Carousel Shopping Centre

Statement of Significance

Carousel Shopping Centre is significant for the association with the rapid development of Cannington and its surrounding suburbs, and is reputedly the first enclosed mall shopping centre in Western Australia.

Physical Description

Westfield Carousel Shopping Centre is the largest land holding within the Canning City Centre and has been a prominent landmark as the largest shopping destination in the southeast metropolitan corridor.

The place comprises a fully enclosed two-storey painted precast concrete walls with contemporary cladding panels, and concrete floor with epoxy coating concrete roof throughout.

As of January 2017, the place comprises 290 tenancies and 82,275m² of gross lettable area.

History

According to a 1906 estate plan of the ‘Federal Estate’, the site of Carousel Shopping Centre once contained the Road Board Office building, Cannington Primary School, Hotel Cecil, and residential development. In addition, a post office was also located opposite the Main Perth-Albany Road (now Albany Highway), which suggests that at the time, the site of Carousel Shopping Centre was a central place for the local community.

A 1953 historical aerial photograph of the site of Carousel Shopping Centre indicates that the site remained largely vacant retained the Road Boards Office building (whose function had moved to the local Town Hall in 1909), Cannington Primary School, Hotel Cecil, and residential development to the northeast and to the southwest.

By the late 1950’s, the Road Boards Office building was demolished to make way for a new shopping centre.

On 25 September, 1958, the Boans Waverley Store opened between the Hotel Cecil and Cannington Primary School. The Boans Waverly Store was Cannington’s first large shopping centre, constructed of concrete, brick and glazing which was representative of the Late Twentieth-Century Late Modern style of commercial buildings. At this time, there were few shopping centres in Perth and most people would go into the City to shop.

Boans Waverly attracted much public attention prior to its opening and people crowded into the store. Yoyos were popular during this time and the Boans store received a display from the Coca Cola yoyo team with organised competitions for children. The store also had a confectionary counter with lengths of sugar cane, which attracted much excitement from children, especially the students of Cannington Primary School as their school was located adjacent to the store.

Boans Waverley contained a cafeteria with a variety of food displays with hot chips being the most popular. Men, women and children clothing, makeup counters and household goods and vinyl records were available within the store. A fenced playground was located to the back of the store which had a pumpkin shaped slide.

Boans later provided holiday employment for many residents and supplied the entire Canning area as well as others from surrounding suburbs.

As a result of its success, 64 additional stores were built as part of an extension and redevelopment which subsequently formed the Cannington Regional Shopping Centre. The State Premiere at the time, Mr. J. Tonkin M.P, officially marked the opening of the $8 million redevelopment with a grand fireworks display. The Boans store became part of the larger centre which claimed to be the first fully enclosed air-conditioned shopping centre in the
state. Cannington Regional Shopping Centre contained a Woolworths supermarket, Boans (which later became Myers), and Aherns (which later became David Jones) and Walsh’s. To make way for the extension, Cannington Primary School as well as several houses were demolished and relocated. As part of the works, the original façade of the Boans store was
also replaced with red metallic cladding which was installed around the rest of the shopping centre.

By 1973, a stand-alone Target department store was constructed over a vacant site to the north and in 1979, another extension was built to connected the Target store, a Coles supermarkets and other specialty stores with the rest of the centre. On 28 June 1990, a standalone cinema complex was also constructed along Cecil Avenue to the rear of the shopping centre.

From 1998 to 1999, the centre was extensively redeveloped and the retail area expanded to about twice its original size to become the largest shopping centre in Western Australia. As part of the redevelopment, the stand-alone cinema to the rear was demolished and relocated inside the shopping centre. The majority of the façade to the shopping centre was removed, apart from the former Walsh’s façade which contained a series of window awnings. Further tenancy reconfigurations were completed in 2000 and in 2008 a second
storey gym tenancy and other specialty stores and banks where completed.

In early 2017, construction commenced on the first stage of Westfield Carousel’s redevelopment which will include the re-introduction of a David Jones store and more than 60 new stores, a multi-deck carpark, an open-air lifestyle and leisure precinct, a refurbished 14-screen cinema and 12 new restaurants. The expansion will provide an additional 47,108m2 of floorspace, enlarging the Centre to 130,230m2. Most of the original fabric, including the original awnings, was removed as part of the scope of works. This work was completed by September 2018 when the expanded facilities opened.

Integrity/Authenticity

Low

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

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Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.