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Powerhouse Museum

  • Museums
  • Ultimo
  1. Powerhouse Museum Ultimo
    Photograph: Powerhouse Museum/Katherine Lu
  2. Powerhouse Museum Ultimo
    Photograph: Powerhouse Museum/Zan Wimberley
  3. Three ceramic busts from behind. They are elaborately decorated with landscape paintings, gold leaf and red clay formations
    Photograph: Powerhouse Museum/Zan Wimberley | Image: 'China, China' (installation view), Ah Xian
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Time Out says

This former power station is the home of one of Sydney's most dynamic and beloved museums

Powerhouse Ultimo is a contemporary museum in the heart of Sydney with a focus on arts, science, innovation and design.

Located on the site of the old Ultimo Power Station, the Powerhouse opened as a museum in 1988 and is one of the largest in Australia. Inside you'll find a series of permanent exhibitions, temporary exhibitions, a reconstructed 1930s cinema showing films from that period, a steam-powered locomotive train the 1850s (in the foyer), and the Boulton & Watt steam engine (1785).

The fate of this beloved museum was uncertain for a little while, but in 2020 plans to shut down the Ultimo location in favour of a new Parramatta site were scrapped. While the Parramatta branch is still set to open in 2023, the original museum is getting a 500 million dollar makeover.

The museum is open daily 10am-5pm (except Christmas Day). Entry is free, some visiting exhibitions are ticketed, and no bookings are required.

The Powerhouse is located at 500 Harris St, Ultimo, close to Darling Harbour, Chinatown, Central Station (Sydney Terminal), Broadway bus station (Railway Square), and Exhibition Centre Sydney Light Rail Station.

Written by
Time Out editors

Details

Address:
500 Harris St
Ultimo
Sydney
2007
Price:
Free entry
Opening hours:
Daily 10am-5pm; closed Christmas Day

What’s on

A New Normal

  • Design

We love Sydney, we really do. But that’s not to say that our beloved city isn’t without her flaws. With so many locals and tourists going in and out of the city every day, a lot of resources get used up. Energy, water and other commodities are becoming increasingly precious, so to keep our city functioning the best it can, none other than Sydney institution the Powerhouse Museum is specially re-opening its doors during Vivid Sydney. Yes – you read that correctly! The legendary Ultimo museum closed in February for an extensive three-year renovation period, however the Powerhouse has granted special permission for folks to be allowed back onto the premesis for this fascinating exhibition, dubbed A New Normal, inside the temporary Vivid hub. Led by urban leader, former Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney and Time Out Future Shaper Jess Miller, this intriguing exhibition featuring prototypes, light displays and more concepts will be open to visit every night between 6pm and 10pm, for three weeks from May 24 – and it's totally free to visit.  Architects, designers, developers and tech specialists have banded together to produce an exhibition full of sustainable solutions for the city-slicking lifestyle. More than 20 brilliant concepts will be on display, including a beer made from recycled waste-water in partnership with Heaps Normal called ‘The Last Beer on Earth’; a coat hanger-eating robot; a bio-processor being built on Cockatoo Island to transform the massive amounts of bio waste (a

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