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ABSTRACT
This article charts the development of regional shopping centres in Sydney’s western suburbs during the 1970s. It shows how rapid population growth on the metropolitan fringe encouraged investment in large-scale retail property development that accommodated the needs of the city’s biggest department store firms. Many of these firms had been involved in the first wave of shopping centre development in middle-ring suburbs in the 1960s. In the 1970s, however, almost all design and construction of regional shopping centres was undertaken by specialist development firms that had honed their capabilities working for retailers during the 1960s. Retailers and developers conducted research to determine ideal site locations, but were guided by the prescriptive hand of metropolitan planning authorities. This meant that Sydney’s retail landscape reflected diverse influences: American style shopping centres were built in locations determined by European planning ideas and occupied by Australian retailers. Planning regimes also constrained subsequent development ensuring that the regional shopping centres built in Sydney’s western suburbs in the 1970s remain at the top of the region’s retail hierarchy today.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Gleeson and Low, Australian Urban Planning, 118.
2 Karskens, Holroyd, 178-80; Bunker and Holloway, “More than Fringe Benefits,” 66.
3 Cumberland County Council, “The Planning Scheme for the County of Cumberland,” 27–34.
4 CMA, Box 142, “Market Analysis of the Sydney Metropolitan Area,” prepared by Larry Smith & Company, 21 May 1963, 1; Frost, “Urbanisation,” 262–63.
5 Allport, “The Unrealised Promise,” 66.
6 Morrison, “The Corridor City,” 115.
7 Allport, “The Unrealised Promise,” 66.
8 Bailey, “Retailing and the Home,” 71.
9 Bailey, “Urban Disruption”, 158.
10 CMA, Box 142, “Market Analysis,” 9.
11 Bailey, Managing the Marketplace, 22–78.
12 CMA Box 142, Letter from Keith Kelly, Larry Smith & Company to George McCahon, Myer Emporium, Melbourne, 6 June 1963.
13 Gruen and Smith, Shopping Towns USA.
14 CMA, Box 142, “Market Analysis,” 15.
15 Quoted in Karskens, “Holroyd,” 176.
16 Frost and O’Hanlon, “Urban History,” 10.
17 Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics Canberra, Census of the Commonwealth of Australia, 30th June 1961, 30th June 1971.
18 CMA, Box 308, Lend Lease Development Pty. Limited, Shopping Centre, Penrith, Market Survey, c. 1964.
19 State Planning Authority, The New Cities, 16.
20 Inside Retailing, 11 March 1974, 5.
21 CMA Box 142, “Suburban Opportunities in Sydney Metropolitan Area” prepared by Peter Hyde, May 1965, 3–4.
22 CMA Box 142, Letter from Keith Kelly.
23 CMA Box 142, “Market Analysis,” 15–16.
24 Beed, “The Growth of Suburban Retailing,” 167, 189.
25 Stretton, Ideas for Australian Cities, 260–62.
26 Leonie Sandercock quoted in Miller and Fuhr, “The Real Sydney,” 4.
27 Powell, Out West, 76–7.
28 Keating, On the Frontier, 205–6.
29 Sunday Telegraph, 12 May 1968, 201.
30 Miller and Fuhr, “The Real Sydney,” 4–5.
31 Karskens, Holroyd, 191.
32 CMA, Box 308, Lend Lease Development Pty. Limited, Shopping Centre, Penrith, Market Survey, c. 1964.
33 Penrith Press, 30 March 1971, 20.
34 Retail Merchandiser, June 1957, 15; Daily Telegraph, 13 November 1957, 20.
35 Penrith Press, 30 March 1971, 27.
36 Liverpool Leader, 11 October 1961, 1.
37 Horne, The Emerging City, 32.
38 Kune, Nothing is Impossible, 79.
39 Sammartino and Van Ruth, “The Westfield Group,” 309–310; Westfield, The Westfield Story, 14–16.
40 MMM, Shopping Centre Directory.
41 Sunday Mirror, 28 August 1966, 67.
42 City of Liverpool Leader, 10 December 1969, 1.
43 CMA, Box 65, Grace Bros Shopping Centre Memo, c1978.
44 Westpoint Centre Feature, Blacktown Advocate, 11 April 1973, 25.
45 City of Liverpool Champion, 6 September 1972, 25; Penrith Press, 30 March 1971, 54.
46 Penrith Press, 30 March 1971, 44.
47 Australian Retailing, September-October 1971, 13; Blacktown Advocate, 4 April 1973, 1, 5.
48 Brash, The Model Store, 270–76.
49 Parramatta Heritage Society Archive, Murray Bros Folder, 381.141099441 HIS, “Murray Bros”; Kass, Liston and McClymont, Parramatta, 62.
50 Kass, Liston and McClymont, Parramatta, 373–7.
51 Beed, “The Growth of Suburban Retailing,” 162–5.
52 NSW Planning and Environment Commission, Review: Sydney Region Outline Plan, 22.
53 Westfield, Westfield Holdings Limited, 25th Anniversary Report, 4–5
54 Advertiser, 21 May 1975, 43.
55 Bernard Brown quoted in Advertiser, 24 September 1975, 45.
56 Westfield, The Westfield Story, 33.
57 Sammartino and Van Ruth, “The Westfield Group,” 309–310.
58 Lowy, “Regional shopping centres,” 278–283.
59 Murphy, Challenges of Change, 36–40.
60 Hutson, “I Dream of Jeannie?,” 17–33.
61 Sammartino and Van Ruth, “The Westfield Group,” 310.
62 Sydney Morning Herald, 28 April 1971, 21.
63 Westfield Holdings Ltd, The Westfield Story, 56–8.
64 Author interview with Michael Lloyd 5 June 2014.
65 CMA, Box 80, Letter from Grace Bros. to R. Powell, Civil & Civic, 28th May 1973.
66 Liverpool Shoppingtown Feature, Sydney Morning Herald, 29 August 1972.
67 CMA, Box 65, Grace Bros Shopping Centre Memo, c1978.
68 Smith, “Town Planning in Elizabeth,” 19–23.
69 CMA, Box 80, State Planning Authority promotional brochure, “Mount Druitt Town Centre,” c. 1972.
70 “Editorial,” State Planning Authority News, October 1973, 2.
71 Morrison, “The Corridor City,” 114.
72 “Development of Mt Druitt Town Centre,” State Planning Authority News, October 1973, 5.
73 The Sun, 8 October 1973, 21.
74 CMA, Box 80, Grace. Bros. “A Great store is born” promotional brochure, c. 1973.
75 Macarthur Development Board (MDB), Macarthur Growth Centre, 2.
76 Neutze, “The Case for New Cities,” 446–7.
77 Morrison, “The Corridor City,” 114.
78 MDB, Macarthur Growth Centre, 3; NSW Planning and Environment Commission, Review, 24.
79 Neilson, “New Cities in Australia,” 318.
80 Clark, Finding a Common Interest, 188–95.
81 Campbelltown-Ingleburn News, 11 September 1979, 1.
82 Campbelltown-Ingleburn News, 11 September 1979, 19.
83 Liverpool City Library, Local Studies Collection, Alderman K. H. Napier, Mayor of Liverpool, “Speech – Opening of Westfield.”
84 CMA, Box 65, B. A. Grace, “Speech on behalf of the Retailers of the Centre,” 28 August 1972.
85 Blacktown Advocate, 11 April 1973, 25.
86 Penrith Press, 30 March 1971, 19.
87 DEHCD, The Shopping Centre as a Community Leisure Resource, 48.
88 Julie Bindon and Associates, Blacktown Main Street Mall, 1.
89 Ewings, “An Environment for People,” 56.
90 CMA, Box 74, Mount Druitt/ Warringah Mall Forward Planning Committee, “Greater Western Opening Strategy,” c1973; The Retail Trader, October 1962, 3.
91 Powys, “Economic Impact Statements,” 71.
92 The Torch, 7 December 1961, 16-7; The Torch, 14 December 1961, 18; Bankstown Observer, 6 June 1962, 2; Bankstown Observer, 11 September 1963, 2; Bankstown Observer, October 9, 1963, 1.
93 Botany Municipal Council Planning Committee Minutes, “Development Application No. 370,” 16 June 1982, 6.
94 Inside Retailing, 18 October 1976, 7.
95 Inside Retailing, 18 April 1977, 7.
96 Victoria Town and Country Planning Board, “Pedestrian Malls,” 1-3, 55.
97 Allport, “The Unrealised Promise,” p. 66.
98 Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics Canberra, Census of the Commonwealth of Australia, Citation30th June 1961, 30th June 1971, 30th June 1981. Note, these figures represent approximate trade areas based on surrounding municipal populations.
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Matthew Bailey
Assoc. Prof. Matthew Bailey is based at Macquarie University. His book, Managing the Marketplace: Reinventing Shopping Centres in Post-War Australia (Routledge, 2020) is the first book on the subject, and one of the few to comprehensively examine Australian retail history. He has published widely on retail and retail property history, including in leading international and Australian journals.