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Roselands Shopping Centre
Roselands Facade.jpg
The Roselands Shopping Centre building
Location Roselands, New South Wales, Australia
Coordinates 33°56′06″S 151°04′08″E / 33.93500°S 151.06889°E / -33.93500; 151.06889
Address Roselands Dr, Roselands NSW 2196
Opening date 12 October 1965; 58 years ago (12 October 1965)
Management Vicinity Centres
Owner Vicinity Centres (50%)
Challenger (50%)
No. of stores and services 150
No. of anchor tenants 5
Total retail floor area 62,684 m2 (674,725 sq ft)
No. of floors 3
Parking 3,187 spaces

Roselands Shopping Centre (previously known as Centro Roselands) is a shopping centre in the suburb of Roselands in South Western Sydney.

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.

Roselands was officially opened on 12 October 1965, and at the time it was the largest shopping centre in the southern hemisphere. 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.

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.


Transport

Roselands Shopping Centre has bus connections to Greater Western Sydney, Inner West, St George, Sutherland Shire, as well as local surrounding suburbs. It is served by Punchbowl Bus Company, Transit Systems and Transdev NSW. The majority of its bus services are operated outside the centre on Roseland Avenue. There is no railway station in Roselands; the nearest stations are located in Punchbowl or Narwee.

Roselands has multi-level car parks with 3,187 spaces.

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