When the completed Belconnen Mall was officially opened in October 1978, it carried the second-largest Myer department store in the world and was marketed as “The Big One,” briefly the largest shopping centre in the Southern Hemisphere. Canberra’s first travelators and first multi-storey car parks were built for this centre specifically.
Myer remains the full-line department anchor, with Target added in a 2011 refurbishment as the discount-department tier. Coles and Aldi anchor grocery, and a ten-screen cinema complex added in 1995 alongside an indoor entertainment venue gave the centre an early entertainment anchor few 1970s malls carried.
The specialty register runs broad and mid-market, from City Chic and Blue Illusion in apparel to Harvey Norman in electronics alongside JB Hi-Fi. Build-A-Bear Workshop and a dense food and beverage cluster including Guzman Y Gomez and Chatime extend the family and dining register.
Serving Canberra’s north as the territory’s original mega-centre, Belconnen has undergone multiple refurbishments since a 1986 sale to a Westfield-led joint venture. For a brand assessing Canberra, the scale of Belconnen’s Myer at opening remains the clearest signal of how much retail investment the territory could support even in the 1970s.
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