ABC Radio Sydney<\/a> Mornings on Tuesday he contacted the Powerhouse ahead of the purchase to gauge their interest \u2014 but received no reply.<\/p>\n“I reckon the Powerhouse would have been absolutely fantastic, but I did actually reach out to them saying ‘Hey, listen, Rob Hirst has got this kit. What do you reckon?’,” he said.<\/p>\n
“So I’m still yet to hear back from them.”<\/p>\n
He made the contact initially by phone, and then via the Donation Enquiry Form on the Powerhouse website on September 29.<\/p>\n
![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/d676fd3678688cdd0c6bb7cd3aeed13e\")
<\/p>\n
Hirst says he cannot play the kit anymore owing to his battle with pancreatic cancer. (AAP: Dean Lewins)<\/p>\n
An automated response followed.<\/p>\n
“Your offer will be forwarded to the relevant curator for assessment. Due to the high volume of donation offers we receive, it may take several weeks to respond,” the automated response read.<\/p>\n
The Powerhouse responded to Mr Yau on Tuesday \u2014 but the kit had already been donated to the Australian Music Vault in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Internal emails show museum rejection<\/p>\n
ABC Radio Sydney Mornings has also obtained internal emails between staff working at the Powerhouse, where they discussed purchasing Hirst’s drum kit.<\/p>\n
“Rob Hirst’s drum kit is up for auction, and definitely belongs in the Powerhouse collection,” one email dated October 12 said.<\/p>\n
“Hirst is a New South Welshman, and the Oils are a Sydney band. I realise he is old, and likely considered irrelevant. However, between us, this is a highly significant piece of moveable cultural heritage. It belongs in NSW.”<\/p>\n
The following day, a curator replied.<\/p>\n
“It does look like a great object to hold but we have many competing priorities at the moment,” the email said.<\/p>\n
“It’s looking like it would need at least 50K to secure if not a lot more.”<\/p>\n
A Powerhouse spokesperson said the museum had a long history of collecting and presenting Australia’s music history, including the artefacts, objects and archives associated with iconic Australian artists.<\/p>\n
“We were only recently alerted to the auction, and unfortunately, the timing did not align with our acquisition processes on this occasion,” the spokesperson said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“Powerhouse acknowledges how much Midnight Oil is embedded into the identity of Australian music, and if the drum kit formerly used by Rob Hirst were offered to us as a donation, we would be honoured to accept it.”<\/p>\n
Arts minister rues missed opportunity<\/p>\n
NSW Arts Minister John Graham told ABC Radio Sydney Afternoons it was a missed opportunity and would like to see if there was any chance it could be brought to Sydney in any way.<\/p>\n
“It is a missed opportunity,” Mr Graham told ABC Radio Sydney Afternoons.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I’m pleased to hear it’s going to Melbourne, not overseas. This is a band with so many international fans.<\/p>\n
“We should be recognising groups like Midnight Oil who have made such a cultural contribution to our country, to the world from this city.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum turned down the opportunity to take the drums of one of Sydney’s most well-known rock…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,131383,134,131378,131381,2733,131382,131379,131380],"class_list":["post-214363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-drum-kit-powerhouse","tag-entertainment","tag-midnight-oil-drums","tag-midnight-oil-drums-powerhouse","tag-nsw","tag-powerhouse-museum-drums","tag-rob-hirst-drums-melbourne","tag-rob-hirst-drums-powerhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}