Canberra Centre

**Canberra Centre** is a large shopping centre located in the northern section of the Canberra City Centre City Centre, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, being the largest centre within the Australian Capital Territory. It opened on 6 March 1963 as the Monaro Mall, becoming the first in Australia to contain three floors and be fully enclosed, though would later expand to cover a substantial outdoor component on Garema Place. It was designated an Australian Capital Historic Site in 1997. It underwent a $220 million redevelopment and became the Canberra Centre in 1989. It was the first shopping centre in Canberra to have a car park operated by Car Park Ticket Machines. Canberra Centre was originally calculated a floor area of 207,668 m², in December 2020 more recently the current size is 94,259 m² with originally 300 ± 79 speciality retailers, but upgraded to over 403 retailers, encompassing an ownership merge with the ACT Government.

## History

Prime Minister Robert Menzies opened the original shopping centre, known as the Monaro Mall, on 6 March 1963. At the time it was the first Australian three-storey, fully enclosed and air conditioned shopping centre. with David Jones, Marcus Clarks, Coles New World Supermarket (now closed), McEwans Hardware (now closed) and 58 speciality shops. The centre was expanded and rebranded as Canberra Centre and was opened officially by Rosemary Follet on 2 November 1989. Canberra Centre originally consisted of 4 city blocks: David Jones, Myer, City Market (a fresh food precinct) and Target. To access either City Market or Target, you had to either exit the main atrium and cross Bunda Street or access via the now-demolished travelators that ran parallel to Ainslie Avenue from the car parks.

At this time, Canberra Centre was owned and managed by Canberra Advance Bank, which later became St George Bank. In 1992 Queensland Investment Corporation expressed interest in purchasing Canberra Centre and put in a 50% stake purchase of the centre. In 1993 the old Bunda Street entrance was aligned diagonally to be on the corner of Petrie Plaza and Bunda Street. Another extension occurred in 1993 of the Upper Floor fashion atrium, where Pumpkin Patch is now (pumpkin patch is no longer there in Canberra Centre). It was not until 2002 when a major expansion occurred, by extending the atrium by crossing over Bunda Street and closing Ainslie Avenue to allow access to City Market and Target without going outdoors. By this time, the original atrium was under refurbishment. The columns were painted in shades of white and dark green, replacing the previous watery-blue and maroon. Balustrades were re-fitted with stainless steel and painted black, replacing the brass and maroon. The Lower Ground Floor replaced all the brass and maroon chairs and tables, with plastic black and white ones. The Centre Court fountain was removed and replaced with a 360 TV. The centre clock, which ran up 3 levels, was removed due to being maroon and brass. All the toilets were refurbished and centre signage was replaced, again due to being brass letters on maroon wood.

Further expansions were completed in late 2006, this time closing half of the City Market Car Park and City Market for retail space. The new mall added another 100 stores, a second food court and relocated City Market (now called the Fresh Food Precinct). On the northern end of Bunda Street, Canberra Centre's new dining and entertainment precinct, North Quarter houses restaurants on street level and indoor.

On 28 February 2007, a severe thunderstorm known as a "supercell" passed over Canberra causing flash flooding, severe hail and property damage. The Canberra Centre along with the Australian National University and Campbell High School sustained heavy damage with flooding and damage to internal fit out. Severe damage was inflicted on most parts of the centre including the brand new expansion. The first sign of trouble for those inside the centre came when water began pouring from the ceiling of the Dendy Cinema. After ten minutes, staff began a hasty evacuation. Borders (now closed) also sustained heavy damage and flooding.

In mid - 2013 the lower ground level food court was closed due to its refurbishment that will finish late - 2013. The David Jones lower ground level closed as well. Myer lower ground level continued to open. On Thursday 31 October 2013 the new Refurbished Lower Level Food Court was opened so as the Myer and David Jones lower ground.

In July 2017, a renovated section of the Canberra Centre known as Monaro Mall reopened as the Beauty precinct with brands like Jurlique, Lush, Crabtree and Evelyn, Mecca Maxima, Inglot, L'occitane, Aveda.

New fashion brands H&M, Gorman, and Calvin Klein were also opened in 2017.

End of 2018 and 2019 saw new brands like Superdry, Nike, The North Face, Vans, Levi's open stores on the lower level on the mall.

## Accessible

Despite being an extremely large shopping centre, in 2020 the Canberra Centre has been once described as the second largest known shopping centre in Australia in terms of retail floor area is more then 2 million sq ft (200,000 m²) and it has 380 stores, then added 23 extra stores which that makes the Canberra Centre having one of the most number of stores, for an example, the easy access and amenities has 54 escalators and four travellators, there is via access with 17 accessible toilets, that is including of those which of 8 escalators, 6 accessible toilets in Myer, David Jones and H&M. that gives a full total via access to 7 cases of stairs, 58 escalators, 12 elevators and 23 accessible toilets.

### Carparking and plaza levels

Although the Canberra Centre and another extremely large shopping centre Chadstone The Fashion Capital which is the same type but another 275,287 sq ft (25,575 m²) more, the Canberra Centre has only a few floors and ten floors in total, and two levels underground and several levels above ground and that includes mezzanine, it has only three multi-storey car parking garages, Aldi carpark has 6 levels are "Ground, Mezzanine and carparking levels between P1 and P4" and Target carpark has 4 carparking levels are between "P1 and P4" and the Coles carpark has two underground carparking levels are "B1 and B2" and initially reported as four above ground levels, in 2018 an extra level has upgraded to five carparking levels are between "P2 and P6".

### Shopping centre with the most elevators

However in the early years of 2010's a few EPL Kone 80's lifts could be a little scary because of it's low risk of deathtrap, despite the Canberra Centre have a great number of elevators this shopping centre has 11 passenger lifts including three of these each in Myer, David Jones, H&M, and the Dandy Cinemas, it also has 6 service lifts, and a few of these exceed 40 persons 2,800 kg, including the largest and most massive known lift ever discovered in Canberra was two pairs of service lifts that fits in 88 persons and 13,227 lbs (6,000 kg, 6 tones) were located in the loading dock of Big W, which was discovered on 13 February 2019, as well it has three secret lifts and three other lifts at the shopping malls at city walk, which gives us a total of up to 25 elevators, making the Canberra Centre have more elevators then any other australian shopping centres, although the number of passenger lifts in the Canberra Centre was originally counted as 9, the earliest discoveries have found 7 lifts, then a year later founded another lift for dandy cinemas which is 10, but was later added an extra lift for H&M to a total of 11 accessible lifts, more recently, in early 2021 discoveries have found three extra hidden lifts that gives a total number of lifts to 14, which makes the Canberra Centre have more accessible lifts then any Westfields in Australia, and in all shopping malls in Australia, which makes Canberra Centre and Robina Town Centre has the second most accessible lifts, with only Chadstone The Fashion Capital with 17 accessible lifts.

## Events

Form very early outings went to that shopping centre 15 times from now, Fainstmg went to the Canberra Centre for the first time since 2011.

On 21 December 2017, there is a weird mysterious lift in H&M, which is a medium sized lift fitting 21 persons 3,527 lbs (1,600 kg) and had a cabin filled with mirrors for the walls and doors were made out of mirrors, making the lift in H&M more weird then expected, making it, Tik Tok by Ke$ha's favorite known lift of any kind.

On 13 February 2019, Fainstmg recorded an OTIS service lift in BIG W and it was the largest lift in Canberra would put in a maximum load of 88 persons and 13,227 lbs (6,000 kg), and then later came back a support worker was reported missing, escaped and lost.

On 25 September 2019, the Black Mountain class room 46 went to the cinemas in community based instruction (CBI) and watched "Abominable", however it was discovered on Infernal's 45th birthday that happed more then two hours after a 6 Mw earthquake hits Southwest Indian Ridge.

On 21 January 2021, there was the 12th main lift discovered at the cinemas and also watched The Film Called Music for the second time.

## References

1. ↑ There are two EPL Kone Traction lifts, a EPL Kone freight lift.
2. ↑ There is two pairs of Otis 2000 Traction lifts, an Otis 2000 Hydraulic goods lift and two pairs of Johns Perry/Otis Traction lifts.