“I’m disappointed that they’ve cancelled the recruitment process after hiring a headhunter and taking out national ads, and I’m unsure why,” he said.

The abrupt change in leadership comes as doors open on the rebranded Museums of History on Sunday. With no obvious successor, State Librarian Dr John Vallance is to stand in to lead the newly minted Museums of History until a replacement can be found, likely well after the March election.

The newly minted overarching body replaces Sydney Living Museums (SLM) taking over its portfolio of museums including the Hyde Park Barracks, Museum of Sydney, Justice and Police Museum and Susannah Place.

As head of SLM, Lindsay had been shepherding through a $7 million business case for the Old Registrar General building on Macquarie St including its use as the state’s first dedicated history museum.

A business case for an interactive museum at the Parramatta Female Factory, in the litmus test seat of Parramatta, was also underway.

But the biggest task of the newly installed chief executive in 2023 was to manage the transformation of the Museum of Sydney into an Indigenous cultural centre.

The Herald revealed this month the state government had abandoned Buruk, the Indigenous centre at the Barangaroo Cutaway, for a multipurpose centre following a meeting with former Prime Minister Paul Keating in mid-2020.

The coveted position of the chief executive of the Museums of History was advertised before Christmas.

According to one government source with knowledge of the negotiations, Lindsay had applied and been offered the lesser chief operating officer’s role, with the position to be readvertised. He had declined it.

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In a farewell note to colleagues seen by the Herald, Lindsay said his final day would be December 31 and Vallance would take over in the interim.

Minister for Arts Ben Franklin had recused himself from making the appointment because of the pair’s long-standing social friendship.

A three-member selection panel was formed comprising Sydney Living Museum’s chair, Naseema Sparks, Vallance and Elizabeth Mildwater, Secretary of the Department of Enterprise, Investment and Trade.

The government did not respond to the Herald’s question if a potential conflict of interest existed with Vallance’s broader role given his position on the selection panel.

Vallance joined the State Library in 2017 after a distinguished career in academia and teaching, and is regarded in Macquarie Street as a “safe set of hands”.

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