North Parramatta Residents Action Group - NPRAG

21/08/2026

21/08/2026

Tune in to 2GB Sydney's live broadcast from Old Government House today between 12 - 3pm.

2GB are celebrating 100 years of broadcast in Sydney.

15/08/2026

The promised family science technology museum opening with an exhibition on the history of shopping centres in Western Sydney.

Is this what they think the history of Parramatta is about - Escalators , shopping trolleys and food halls. Patronising much ?

The long awaited $915 million project will open its doors to the public later this year with a lineup of mostly free exhibitions.

12/08/2026

Ironic isn’t that it’s the Department of planning and Housing that’s got control of a heritage site. Such a shame we don’t have a state MP interested in advocating for this world heritage worthy site to be an extension of Parramatta Park instead of a high density unit suburb.

12/08/2026

Parramatta's rich heritage is at the heart of our City's story.

Council has adopted a new Integrated Heritage Strategy that will guide how Parramatta's stories, landmarks and traditions are preserved, celebrated and shared over the next 10 years.

The strategy includes opportunities to make heritage more accessible through interpretation, events, walking and cycling trails, educational programs and partnerships with the community.

It also forms part of Council's broader Comprehensive Heritage Review Program, a long-term initiative that will help guide future studies into local history, Aboriginal heritage, archaeology, heritage items and heritage conservation areas.

For more information about Parramatta’s Integrated Heritage Strategy, visit https://participate.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/draft-heritage-strategy 👈

06/08/2026

Don’t believe the spin. The story hasn’t changed.

Since 2015, the North Parramatta Residents Action Group (NPRAG) has been fighting to protect the Parramatta North Heritage Precinct.

Sadly, whether it’s a Liberal or Labor Government seems to make little difference. Respect for Parramatta’s nationally and state significant heritage has been consistently lacking.

Don’t believe the spin. The story hasn’t changed.

The Minns Government is promoting this as delivering 20 hectares of open space. But much of that open space already exists today as part of the heritage precinct. Presenting it as a new public benefit ignores the reality that this historic landscape has long been accessible and is central to the significance of the site.

What is new is the proposal to introduce around 2,000 apartments into one of Australia’s most significant heritage precincts. Once this cultural landscape is fundamentally altered, it cannot be restored.

The Minns Government’s actions show that heritage conservation is not being given the priority it deserves. For more than a decade, NPRAG has advocated for a future that respects Parramatta’s extraordinary Aboriginal, colonial and institutional history. That fight continues because our heritage and green space deserves better than political spin it deserves genuine protection.

With the NSW Heritage Minister Penny Sharpe planning to kill off the 1977 Heritage Act and and replace with a more housing focussed Act this government is on fast track to surpass the Askin years.

Paul Scully MP
Steve Kamper
Andrew Charlton MP
Donna Davis MP
Chris Minns
Martin Zaiter
National Trust Australia (NSW)
Australian Institute of Architects, NSW Chapter

33 hectares of the Parramatta North precinct will be transformed into a thriving, mixed-use community adjacent to one of Australia’s most important heritage sites.

31/07/2026

“POWERHOUSE” WASTES MILLIONS IN SELF-PROMOTION

Another week, another example of the Powerhouse's extravagant misuse of taxpayers' money.

Read Linda Morris in the Sydney Morning Herald of 31 July: "Powerhouse commissioned a documentary about its move. It will cost more than $1.7M."
https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/powerhouse-commissioned-a-documentary-about-its-move-it-will-cost-more-than-1-7-million-20260724-p60i81.html

Linda Morris reveals that the Powerhouse commissioned a feature-length documentary from local filmmakers Felix Media in 2021 to chronicle the construction and opening of the $1.2 billion Powerhouse Parramatta—described as "NSW's biggest (and arguably most expensive!) cultural infrastructure project since the Sydney Opera House."

The documentary has an estimated production cost of $2.5M. The Powerhouse expects to receive a Producer Offset—an Australian Government tax incentive for film and television production—of approximately $782,000, reducing the museum's direct contribution to just over $1.7 million.
But the Producer Offset is also funded by taxpayers. It doesn't make the documentary any cheaper—it simply shifts $782,000 of the cost from one government budget to another. Taxpayers are still paying the full $2.5M.

As Morris reports, film industry figures questioned whether the Powerhouse would recover much of its investment through broadcast licensing and were sceptical that the documentary would secure the kind of theatrical release needed to justify such expenditure.

The museum also refused to release ‘contract information”—including, potentially, the production brief—unless the SMH agreed to an embargo until after the building's opening, which it refused. That raises legitimate concerns that the documentary may prove to be another piece of publicly funded promotional material rather than an independent documentary.

The documentary is only the latest addition to the museum's growing communications bill. It comes on top of $3m spent on public relations, marketing and advertising consultancies, including eight short films for placement on a luxury global digital channel, the engagement of London public relations firm Bolton & Quinn, and the budget for the museum's own communications and marketing team.

For comparison, the Australian Design Centre (ADC) ceased operations at the end of June after Create NSW reduced its recurrent funding from approx. $500,000 to $150,000 a year, leaving an annual shortfall of about $350,000.
The contrast clearly indicates everything about the NSW Government's cultural priorities!

As Morris notes, "the expense comes as NSW Treasury has been brought in to scrutinise the operating budget of the new Powerhouse museum", with Treasury executive Cassandra Wilkinson appointed Acting Chief Operating Officer (COO).

“Ms Wilkinson has also been a key Treasury contact on Powerhouse-related matters” John Buckley reminds us in the SMH of 30 July.
https://www.smh.com.au/cbd/kyle-sandilands-takes-his-rolls-royce-to-the-macca-s-drive-thru-20260728-p60j9r.html
How many of these extravagances did she sanction?

31/07/2026

HAVILAHS HISTORY DOCUMENTARY

The Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda hits Parramatta.

$1.7 million govt funding to write Lisa Havilah history of events as her glorious success of the most divisively contentious project that has sucked every cent of cultural funding out of NSW that now Treasury has taken over the project.

A sanitised version of events no doubt meanwhile the government is yet to finance the female factory museum that Museums of History NSW provided a business case for two years ago.

Save the Powerhouse
Sue Higginson
Public Service Association of NSW

The Powerhouse Parramatta said the feature would “document the project for future generations”.

27/07/2026

🏛️ Step inside one of Australia's most significant heritage sites this August.

As part of Parramatta Open on Saturday 29 August, the Parramatta North Cultural Precinct will open its doors, offering rare access not usually available to the public.

Explore the historic site of the former Parramatta Female Factory, including the Female Factory Hospital and Third-Class Penitentiary Building, and discover stories that helped shape NSW’s history.

Hosted by Museums of History NSW, Parramatta Open gives members of the public a rare behind the scenes look into our city's architecture and heritage.

🎟️ Book your ticket to Parramatta Open today: https://ow.ly/PuLV50Zt0NO

Sydney Open

25/07/2026

This has been called out as being a bad business model that will suck cultural funding dry since 2018. Lisa Havilah continues to be allowed to roam free with the tax payers chequebook fanning her ego and providing jobs for her sycophant mates. Labor had the chance to pause this project they protested against with community while in opposition and boot her out. But instead they have turned a blind eye.

Other models were provided that were actually a museum, more modest, that would have turned this space into one that respected the ground it’s on, the river it neighbours and celebrated the cultural and built heritage of Parramatta.

No wonder there is no money left for Female Factory listing and a museum. The Lisa Havilah circus continues to get all the funding.

A snapshot of the museum’s contracts ahead of its opening reveals a flurry of spending on interior design, bespoke wardrobes for studio apartments and its five opening shows.