Content warning: this story contains discussion of colonial violence and other themes that may be distressing to First Peoples of Australia.
The New South Wales Government announced in 2015 it planned to relocate the Powerhouse Museum to Western Sydney. The backlash and controversy snowballed and stirred community members against the government’s plans.
Not long after the NSW Government announced the relocation, it went public with its plan to develop a site on Phillip St in Parramatta’s Central Business District. The government didn’t have its eye on any ordinary plot of land. It planned to develop a lot located next to the Parramatta River. The land houses two heritage buildings from the late 1800s: an Italianate villa, Willow Grove, and St George’s Terrace.
Willow Grove and the land it is built on hold significant value to the Dharug people and other community members for personal, historical, cultural, and environmental reasons. This significance drove Western and Greater Sydney residents from diverse backgrounds and organisations to collaborate after the announcement. Together, they fought for the next four years to preserve the two buildings and the land itself.
The fight for Willow Grove
At the centre of the movement against the NSW Government and private developers, organisations like the North Parramatta Residents Action Group (NPRAG) and the Dharug Strategic Management Group (DSMG) took the fight into their own hands.
Suzette Meade, NPRAG Secretary, said that her and the action group became involved because the community was being ignored. In 2016, when the government announced the development, NPRAG formed an alliance with the campaign group Save the Powerhouse.
“I really threw myself into this. In the last two years, it became a full-time job for me, which is probably the success of the campaign because I worked on it full-time. On the phone eight hours a day, going to Upper House inquiries, meeting members of parliament, meeting unions, meeting like-minded communities and heritage organisations,” Meade said.
Councillor Donna Davis was elected to Parramatta City Council in 2017. She started work on the campaign when the community became increasingly concerned for the future of the site and its buildings. Like Suzette Meade, Clr Davis dedicated much of her time and energy to the campaign.
“The way it happened was that it was very organic. Like for anything to succeed, you have to have people that are committed and at the core. Really for the entire period Suzette and I have been that core,” the councillor said.
“I was really worried. So were a lot of people in the community about what [the development] would mean for Willow Grove, but we felt confident that given it was a government development, given the significance of Willow Grove, its age, that of St George’s Terrace as well, we felt that we would be able to save the building and it would become a part of that whole redevelopment of that site.”
“We had a Valentine’s Day event, and we painted all these timber hearts and people would come and write their name on it and tie the heart on the fence,” Meade said.
When the first COVID-19 NSW lockdown started one month later, campaigners took their actions online. After restrictions eased, a group of artists, knitters, and community ‘love bombed’ Willow Grove and St George’s Terrace, decorating the site as well as cleaning it.
Alec Zammitt helped organise the event with his culture and community-focused group Craze Collective.
“We spoke with a few other local artists and if they weren’t already aware of what was happening there, we showed them the information and let them know the state of affairs that the buildings were in at the time,” he said.
The NSW Branch of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) joined the campaign and in June 2020, it placed a green ban on Willow Grove and St George’s Terrace. The CFMEU created the petition, Support the Green Ban on Parramatta Heritage Sites, which gained 5,722 signatories.
“These Green Bans [sic] mean no work can be done to destroy these historically significant sites,” CFMEU NSW Secretary Darren Greenfield said in a public statement announcing the union’s intervention.
“If the Berejiklian government wants work on the museum to proceed they need to sit down with the local community, listen to what they say and come up with a plan that preserves these buildings.
“The local community, through the North Parramatta Residents Action Group, has campaigned for years to save these two heritage buildings and they are supported by the National Trust of Australia (NSW) and the Historic Houses Association.”
Once the CFMEU placed a green ban on the site in 2020, tensions increased over the next year between organisers and the NSW Government. In 2021, NPRAG initiated legal action to save the land and heritage buildings.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t go to the Supreme Court [in person] because of COVID-19 restrictions,” Meade said.
On 24 August, the CFMEU lifted its green ban after maintaining it for two months in lockdown. The union’s decision came off the back of mounting pressure within the construction industry for a return to work.
“For it to stop without a climax feels like it’s unfinished business.” Meade said.
On 11 October, Clr Davis posted a video to her Facebook page. In the video, construction fencing and scaffolding obscures the view of Willow Grove. Clr Davis’ caption read: “This is Willow Grove packed up on crates ready to be trucked off to storage.” At the time the post was published, the NSW Government had not made a public proposal or undertaken any serious consultation to relocate and build their promised replica.
Public comments from community members on the post expressed disapproval, with some suggesting the museum’s design could have incorporated the heritage site. Clr Davis wrote in the caption: “Parramatta Powerhouse has been redesigned for flooding [and] to include St George’s Terrace, but the NSW Govt. refused to incorporate Willow Grove.”
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