New WA museum construction progressing

WA Premier Mark McGowan has momentarily shifted the focus away from Optus Stadium to spruik the city’s new museum, which is at least two years away from opening.

The new WA Museum is a redevelopment of the old building and will be completed by Multiplex for $428 million, or roughly one quarter of Optus Stadium’s price tag.

Seven major galleries will eventually fill the 7000-square-metre block on the corner of Beaufort Street and James Street in Northbridge.

Despite describing the state’s finances at "disastrous", Mr McGowan defended the almost half-a-billion-dollar spend.

“We’re getting value for money out of this project, it’s $428 million but for that we’re going to get a world-class museum,” Mr McGowan said.

“The museum was actually committed to by Alan Carpenter back in 2008 as a Labor government project back then it’s obviously been refined over that period and we’ve done some further refinement and examination of the project in our time in government.”

The government expects 800,000 people to visit within 12 months of opening in 2020, adding an estimated $31 million in tourism to the state’s economy.

The project, which began in May last year will create more than 3000 jobs.