Authors: Dr Sue Rosen and Liz Gorman 

Client: Robertson & Hindmarsh for Ultimo TAFE

We contributed to the History section for the Conservation Management Plan for the Former Technological Museum, Building C, TAFE NSW Ultimo Campus. This CMP provides an update to the earlier 1995 Conservation Plan to support future conservation efforts.

TAFE occupies the whole of ‘Building C’, formerly the Technological Museum. The museum building itself was constructed in 1892-3 as part of the new Sydney Technical College complex, this expansive campus encompassing the museum as well as buildings intended for high schools, teaching, and trade workshops.

The Technological Museum was established by the Trustees of the Australian Museum in 1879 and effectively founded in 1880, but the first collection was largely destroyed in the Garden Palace fire of 1882. It was transferred to Ultimo in 1893, and held a large collection of Australian Flora, Fauna and Minerals, functioned as a teaching institution and was also open to the public. 

Later, the museum became known as the ‘Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences’ (MAAS), and operated in Building C until the exhibits were transferred, in the mid-1980s, to the converted powerhouse on Harris Street, to be then known as the Powerhouse Museum.