Locomotive No. 1 hauled the first passenger train in NSW and was to have been a centrepiece exhibit of the new Parramatta Powerhouse. However,it had been the subject of rising concerns around the cost and logistics of its removal to the new purpose-built museum.
A feasibility study commissioned in March confirmed at least 15 of the museum's largest objects would not fit in the new building's goods lift and it had considered ways to lift the steam train,railway carriages,tram,helicopter and other objects into the riverside museum by way of cranes and a void between exhibition spaces.
Mr Harwin confirmed the flagship exhibits would remain at Ultimo on the first hearing day of an upper house inquiry into management of the Powerhouse Museum. The Berejiklian governmentannounced earlier this month that Ultimo would be spared from sale for commercial and residential towers. It had been due to close next July.
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The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences will now operate museums at Ultimo and Parramatta with the latter to stand as the institution's flagship,specialising in science and technology including robotics and artificial intelligence. The CBD museum would retain a focus on the industrial age,the minister said.
No money has been allocated to renew the Ultimo site,which was estimated in a 2014 business caseto have needed $350 million,funded in part by the sale of the Harwood site for $70 million.
A final business case,likely to be completed by the end of the year at the cost of $5 million,would consider the costs of remodelling Ultimo Powerhouse and the future of the Harwood building.