Historic Willow Grove will be ‘faithfully reassembled,’ promises arts minister

But Mr Harwin promised the rebuild, saying, “That’s the approval I’ve got, it’s going to be done.”

Loading

The rebuilt Willow Grove would be “faithfully reassembled and it will be in better condition than it is now and will be available for the people of Parramatta to use,” Mr Harwin said.

“We will consult them on where they want it and how they want to use it – and that will be a damn sight better than the way it was given to us by Parramatta council, which didn’t seem to care at the time.”

Preliminary work started on site this morning, with the removal of some of the community messages of support for Willow Grove ahead of the erection of hoarding.

Mr Shoebridge countered that Willow Grove was going to be “destroyed and a faux heritage item is going to be built at an indeterminate place at some point in the future”.

Loading

Powerhouse’s president Peter Collins said he didn’t attach particular significance to the historic building, a former maternity hospital, but acknowledged there was a legitimate emotional attachment that had primarily emerged since the project was first publicised. Willow Grove had been scarred by its location next to a car park and unsympathetic additions.

The hearing also disclosed that none of the $75 million that is to be raised from private donors for the Parramatta Powerhouse has yet been “banked”, though Mr Harwin said excellent progress had been made in identifying potential donors.

More than $25 million had been spent in consultant fees on the project since 2017.

Mr Harwin was unable to say how much the rebuild of Willow Grove would cost but it would come from the existing $840 million government commitment for the Parramatta Powerhouse.

There were lots of possible sites for the relocated Willow Grove, including those held by government and the local Aboriginal Land Council.

“You have permission to destroy it, but no requirement to rebuild it and you couldn’t have a planning approval to rebuild it because you don’t know where you want to bloody rebuild it in the first place,” Mr Shoebridge said at the inquiry.

Meanwhile, the final business case for renovations of the Ultimo museum was complete and was to be presented to State Cabinet shortly.

Under questioning, Simon Draper, the chief executive of Infrastructure NSW, expressed confidence that all concerns regarding flooding had been properly dealt with. The conditions of consent require a flood damages assessment of the museum’s collections prior to occupancy, a standard feature for all projects of this type.