He re-submitted his original plans for a six-storey building and added an additional three storeys which was accepted by the government of the day [2] This public museum resource continued until 1991.
The comprehensive collection accounted for some 20,777 items [5] The museum was open to the public and functioned as an educational institution with an annual visitation of over 100,000 students from schools.
[6] The opening of the refurbished museum was delayed until 1991 and rebranded as The Earth Exchange with a board of trustees including business and mining interests.
Secondly, the incorporated entity's governance structure (constituted under its own Act of Parliament) included few arts or cultural representatives on the board of trustees.
The Earth Exchange, like all other museums in NSW, was dependent on government support for administration and reliant on continuing sponsorship from the mining industry.
[7] Nonetheless, it was also expected to be part of the museum sector and to offer education and curatorial services and to develop and preserve its various collections.
[8] Like all other museums, this entity at its re-birth was to some extent caught in a tension between an adherence to museological practice which demanded scholarship, balanced exhibitions and scope for debate and specialist benefactors and sponsors who were keen to showcase the benefits of the extractive industries to Australia's economy.
[11] Additionally, the Earth Exchange introduced a number of interactive and immersive displays that were intended to involve visitors in simulations of earthquakes and underground mining.
These immersive attractions were costly to develop and were subject to a number of ongoing technical disruptions, disappointing visitors who may have expected more from their entry fee.
The Board of Trustees were expecting The Earth Exchange to be a showcase of the value of the extractive industries; the Director of the museum was professionally aligned with concepts of museology which promoted education, debate and scholarship.
At the same time, Sydney was developing a number of visitor attractions where such entertainment and education could be consumed reliably and relatively cheaply compared to The Earth Exchange (The Story of Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Arts, Australian National Maritime Museum, Hyde Park Barracks, and Darling Harbour attractions).
The Ministry for the Arts at the time became increasingly powerful within the government of the day and believed that the acquisition of the prized Albert Chapman Minerals Collection would have been better housed in another museum.