Roselands Shopping Centre
 | |
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| Opening date | 1965 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Vicinity Centres |
| Management | Vicinity Centres |
| Owner | Vicinity Centres |
| No. of stores and services | 162[1] |
| No. of anchor tenants | 4[1] |
| Total retail floor area | 61,417 m2 (661,087 sq ft)[1] |
| Parking | 3,600 spaces[1] |
| Website | www.roselands.com.au/ |
Roselands Shopping Centre (previously called Centro Roselands) is a medium-sized shopping centre in Roselands, a suburb in south-western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Opened in 1965, Roselands was the largest shopping centre in the Southern hemisphere for years, even though it is quite small by today's standards.
Shops
The centre at Roselands features department stores, supermarkets, a post office, banks, a food court and around 170 speciality stores. Anchor tenants include:
- Myer
- Target
- Coles
- Food For Less supermarket
History
Construction of Roselands Shopping Centre began on 9 June 1964, on the site of the former Roselands Golf Course (which gave its name to the new centre, and later the surrounding suburb). Cost of construction at the time was A$15 million.[2]
Roselands was officially opened on 12 October 1965, and at the time it was the largest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere.[3] The centrepiece of the new centre was a large Grace Bros. department store. It also contained Australia's first "food court", known as "Four Corners" themed to represent food from the four corners of the world, a rain-themed water feature (the Raindrop Fountain) and a cinema (the Roselands Theatre Beautiful).
A major incident occurred at 4.30pm on 13 June 1969. A large fire broke out in the Grace Bros. store which caused possibly millions of dollars worth of damage before it was extinguished. The fire started on the top floor, which was a 'temporary' type of structure to allow for further floors to be added later. There was a lot of timber in walls on the top floor, and most of it was storage and reserve areas, so rarely used by staff. An electrical fault in a pillar on the 2nd floor in the soft furnishings department was apparently the start of the fire. It was quickly extinguished, but unknown to staff it had spread up the conduit to the floor above, where the huge bedding department storeroom was located. By the time people realised the fire had spread upstairs, water in the sprinkler system had boiled and the fire was out of control. Most of the damage was caused by water seeping down through the concrete floors below. The fire was contained to the top floor, which was completely destroyed. The following morning the lower ground floor of Grace Bros was over ankle deep in dirty water, and as this was the electrical and major furnishings floor, everything was a total write off. The clothing floors were also severely damaged by water, The ceiling tiles all became saturated and collapsed onto the racks below, wetting and staining much of the clothing.
In 1977, Roselands made an application for re-zoning and expansion. There was considerable objection to the plans, although they were eventually approved in December 1978, and the extension was completed in 1981. Further major developments took place in 1991 and 1992.[2]
Future
A development application has been lodged with the City of Canterbury for expansions to the centre. It was expected that the redevelopment would be completed by mid-2008, although negotiations are still underway. It will feature cinemas, a bowling alley and about thirty new specialty shops (many of them leisure and lifestyle) and restaurants. As at June 2015 there are further plans for redevelopment. [4]
References
- ^ a b c d Roselands Overview
- ^ a b City of Canterbury: History of Roselands. Retrieved 31 October 2006.
- ^ Shopping Centre Council of Australia: Shop Talk Newsletter, 14 October 2005.
- ^ Towards a New Roselands Roselands Retrieved 24 June 2015