’ at an unconfirmed site at North Parramatta while the neighbouring St George’s Terrace, a row of two-storey terraces built in 1881, would be retained and refurbished.

The elegant Willow Grove was used as a maternity hospital. Picture: Anton Nilsson

“We’ve listened to the community tell us of their connection to Willow Grove,’’ he said.

“With this decision we will deliver vastly improved access to Willow Grove on a better site, and western Sydney gets its long awaited and much deserved first cultural institution.’’

Parramatta state Liberal MP Geoff Lee said the community was excited about the museum.

“It’s a transformational project that will put our city on the global stage as well as providing for over four thousand much needed jobs during this challenging time for our community,’’ he said.

St George's Terrace will be retained and refurbished. Picture: Angelo Velardo

Parramatta Lord Mayor Bob Dwyer, who initially voted to preserve Willow Grove at Phillip St, welcomed the museum as a game-changer for western Sydney.

“Now, more than ever, Parramatta needs investment in arts and cultural infrastructure; it is critical to a city of our size and one that is growing as rapidly as we are,’’ he said.

“The Powerhouse will not only bring more visitors to our region and boost our local economy, but help foster our booming creative sector.’’

Not impressed: Granville MP Julia Finn blasted the Willow Grove plans.

The maligned Powerhouse Parramatta design.

But Granville state Labor MP Ms Finn slammed the relocation, saying it was not a compromise.

“I think it’s ridiculously tacky,’’ she said.

“It’s pretty much a bogan brain fart. It’s not preserving the building, it’s preserving the building’s materials.

“It flies in the face of heritage guidelines. It doesn’t add to the history, it erases it. Even if they do it brick by brick this isn’t preserving the building.

“It’s not a compromise, it’s just vandalism.’’

Along with uproar over the loss of heritage, the project has sparked criticism for being earmarked on flood-prone land on the Parramatta River banks. Moreau Kusunoki and Genton architects’ latticed design has drawn comparisons with a giant milk crate and a “monstrosity on stilts’’.

“It looks like an upturned shopping trolley even than it does a milk crate,’’ Ms Finn said.

Oppositions heritage spokeswoman Kate Washington urged the government to shelve the “ill-considered” relocation plan, which she likened to Lego.

Parramatta’s heritage has taken a battering. The Royal Oak Hotel at Parramatta was demolished in May so the Parramatta Light Rail can carve through it. Picture: John Appleyard

An excavator working at the hotel on May 22. Picture: John Appleyard

“This building and its site have a rich history in Parramatta. The local community wants Willow Grove preserved and promoted, not pulled apart and stuck back together like Frankenstein’s monster,’’ she said.

Ms Washington called for the museum to be built elsewhere instead of uncertainty surrounding Willow Grove’s new location or how much the relocation will cost.

North Parramatta Residents’ Action Group spokeswoman Suzette Meade the relocation was lunacy.

Powerhouse objectors want the museum built elsewhere in Parramatta so Willow Grove can be retained and the museum is not on a flood-prone site.

“Demolishing this 140-year-old privately built Victorian Italianate villa and rebuilding some faux replica beside the sandstone convict-built Parramatta Gaol is utter lunacy,’’ she said.

“The streetscape of Parramatta will lose its last remaining connection with our past – erased by a museum.

“Instead of spending tens of millions moving a cherished piece of Parramatta’s heritage that’s been a part of the social fabric of Phillip St in its garden setting for 140 years, it makes far better sense to move the project that hasn’t even left the drawing board instead.’’

Ms Meade renewed calls to build the museum to the 26 hectare Cumberland Hospital campus at North Parramatta instead.

North Parramatta Residents' Action Group’s Suzette Meade, at the historic Female Factory, has lobbied to support the community’s rich heritage. Picture: John Appleyard

“With a sensitive low-rise museum campus design, it could be incorporated among the incredible indigenous and convict heritage beside the National Heritage listed

Parramatta Female Factory,’’ she said.

“Parramatta Light Rail has a station designed to be inside this precinct which also, doesn’t go under water when it rains.

“Parramatta should not have to choose between keeping its last remnants of heritage and a

museum.”.

Parramatta Labor councillor Pierre Esber condemned Willow Grove’s relocation.

“The ghosts of the past are in there,’’ he said.

“How could you dig up the heritage? Where does this stop?

“The feel and heritage is not there, the smell is not there.’’

The government decided to retain the Powerhouse at Ultimo in July and public feedback overwhelmingly rejected the museum at Parramatta.