Chief executive Lisa Havilah said the Powerhouse had been responsible for the engine since it arrived from London by ship in 1888.
She said it was exhibited at the museum’s former Harris Street location, dismantled and relocated to Castle Hill in 1983 and then reassembled in 1988 as part of the Stage 2 opening of the current Powerhouse Ultimo site.
Sydneysiders flocked to the Powerhouse on its final day in February before its closure.Credit: Dean Sewell
“It’s about the methodology,” she said. “We have everything documented from 1988, and we are using that as a guide to relocate the steam engine.”
But moving the Boulton & Watt was a “distressing” prospect, said Emeritus Professor David Miller, a historian in science and technology at the University of NSW.
He said disassembling the machine to move it to Castle Hill would not be attended by the same expertise or care “since virtually all of those who could provide it are dead”.
“The very decision to move the Boulton & Watt is a cavalier act of bad faith given the earlier reassurances that it would not be moved,” he said.
“It would be easier to ensure the engine’s safety in situ than to move it, in my opinion, precisely because instituting defensive methods to protect it is something that those without steam expertise can do, given the will to do so.”
At Ultimo, planning approvals are expected in January to begin demolition of staircases, internal walls and mezzanines within the heritage Boiler House, Engine House, and Turbine Hall, a move which the Powerhouse said would improve circulation but which has been criticised by most public submissions.
Labor’s renovations also call for shopfronts for creative industries to be built along Harris Street and a new city-facing entrance and courtyard. Interiors of the 1988-built Wran building will be removed, and its materials changed.
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Separately, a new $915 million museum is going up on the Parramatta riverside to open in late 2026.
The museum’s internationally significant object and star attraction, the Locomotive No. 1 and its carriages, cost $349,000 to shift to their new temporary home in Castle Hill in August.
Likewise, the historic Catalina Frigate Bird II cost $285,250 to dismantle and truck to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society in Albion Park.
Removing the Boulton & Watt is expected to cost similar to these other objects, and all three will return to Ultimo, Havilah says.
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