Powerhouse Parramatta opens this weekend

The project’s history has been controversial since it was announced in 2014. A vocal group of dissenters led by former staff and trustees has lamented what they see as the neglect of the museum’s Ultimo site and what they say is a shift away from its core business towards contemporary art and events. The $915 million price tag has also come under scrutiny, culminating in a New South Wales Treasury investigation into allegations over the museum’s governance and procurement practices.

Designed by Moreau Kusunoki and Genton, the building’s steel exoskeleton allows column-free exhibition spaces up to 18 metres in height. The interiors have abundant natural light and walls covered in pale render made from 600,000 crushed oyster shells, creating a sense of calm that contrasts with the dizzying spectacles on display.

The flagship exhibition, Task Eternal, explores humanity's compulsion to ascend. Its structure includes a zigzagging tower inspired by science fiction author Ted Chiang's short story Tower of Babylon. It features Leonardo da Vinci sketches, a bumarang (boomerang) collected in Parramatta in the early 19th century, an Apollo command module testing model, and a spacesuit worn by Leonard Nimoy. A James Turrell light installation sits at the top of the tower. Adults pay $30 for entry ($20 concession), while children under 16 attend free.

The Dark, a children's exhibition, is set inside a replica meteorite more than 22 metres long. No photographs are allowed, and visitors must bag their smartphones before entering. Visitors navigate glowing chambers lined with more than 800 objects, including the museum's first collected item, an 1882 jar of peas, alongside a shirt worn by Leonardo DiCaprio in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet.

For a quieter moment, Overflow presents a 16-metre LED screen showing films by director Ivan Sen, highlighting seven Indigenous organisations that care for water and country. A shallow pool responds to the tides of the Parramatta River. British designer Es Devlin makes her Australian debut with works including a giant mirror maze and Collective Portrait, which places strangers on opposite sides of a 24-metre table to silently draw one another.

The building's location on a flood plain was itself a controversy. Beau James, director of First Nations for the Powerhouse, said: “That river has always ebbed and flowed, that's its natural way of moving. We wanted to honour water.” As part of the commission, the museum invested in proposals from the organisations featured in Sen's films, including clearing invasive carp from the Barwon River and tagging marine life in Gamay.