AS MANY as six of Australia's top arts companies could soon call Walsh Bay home as part of a multimillion-dollar refurbishment.

Bell Shakespeare, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and Bangarra Dance Theatre are among the companies on a shortlist to move permanently to the Pier 2/3 finger wharf. The Australian Theatre for Young People, Sydney Writers' Festival and Biennale of Sydney are also being considered.

For some, such as Bell Shakespeare, it signals the end of years of trying to secure a permanent home and decent rehearsal space, and a new era of staging more shows and bigger public education programs.

"The one thing that is holding us back from growing is our lack of space," said Bell's general manager, Christopher Tooher, who oversees a company that works out of make-do premises including a rehearsal room that has pillars every six metres and no loading access.

The move won't come free, however, with the government expecting successful companies to contribute to the finger wharf's renovation.

The Minister for the Arts, George Souris, said performance spaces with capacities for 200 to 500 seats, foyer and box office facilities and flexible rehearsal spaces were needed.

Education spaces, galleries and workshops, as well as restaurant, bar and office facilities are also being considered.

"The decade of indecision [about Sydney's arts' venues] has ended . . . We are serious about this. We want a working cultural precinct, and that [extra patronage] will generate the demand for public transport," he said.

The Australian Chamber Orchestra general manager, Timothy Calnin, said it could "attract thousands and thousands of people into that precinct" if it could call the wharf home. The orchestra rehearses in a windowless room below street level at East Circular Quay, which is not open to the public and can't accommodate the school workshops and education programs it wants to run.

"I see us running lunch time chamber performances, programs for school studies, [and having] a platform for youth and adult education," Mr Calnin said.