ROSELANDS CENTRE
Roselands Drive and Roselands Avenue
Municipality of Canterbury (Canterbury-Bankstown Council), New South Wales
The rivalry between Australia's two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, was intensified by the completion of CHADSTONE ["Chad-stun"] CENTRE, the nation's first regional-class shopping precinct. "Chaddy" had opened, in Melbourne's southeastern environs, in October 1960.
It would take Sydney several years to top Melbourne's mega mall, but this was eventually accomplished. A 30-acre site, located 8.5 miles southwest of Sydney's Central Business District, had been acquired by the Grace Brothers department store chain in 1958.
The tract had been partially developed with Belmore House, a country manor, in 1883. In July 1946, the Roselands Golf Club opened on the estate. The course had been named Roselands as a homage to a local resident's spectacular rose garden.
Construction commenced on ROSELANDS CENTRE in June 1964. The fully-enclosed structure was developed by Grace Brothers, Limited and designed by Sydney's Whitehead & Payne firm. The mall cost 12 million pounds* to construct. It originally enveloped 653,400 lettable square feet and housed eighty-seven stores and services.
The mall was dedicated, by New South Wales Premier Robert Askin, on October 12, 1965. At this time, ROSELANDS was the largest shopping centre in the Southern Hemisphere. It was a state-of-the-art shopping precinct in every way. The mall's anchor, a 4-level (257,200 square foot), Sydney-based Grace Brothers, was the largest suburban department store in the nation.
The Marketplace Level of the shopping hub featured one of the world's earliest shopping mall Food Courts; the 14-bay 4 Corners Gourmet. Moreover, on the Gallery Level (or 3rd floor) there was a Child-Minding Centre with closed-circuit television hook-up. This broadcast to several monitor screens located throughout the complex. Parents could leave their children at the facility and easily check on them from virtually anywhere within the mall.
In addition to its gargantuan Grace Brothers, ROSELANDS housed "mini-major" shops, such as Katies Fashion Store, a Coles Variety Store and Coles New World supermarket. There were also a professional concourse of medical and dental offices, laundromat, Esso "petrol outlet," Town Hall meeting rooms and single-screen (420 seat) Roselands Theatre Beautiful.
Original shops and services included Approved Health Foods, Bob Pollard Electrical Shop, Darrell Lea Chocolates, Moore's Pharmacy, Vivians Fashions , White's Shoes, Bawmer Pet Shop and Roselands Book Shop.
ROSELANDS held its largest shopping centre in the Southern Hemisphere title for less than a year. On September 21, 1966, its size was surpassed by that of Greater Sydney's gleaming new BANKSTOWN SQUARE {2.1 miles northwest}.
Other mall-type centres in the ROSELANDS trade area would eventually include MIRANDA FAIR (1964) {7 miles southeast}, WESTFIELD SHOPPINGTOWN LIVERPOOL (1972) {8.2 miles west} and WESTFIELD SHOPPINGTOWN HURSTVILLE (1978) {2.9 miles southeast}.
A proposal for an expansion of ROSELANDS CENTRE created much controversy in 1977. Nonetheless, the project was approved by the local governing body in December 1978. The 14 million Australian dollar* extension was completed in September 1981.
During the renovation, 2 levels of covered parking were added, along with 145,300 square feet of shopping space. The Marketplace Level food facility was also relocated up to the mall's Gallery Level. ROSELANDS now spanned approximately 798,700 lettable square feet and housed 122 stores and services.
A controlling interest in Grace Brothers, Limited (owner of ROSELANDS) was acquired by Myer Emporium, Limited in June 1983. Myer was -then- acquired by G.J. Coles & Coy, in August 1985. The consolidated enterprise was known as Coles Myer Properties, Limited.
Target opened a prototype "new look" store at ROSELANDS on September 25, 1986. Mall renovations were also done between March 1991 and August 1992, when the entire Level 1 (Marketplace Level) was reconfigured as a Food Hall. Grace Brothers, now downsized into its 3 upper levels, encompassed 182,900 square feet. In 1994, the ROSELANDS Level 2 Fashion Mall was also refurbished.
A joint venture of the Centro Properties Group (of Melbourne) and Abu Dhabi Investment Council acquired the complex in July 1998. By 1999, a 21 million dollar refurbishment was underway. As part of this project, the Level 3 food facility was refurbished and renamed Raindrop Foodcourt. New Skylights were installed and Level 2 was also remodeled.
The revitalized shopping precinct was officially dedicated on December 12, 2000. Over 13,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space had been added, with the lettable area expanded to 811,700 square feet. Pre-renovation, ROSELANDS CENTRE had housed 156 stores. This number had been increased to 171. Tenants now included Events, Jeans West, Priceline, Lincraft, Tony Bartow and Food for Less.
Centro Properties Group branded several shopping precincts in their portfolio in January 2004. As a result, ROSELANDS became CENTRO ROSELANDS. Grace Brothers stores in New South Wales and ACT (Australian Capital Territory) were rebranded, by Melbourne-based Myer, on February 13, 2004.
The mall owner-operator went through several name changes during the 2010s. It morphed into Federation Centres in January 2013. Following a merger with Melboune's Novion Property Group, in June 2015, Vicinity Centres was created. Meanwhile, in January 2015, the official name of the Sydneyside shopping precinct had been changed back to ROSELANDS CENTRE.
For its first 28 years, the ROSELANDS mall was located in the Municipality of Canterbury local government area. The "Council" was renamed City of Canterbury in November 1993. It merged with the adjacent City of Bankstown in May 2016, with the Canterbury-Bankstown Council being created.
A large-scale ROSELANDS expansion had been on the drawing board since the early 2000s. A plan was submitted to the local governing body in 2003, but was rejected. A second expansion and renovation prospectus was submitted in October 2015.
During this 650 million dollar project, the mall would be extended with a Southeast Wing, taking out an existing parking area. A cinema megaplex would be installed in the upper floor of the existing Myer store, with a new Myer being built. Moreover, two supermarkets, a new Target discount store and two car parks would be built.
In February 2017, following a series of major disagreements between Vicinity Centres and Myer Holdings, the renovation plan was abandoned. Vicinity soon announced a scaled-down, 90 million dollar, refurbishment.
The Level 1 (now known as Ground Level) Fresh Food Hall would be reconfigured as The Market, a state-of-the-art fresh food and restaurant precinct. An existing Food for Less supermarket would be replaced by Woolworths. Work got underway in mid-2018, with the first phase of the project officially dedicated on September 26, 2019.
Among twenty newly-opened stores were Aldi, Delicassella, Fruitworld and Costi Brothers Seafood. Woolworths opened its doors on October 30, 2019. With these improvements, ROSELANDS CENTRE encompassed approximately 674,700 lettable square feet and contained 150 stores and services.
* Prior to February 1966, the official currency in the Land Down Under was the Australian Pound. Decimal currency was introduced in 1966, when the Australian Dollar made its debut.
Sources:
The Sydney Morning Herald
The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia)
Centro Properties Group 1999 Annual Report
Centro Properties Group 2000 Annual Report
Centro Properties Group 2001 Annual Report
http://alicewritlarge.blogspot.com
http://www2.centro.com.au:80/Roselands (website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
http://www.canterbury.nsw.gov.au
http://www2.centro.com.au/Roselands
http://www.roselands.com.au/development/our-plans
https://www.smh.com.au https://www.shoppingcentrenews.com.au/
"Centro Roselands" article on Wikipedia
