Leorah Newman says her personal experience visiting the Powerhouse has inspired to her over many years and she looks forward to being able to enjoy many more with her younger brother, Benjamin.

The 12-year-old said living in regional NSW means that after the many hours traveling to Sydney in the school holidays to visit her grandmother, exploring with her the Powerhouse would be very unlikely as the family would then need to travel to Parramatta from Bondi Junction.

Added to that, there is extra hours in traffic for her younger brother to and then from Parramatta, and the time needed at the museum to make the most of exhibitions, and the extra travel cost of $20-$30 per family on top of the costly admission – admission she said may only been affordable to many families because they are able to visit many times a year through household membership.

Leorah says she absolutely supports the idea of an extra location in Parramatta as it would expand on the accessibility to Applied Arts and Sciences to other children such as herself who would otherwise be disadvantage with travel and distance.

However she adamantly believes that the loss of the Ultimo location would be an unjustifiable disadvantage to many other NSW children and their families and that she and her brother would never again be able to go to the Powerhouse sometime two or three days in a week during school holidays.

With a very heavy heart, Leorah is now hoping to visit the museum in the July school holidays, and with her brother, make a short film to support her appeal. She is asking for any suggestions and support from local community members to help her write submissions to local, state and federal government, schools and education department officials.