Powerhouse Parramatta

I object ....

I object to the Powerhouse displacing Willow Grove. It is a heritage building. We have few left. It might not be important to some people but it is to any Australian that has roots in Parramatta and Granville. It is part of our story just like our dna. It needs to stay.

Erasing historical buildings and lands is akin to wiping out our Australian identity.

Kind regards
Susan

I object ....

The National Trust and its heritage architects have condemned the proposal to relocate this 140 year old Villa. Nothing would survive and it’s social history significance lost once removed from where it was built.

It must stay where it was built - it's a pivotal part of it's significant status in Sydney's history

Developers in AU are sadly more than prepared to decimate AU history so that they can increase the investment dollars - if they want to work on a history site, then work around it, it is what it is and Australian's are sick and tired of these greedy developers who buy an off the shelf company, build and go bankrupt and don't give a crap about what they have destroyed - as they have made their money ....

Regards,

Lisa Calder

I have never heard of such a stupid and vile proposition. This Liberal-National (LCP) Government is totally under the influence of Big Business, to the utter detriment of the people of NSW...and here is another example of greed triumphing over common sense and culture, and Heritage!!
For the peoples’ sake, and the sake of what little heritage we have left after the vile rampage of the LCP, do NOT muck about with Willow Groves. Leave it alone, preserve it and keep some tiny modicum of our past heritage for the future. God Almighty, we have so little of the grand past remaining!!!
Yours,
David M Pyett BSc., Dip Laws., Master Mariner, Legal Practitioner,

Keeping Willow Grove will provide a welcome linkway between the Parramatta CBC and the river. Any future building near it needs to respect its heritage and be built around it celebrating its heritage.
Parramatta needs to retain all the heritage items it can if it is to be an attractive City for people to visit and live.
By all means provide a museum for Western Sydney but not at the expense of Willow Grove and St George’s Terraces. The history and heritage they provide are important for the Australian way of life and culture to survive.
Thanking you for your consideration of this objection. Please help to make Sydney a great place in which to live once again.
Regards
Margaret McCartney

I object in the strongest possible terms to the environmentally insensitive building planned to house the Powerhouse Museum on the bank of the Parramatta River. Not only is the building ugly and totally inappropriate to the site but its very construction would defeat its purpose. Surely the point of a museum is to showcase items and sites of cultural and historical significance but this building is premised on the destruction of two buildings of major cultural and historical relevance to the Parramatta region, namely Willow Grove and St George's Terrace. The latest plan to relocate Willow Grove Is further evidence of the Berejiklian Government's total contempt for local heritage as it's removal and rebuilding on another site is problematic in so many ways, not just in terms of the inevitable damage which would be caused to the structure but it would also strip the building of its link to the events which occurred throughout its history on the Phillip Street site. And all this to provide a soulless edifice which appears unfit for purpose.

I urge you to reconsider this action and to instead plan for a museum of historical, social and indigenous significance at North Parramatta where many buildings of undeniable historical consequence, including The Female Factory, have been allowed to decay over years of government neglect. The protection of these structures could be achieved by repurposing them to house a truly meaningful museum both for the people of Parramatta and to visitors to this most historic area.

David Drury,

I object to the demolition of Willow Grove, its plain vandalism of our national heritage and should be stopped.

Hello

I am somewhat gobsmacked to think that a replica could replace an original - we should be beyond building disneylands nowadays. If gladys wishes to destroy National Trust items then what can we mere mortals do?

I object to the demolition of a National Trust item. Ordinary mortals are denied such & I'm at a loss to believe governments should have such powers. It makes a mockery of the scheme to protect an essence of our history.

Thank you

Les C

To whom it may concern
I object to any alterations to the historic Willow Grove Precinct. The entire area should be heritage listed to ensure it is safe from developers and unscrupulous lobbyists who seem to have such clout with NSW Liberals. It would be a tourist and cultural attraction in its own right and could house many items currently in storage. There is no need to bulldoze culture to make way for culture - unless the reality is somewhat different and the Powerhouse relocation is , as everyone suspects, simply a route to more high rise appartments.
Yours sincerely
Emma Langford

Hello Marcus

I know you are fielding the emails as we discussed before, regarding Willow Grove could you please ask those in power, WOULD THEY DIG UP THEIR MOTHERS GRAVE AND RELOCATE HER, In other words leave the area alone and the Women's factory and Jail area and use Camellia, its needs developing, they could use water access, light rail and close to the races, make it a social precinct, Merry Christmas

Regards
Terry Simms

I'm just writing to express my utter dismay and disappointment at hearing of the demolition of Willow Grove. My ancestor helped build this amazing piece of history, and I cannot believe that it is held with such little regard by those in high places.

I implore you to reconsider, and keep this stunning building as a protected piece of our local history, my family history.

Looking forward to your positive response,


Kind Regards,

Lisa-Maree Evans

I very strongly object to the destruction (including dismantling - which is the same thing) of the Heritage listed Willow Grove in Parramatta.
Parramatta holds an abundance of Australian heritage, much of which has already been destroyed & it needs to stop!
All the loopholes in the law that have allowed the government & their developer friends to use to their advantage must be closed!

Liz Watson

To whom it may concern,

I would like to register my objection to the destruction / relocation of Willow Grove.

It is vital that this building remains in its current location as it is a direct link to the history of Parramatta and greater Sydney
In an age of the "disposable" where nothing is built to last this building represents more than just its function. It speaks to a far greater story of a time when workmanship, quality, pride and community were prized attributes, things in short supply today.

This building does not only represent and speak of the lives of those who passed through its doors as important as those stories are but it also speaks to us of a wider representation of the society that built it when things were made to last. It's an example that speaks of the quality of the people and compassion of the community that built it. The retelling of the story of those people and the stories of the people who lived and worked there will be told through our connection to the building and the connection that binds them together and compleats the story is the very ground it stands on. It was there that those events took place and nowhere else.

Governments don't just have a responsibility to build for the future it's far more complicated than that. Governments have a profound responsibility to save our past for the future they seek to build. You must not destroy one for the other or you diminish both.

Regards,

Phil Wilkinson

Dear Mr Jennejohn and Minister Stokes,

I just became aware of the deadline for submissions for today so please accept this late submission to ask that Willow Grove be saved in situ.

Parramatta is special largely because of its heritage. When I go to Parramatta I am delighted and amazed by this heritage and the beautiful river and so proud that we have retained it. But we are losing heritage places like a death by a thousand cuts.

If you demolish Willow Grove, you will destroy part of Parramatta's character and we will never be able to get that back again.

Lots of people who are silent care about Willow Grove and places like it. I was nearly one of these people. Take me to represent many others who are silent. Take each of us who have written to represent many others who are silent.

We need to show our understanding of place and what makes place special as well as appealing to residents and visitors. Incorporate Willow Grove into the design of the new museum. Do not throw it in the bin.

Yours sincerely,
Belinda Bennett

Dear Marcus,
I object to the construction of any museum that will destroy the Willow Grove and possibly St George’s Terrace. This will destroy some of the dwindling heritage buildings left in the area for an unnecessary museum that has no connection to Parramatta at all.
Why on earth is this ridiculous scheme being pursued?
The results of the EIS have been in for months now. The outcome was an overwhelming rejection of the flawed scheme. Something like 95% of correspondence rejecting the ill-considered Powerhouse replacement museum on the banks of the Parramatta River.
This museum was shrouded in secrecy until Mason-Cox MP requested a funding report into its details. This information showed that the proposal was sadly inadequate. The bright sparks in parliament who have got their grubby hands all over this fiasco dreamt up new ways of meeting their funding.
Two 50 storied towers and a Planetarium to go on top. This brought the cost of the museum to $1.5 billon, since then a scaled down version has been proposed at $780 million with half the bits and pieces of the original shelved.
The whole reason this plot was instigated initially was because the Ultimo Powerhouse museum was going to be destroyed under a Mike Baird plan to ingratiate his developer chums with a prime development site in town.
Supposedly the plan to save the Ultimo site was announced by Don Harwin and Domonic Perrotett a couple of months ago. If that is the case, why pursue a plan for which there is no longer a purpose let alone a scaled down version.
To use the sort of language bandied about by parliamentarians when it suits them. “This is not fit for purpose”, there is no longer a purpose as the reason for it being built no longer exists.
Everything that I have written here is well known to you and I am quite confident that you realise what a farce the whole exercise is.
I know that you have to do your job, dot the iiis and cross the ttts but at the end of the day if you are in a position to exert any influence, try and make sure that this shambles is finally buried.
Yours Faithfully,
Finbar O’Donoghue

Dear Mr Jennejohn
Please don't demolish Willow Grove. What is beautiful shouldn't be destroyed or moved. It cannot be replaced. I see other areas that are preserved for the benefit of both residents and visitors. If I look at what has been preserved or enhanced in Glebe, Balmain, the city and other places which are testament to our history, then I am concerned for Parramatta and its heritage. Parramatta is the second oldest settlement in Australia and has a varied history.
Please preserve Willow Grove.
Kind regards
Yvonne Moloney

HI Marcus,

I am a resident of Parramatta for the last three years and love to live in an area with so much significance in NSW and Australian history.

The building Willow grove is a lovely Victorian heritage building and in my opinion , should be preserved at the very spot it is right now .

Do consider my plea and that of many others and prevent its removal,

I come from a historic city ( Kolkata ) with a rich Victorian history and would love to see it preserved

Regards,
Avishek Banerjee

Hi Marcus

I am born and bred Parramatta local, along with previous generations of my family.

The proposal for the removal of Willow Grove is one of the ghastliest ideas I have ever heard. This beautiful building must be saved and celebrated as an important part of our heritage.

The state of NSW has made far too many incorrect decisions in removing historical buildings over the years, and there is no need to add one more to the incredibly long list.

I beg of you to exercise some common sense and preserve the things that are important to us.

Thank you for your time.

Best regards,
Dave DeBrincat

Dear Sir

I add my voice to the many people of Parramatta who know, understand and appreciate the history and heritage of the Parramatta area. It is a sad indictment the NSW Government that they have so little appreciation of the real history of our area that they are prepared to demolish Willow Grove and the St George terraces in Phillip St in favour of a carpark and an inferior substitute for the Powerhouse museum in Ultimo. Many reasons, good research and alternative and better propositions have been continually given to your department and others to show how undesirable your proposal is. I shall not repeat them here.
Suffice to say I am completely against the removal of Willow Grove from its present position. I am continually disturbed by the appalling excuse for ‘development’ being foisted on Parramatta to the detriment of what could have been a sensitive and respectful acknowledgement of the unique history of Parramatta. No tourists would want to come to see more high-rise boring buildings. They would however come had we had the vision to offer something special and unique about the history here. For example, a real centre and museum to show the First Nations presence of 50,000 years and more, the colonial history, the history of migration and the multicultural history as well as the present situation could have been a world-class centre of excellence situated in the historic North Parramatta precinct. That would be something to be proud of and would generate great appreciation for Parramatta’s history internationally.

I sincerely hope it is not too late for decision-makers to listen to the people who want something better rather than giving in to vested interests whose motives seem more about profits
than our history.


Your sincerely

Margaret Hinchey
Parramatta resident.

Dear Marcus

I would like to raise my objection to the proposed relocating of Wiilow Grove in Parramatta.
Such a move would diminish much of its character, and would remove it from its environment of 150 years.
It should certainly stay in Phillip St, where it has been an important part of the social history of that precinct.
Such a relocation would not at all be respectful of Willow Grove's important role in women's (and general) history of Parramatta.

Yours Sincerely
Mark Marusic