Some call it a worthwhile price for progress. For others, it’s the ultimate indignity.
“One of the worst policy stuff-ups in NSW history,” says 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
Even the National Trust and North Parramatta Residents Action Group, fierce defenders of Parramatta’s heritage, have washed their hands.
How on earth did Willow Grove, late 19th Century-era Italianate villa, maternity hospital and one of our city’s most splendid buildings, come to be chopped up and placed in a storage facility in Wetherill Park?
More than a year since a massive community rally to save the building, the dilapidated St George’s Terraces are all that remain by the Parramatta River.
Preparatory works for the Powerhouse Parramatta are underway on a site that has been sodden for much of the year.
Yet in a bittersweet concession to the spirited public campaign, the state government has committed to relocate and repurpose Willow Grove.
Its recent budget contains $7 million towards “Willow Grove Deconstruction and St Georges Terrace Works”, though further details remain vague.
Through agency Create NSW, a Community Reference Group led by private consultants Aurecon began meeting late last year.
Credibility was damaged when the National Trust withdrew in April, saying the building could not be “authentically reconstructed” based on the level of detail preserved.
Nonetheless, a wide range of stakeholders remain engaged, including representatives of Western Sydney University, Parramatta Chamber of Commerce, the Westmead Institute for Medical Research, major trade unions and the Deerubbin Local Aboriginal Land Council.
Recent minutes show committee members are assembling a long list of site options. Key criteria include river proximity and placement in a “high profile public space” to drive foot traffic.
The future use case remains unclear, although Peter Collins, President of the Powerhouse Museum, has floated the idea of a women’s shelter.
It all has the feel of a zombie process, however well-intentioned the participants. A bit like attempting to exhume a corpse that has been stabbed, shot and run over backwards.
The tragedy is it didn’t need to happen, and taxpayers would have been spared, if the government had kept to its stated intention to save Willow Grove as part of the Powerhouse design.
Hardly beyond the wit of a talented architect.
Yet this is where we are today.
The passion once mobilised to save Willow Grove got lost in the swirling fog of COVID; up against the reality the building has gone. Meanwhile, the government still has a commitment it needs to be held to account to deliver.
Who knows, faced with concerted political and media pressure, a reconstructed Willow Grove could yet be more than a tacky replica and do some good.
For their part, heritage groups have opted out of a process they view as fundamentally flawed. Suzette Meade, Secretary of North Parramatta Residents Action Group, told me the focus needed to shift to upcoming battles.
They include preventing a state-sponsored spot rezoning to allow St John’s Cathedral to erect two towers in the heart of the Parramatta CBD.
These would be up to 10 times taller than current height limits on Australia’s oldest continuing church site.
Securing UNESCO World Heritage Listing of the Female Factory is also high on the list. This will require energetic advocacy by the newly elected Albanese Government, given the state owns the land.
The National Trust has even suggested that the funds reserved for Willow Grove would be better spent restoring Parramatta’s Roxy Theatre to its former glory.
Next Thursday July 28, it will hold a free community forum “Reimagining Parramatta” that seeks to point the way forward.
We’re an exciting new city on the rise. Yet clarity and vision are needed more than ever to strike the right balance between heritage, liveability and growth.
Alan is a journalist and communications specialist. He writes a weekly column for Parra News.