The Berejiklian government is closing the Powerhouse Museum next year, in what will be a world-first museum eviction and demolition. Yes the shells of the Ultimo site may be left standing, but it is the end of the Powerhouse Museum as we know it, a museum that has brought joy and wonder to millions of visitors.

There is no masterplan for the site, although one can expect another mediocre block of units, or two. A theatre for Broadway musicals is mooted for the exhibition halls that currently hold the treasures of NSW. A few pages of blurb trumpet an Ultimo "creative industries presence" with fashion and design displays. The government’s spin doctors must have forgotten this is what we already have in Powerhouse Museum.

The Powerhouse Museum, which will be moved to Parramatta. Credit:Fairfax

No government anywhere in the world has closed a major state museum to move it out of the city to a less accessible location. And no government has ever forced a major museum to give up its historic site, with purpose-designed infrastructure and state-of-the-art facilities.

You don’t need to be a real estate genius to see the rip-off in swapping an expansive accessible 2.6 hectare city site, fully owned by the museum, for a smaller museum on a flood-prone riverbank at the base of a 50-storey apartment block.