Country Always

Caring for Country

A Corner of the Empire

The Garden Palace

The Holding Pen

The Agricultural Hall

Regional Networks

Across New South Wales

A Museum of Doing

Technological Museum

Expanding Stories

Evolution of the Castle Hill site from botanical research station to Museum Discovery Centre

Transforming the Tramsheds

Powerhouse Stage 1 and the Harwood Building

A Symbol in Time

Sydney Observatory

Ongoing Transformations

Powerhouse Ultimo

Applied Arts and Sciences

Defining the terms in the 21st century

Powerhouse Renewal

A transformative renewal program across four sites

We Rise

Blak Powerhouse

Powerhouse-1 Mission Launch to the ISS

An initiative of the Powerhouse: Future Space program

2024

Exoskeleton

Powerhouse Parramatta

Powerhouse Parramatta Topping Out

Major construction milestone achieved for the new museum

1883

Stories

The Holding Pen

The Agricultural Hall

‘The Colonial Secretary has caused that portion of the Agricultural Hall which is not occupied by the authorities of the Sydney Infirmary to be handed over to the Committee for the purposes of the Technological Museum’

J H Maiden

Beginning Again

After the 1882 fire, the museum’s first Curator, Joseph Henry Maiden, throws himself into securing accommodation for a new museum, and establishing a new collection.

Sepia photograph of a crowed museum display with furnaces to the left and glass cabinets to the right

As Jack Lehane Willis reflects: ‘the Museum at the end of 1882 had virtually ceased to exist and Maiden perceived clearly that the collections which he would now have to go out and actively seek would have to be those which would serve the purpose of instructing people such as tradesmen, engineers, architects, who had no other source of such information to turn to in New South Wales. If, at the same time, attention could be drawn to the abundance of raw materials of all kinds available in the Colony and, by research into these materials, show how they could be utilised, then Maiden considered the Museum would be performing its proper function.’

Black and white photograph of the Agricultural Hall builidng site from above

When the Technological, Industrial and Sanitary Museum opens to the public for the first time – on 15 December 1883 – it holds approximately 5,000 objects. The Agricultural Hall is a wooden, metal and glass structure built as temporary display space for latest agricultural equipment during the Sydney International Exhibition.