Powerhouse Parramatta opening LIVE updates: Sydney’s new $915m cultural institution opens doors to the world

A few people have told us they’re being turned away from entry because they didn’t purchase a ticket. Here’s the situation:

• Entry to the Powerhouse just for today and tomorrow has been by ballot – free, but registration required.
• From Monday, entry will be open to everyone.
• So how do you get in today if you don’t have a ticket? The only way right now is to buy a ticket for Task Eternal, the only paid exhibit at the museum, which grants you access to that exhibit and the rest of the venue.
• Tickets for Task Eternal can be purchased online or at the door. They cost $30 for adults, and kids under 16 are free. You’ll need to pay an extra $10 if you want to access James Turrell’s Shangri La (Over the Hump) space within that exhibition.

How is your experience going? Get in touch below:

At a press conference happening now, Premier Chris Minns is acknowledging his party’s early opposition to the project when it was announced by the Liberals more than decade ago.

Then-NSW Liberal premier Mike Baird first announced an election commitment to move the Powerhouse to western Sydney in 2015.

Here’s what Minns just told reporters:

I think it’s important that I acknowledge that at different points over the last few years, when we were in opposition, we were skeptical about this project. We wanted a cultural institution in western Sydney, but we did criticise this project.

We were wrong. This is fantastic. This is going to be great for western Sydney. It’s going to be great for NSW.

I want to give credit to the previous government and, in particular, former premier Mike Baird for pushing this project through. We’re very grateful that he took the time to make this happen. I invited him here today, but he’s a modest person, and he no doubt had something else on.

But we want to give them recognition, and [rcognise] I guess cross-government continuity for a project that was difficult to get up and running. But it’s a great thing for Sydney.

The Powerhouse Parramatta is open! Hordes of people are now streaming in and people seem pretty excited that they didn’t have to wait too long. One person says “I liked that queue, that was a good queue” as they walk by.

Right at the front of that line were Stuart and Helen McIntyre, who recently moved to Parramatta.

“We’ve watched the Powerhouse grow and all the work that’s been done all along the foreshore, and I think it’s an exciting time for Parramatta,” Stuart said. “It’s really changing, we’ve been really impressed with the changes.”

Standing nearby are Esther and Luis Ponce De Leon, who are here to take a look before they bring any of their eight grandchildren to visit.

“We always went to the Ultimo Powerhouse and we live in Blacktown so it’s a lot closer now … and we can’t wait to bring our family,” Esther said. “It’s extremely exciting, and the building looks so big from here. We can’t wait to see what the kids will see and touch.”

Arts Minister John Graham has just acknowledged the suspended chief executive of the Powerhouse, Lisa Havilah, for her efforts in getting the museum opened.

“I want to thank and recognise Lisa Havilah for her vision and her contribution to this project,” he says. The hundreds of staff at the Powerhouse have cheered.

Havilah was stood down by the government just 72 days before the Powerhouse’s opening, over a series of governance allegations.

Children from Menindee Central School joined the premier as they cut a red ribbon.

Premier Chris Minns has officially opened the Powerhouse.

“Washington has the Smithsonian, London has the British Museum, but Parramatta has the Powerhouse,” he says. “It’s my great honour to officially declare the Parramatta Powerhouse Museum open for business.

“By any measure, this has been a massive couple of weeks for western Sydney. A new metro, a new airport, and now this brand new Powerhouse Museum. Wherever you look, things are happening. And the really good news about this museum is it’s 100 per cent free.”

The Powerhouse’s official opening ceremony with a ribbon cutting and press conference is underway now. Watch live:

The former head chef of Aria, Simon Sandall, has 150 staff including waiters and chefs on deck staffing its on-site museum restaurant, Simara, coffee shop, Folded, its level three The Green Bar, and a mobile cart.

“We are expecting a tsunami. It’s going to be a fun day,” he says. “My mission is to go back to good old-fashioned hospitality, a smile on the face and a big welcome. Hospitality got a little bit lost over the last few years. I want to bring warmth.”

Simara is offering a wood-fire grill, cooked over redgum wood. In line with the green theme, its Green Bar, part of the Level 3 bespoke cinema, is offering green toffee apples and green popcorn with a dill pickle flavour and soft-serve ice-cream, and at the cafe a monster jaffle filled with spaghetti and cheese for the kids.

“I was at Aria for the controversies at Circular Quay … that whole Toaster building is now iconic and the Powerhouse will be an icon,100 per cent.”

Banners declaring the Powerhouse Parramatta “not a museum” and “Vale Willow Grove” have been hung over the riverbank opposite the Powerhouse to protest the loss of Willow Grove, a rare example of a riverside 19th-century villa, which was demolished in 2021 despite protests and marches.

Suzette Meade, one of the lead organisers against the Powerhouse, said she wasn’t surprised to see the banners go up.

“Five years after the demolition of Willow Grove, the community’s blood still boils over this project. The NSW government underestimated the damage it caused, the disrespect it showed and how deeply it disenfranchised the people of Parramatta. We will never forget.”

Remnant parts of the villa have since been used for restoration of another heritage building on the Parramatta River. A seven-metre tall bronze sculpture, created by British Indian artist Bharti Kher, now stands where Willow Grove stood.

The museum is open today from 10am to 5pm, and most of the venue is free to enter without a ticket. You do need a ticket for some parts of the opening festival and one special exhibit, though: Task Eternal, a large exhibit on the history of humanity’s attempts to fly. Powerhouse staff tell us they’re expecting a few queues.

Once the opening festival is over, the museum’s hours have been confirmed to be 10am to 5pm Monday to Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. The museum’s only late-night opening will be Fridays, operating from 10am to 9pm.

The museum’s original business case – and the plan championed by its now-suspended chief executive Lisa Havilah – envisioned Powerhouse Parramatta operating seven days a week from 9am to 9pm. These extended hours were considered central to driving western Sydney’s nightlife and reaching the museum’s ambitious target of 2 million annual visitors. However, they impose a cost for staff and security and present a logistical challenge with the interaction of public exhibition visitors and attendees of private events. Bringing the museum into line with other cultural institutions was one of several measures contemplated by NSW Treasury to rein in the museum’s operational model. It’s hard not to conclude that it’s another hammer blow to Havilah’s vision.