It also frustrated Indigenous community leaders. Taskforce member Wesley Enoch told theHerald:“I find it difficult to understand how the power structures of Sydney work because often it is not public,often it is not transparent.”

Preliminary designs for Barangaroo’s Indigenous cultural centre included a performance space seating up to 600 people,an open welcoming space at its entrance for smoking ceremonies,exhibition spaces,studios and workshops rotated for visiting artists,and a gift shop,cafe and restaurant.

Had it been supported by cabinet,a tender would have gone out this year with construction completed in time for the opening of the Sydney Metro at Barangaroo in 2024.

Asked about the new documents and emails,Keating told theHerald that potential designs for the Cutaway had come up as part of a wider discussion between Perrottet and the then-planning minister Rob Stokes about a revamp of the Macquarie Street precinct.

A spokeswoman for Keating stressed that the former prime minister’s pitch to Berejiklian had come when no decision had been taken about the Cutaway to dedicate the space for an Aboriginal museum.

“Some people may have wished this,but no government process considered it or took a decision about it. At least,not to Mr Keating’s knowledge,” the spokesperson said.

The NSW government has also repeatedly said that while work was progressing on an Indigenous centre at Barangaroo,no formal decision had ever been made to proceed with it.

This year,a government briefing paper produced for the head of the state’s Aboriginal Affairs agency justified the decision to abandon Buruk “because the space at the Cutaway has limitations and is open to the elements”.

Keating told theHeraldthat like the Musee d’Orsay in Paris,flexibility for Barangaroo’s Cutaway “is its virtue”. The former prime minister believed “static museums,on the 19th-century model,die due to lack of patronage”,his spokeswoman said. The images used were “illustrative sketches” and internal dimensions of the Paris museum were the same for the Cutaway.

Keating has been one of the key figures behind the decade-long transformation of Barangaroo from a shipping container terminal into a buzzing residential,commercial and entertainment district. He was the brains behind the recreated pre-European settlement headland reserve which sits above the Cutaway.

In his statement to theHerald,Keating suggested his vision for the Cutaway as a multipurpose space meant it could host future events such as a G20 summit or APEC leaders’ meeting.

But Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council chief executive officer Nathan Moran said Keating’s ideas should have had no status in the development. He claimed the intervention was a sign the government could not “allow Aboriginal people to take control and administer their own culture”.

“The fact that Sydney doesn’t have a dedicated Aboriginal cultural centre is never going to go away until we fill that void,” he said.

The parliamentary documents show that by May 2021,Buruk’s all-Indigenous taskforce had been effectively “stood down” and its work placed on hold. Less than a year later,Perrottet,by then the premier following Berejiklian’s resignation,threw his weight behind turning the existing Museum of Sydney into a new Indigenous cultural centre.

The Macquarie Street museum was identified after a short search by NSW bureaucrats to meet Perrottet’s wish for a new Indigenous facility.

Perrottet told MPs in September that he did not believe the Cutaway should be a cultural area for First Nations people.

“Having said that,I publicly came out and have given financial support ... to put one of the best cultural facilities for our First Nations people in the heart of Sydney[at the Museum of Sydney].”

Buruk taskforce member Wesley Enoch said the failure to bring an Indigenous centre at Barangaroo to fruition was a reminder of how power structures worked against Indigenous people.

“Conversations have been going on since Barangaroo was conceived that there be an Indigenous space there and the fact it isn’t is a huge disappointment,” he said.

An Infrastructure NSW spokeswoman said no final decision had been made to dedicate an Indigenous cultural centre at the Cutaway and that the decision to proceed with a “flexible,multi-purpose space” followed a three-phase investigation and consultation process.

The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories,analysis and insights.Sign up here.