The Mayor of Sydney will head a rally to protest the proposed closure of the design and technology museum.

In February the NSW Government announced its intention to sell the current Powerhouse Museum building in Pyrmont to relocate the museum to Parramatta in the western suburbs. It is estimated that the sale will raise around $200 million, with the site earmarked for redevelopment as apartment buildings.

While advocates of the proposed move have trumpeted the cultural and economical benefits of moving the museum to Parramatta, where nearly a third of the entire state’s residents live, a protest movement has been gaining momentum in recent months in its efforts to prevent the sale of the design and technology museum, spearheaded by Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore. Moore will address members of the protests movement at a rally taking place tomorrow in Sydney’s Ultimo. In a statement on the Mayor’s website Moore said, “The Powerhouse Museum is a vital part of Sydney’s heritage, history and culture. To sell it off is nothing more than a cash-grab and a gift to developers.”

Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore

Far from hoping to deprive the Western suburbs of a new museum, Moore hopes that a second site for the museum could work in tandem with the current Powerhouse Museum. “The Powerhouse where it stands opened to the public in March 1988 and the growth of its collection is such that there are about 50,000 items in storage at Castle Hill. Those items could well form the core of a “Powerhouse West” at Parramatta if the reason for selling the site truly was to do something for western Sydney,” Moore said.

The Mayor’s statement continued, “I have written to Premier Baird and Arts Minister Troy Grant asking that the government support the Museum’s own 2020 strategic plan which consider its Ultimo location, close to the CBD, as “vital” to their success.” The rally will take place on the corner of Harris and MacArthur Streets in Ultimo, at 2:45pm on Saturday 30 May. Other speakers due to address the rally include Tanya Plibersek, Federal Member for Sydney and deputy opposition leader, Alex Greenwich, MLA Sydney, Jamie Parker, MLA Balmain, feminist Eva Cox and Pyrmont Ultimo Business Chamber President Lawrence Gibbons