iPowerhouse ParramattaParramatta
Task Eternal
Powerhouse Parramatta's opening aerospace show: 850+ objects on flight and space, from Leonardo's flying-machine drawings to an Apollo Moon rock.
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Preview: written before the show opened
The largest Moon rock collected on the Apollo missions is here, lent by NASA, and so are Leonardo da Vinci's original drawings of flying machines, on loan from the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Italy. They are two of more than 850 objects.
OPEN Architecture laid the show out as a climb, after Ted Chiang's story The Tower of Babylon, in four acts: Skyward, Power, Off-Earth and The Return. A 190-metre run of ramps carries you up through it. Inside are the Qantas Avro 504k, astronaut Katherine Bennell-Pegg's flight suit and a prototype of Roo-ver, a rover being developed for an Australian Moon mission. First Nations sky knowledge, from Yolŋu cosmologies to boomerang flight, punctuates the route.
It is the one ticketed show in the building: $30, $20 concession, free for ages 16 and under, timed entry, and the ticket covers the other four exhibitions. James Turrell's light room is an add-on ($40 combined). Low-sensory sessions run Mondays 10am to 12pm from 30 November.
Editor's pick
Powerhouse Parramatta opens with five shows. In this one, a 190-metre ramp climbs past Leonardo da Vinci's flying-machine drawings, the largest Moon rock from the Apollo missions and 850 more objects on flight and space.
Look for
The Apollo Moon rock
A NASA Moon rock, the largest collected during the Apollo missions.
Leonardo's flying machines
Original drawings of flying machines by Leonardo da Vinci, lent by the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Italy.
The Qantas Avro 504k
The historic Qantas Avro 504k aircraft, which the museum lists first among the show's highlights.
Katherine Bennell-Pegg's flight suit
The Australian astronaut's flight suit, on public display for the first time.
James Turrell, Shangri La (Over The Hump)
A Ganzfeld room of shifting coloured light where the horizon disappears and you lose your sense of depth; it needs the add-on ticket.
Good for
- Nerding Out
- Out-Of-Town Guests
- Teenagers
With kids
Ages 16 and under get in free. The route is a series of step-free ramps, and prams are allowed in the exhibition spaces.
Free in the same building
- Es Devlin: The TurningThe British stage designer and artist's first Australian exhibition: five new commissions made for Sydney, including a mirror maze inspired by human lungs.
- OverflowA First Nations-led show on caring for Water Country: seven commissions by Aboriginal-led groups across NSW, filmed by Ivan Sen.
- The DarkA walk-through show for ages 4 to 12 that turns the dark from scary to wondrous: a bedroom, a forest, a crystal tunnel and 800+ objects.
- The MallA two-storey history of the shopping mall made with OMA*AMO, starting from Western Sydney: 1,350+ objects, from Steve Jobs's Levi's to dancing warehouse robots.
On now nearby
Image credits
3
- Task EternalRocketdyne F-1 engine, stainless steel, aluminium, copper, Inconel X. Powerhouse Collection. Gift of National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC, 2024. Object No. 2024/105/1. Photo: Annika Kafcaloudis
- Jordan Gower: Does the moon know the well?Photograph: Jacquie Manning
- Powerhouse ParramattaPowerhouse Parramatta. Photo: Powerhouse Studio