Chapter Four How the West Was Won: Retail Development in Sydney’S Western Suburbs
Chapter Four How the West was Won: Retail Development in Sydney’s Western Suburbs This chapter examines shopping centre development in the outer west of Sydney during the 1970s – the decade when ‘Western Sydney’ became a ‘distinct region [of the city] with a definite identity’, and when Australia, along with much of the Western world, entered a new era of economic and social change.1 The long boom came to an uncomfortable end as the economy suffocated under steep increases in oil prices; consumer spending dropped; several major property companies collapsed; inflation went through the roof and unemployment rose; retailers warned of union-driven wage increases; and real discretionary income declined.2 Despite these difficulties, shopping centre development and expansion planned during the 1960s boom continued fairly steadily, although a slow down in the latter half of the decade can be seen as a direct result of the economic problems of the first. Some of the major shopping centres in the Western suburbs which were developed in the 1970s were: Penrith Plaza (1971), Westfield Liverpool Shoppingtown (1972), Westpoint Blacktown (1973), Westfield Shoppingtown Parramatta (1975), and Macarthur Square, Campbelltown (1979). From the Sixties onwards, the west was the city’s major area of industrial and demographic growth, and a key area in the expansion programs of major retailers.3 This chapter will focus on four shopping centres which followed and helped stimulate this growth in Liverpool, Blacktown, Parramatta and Campbelltown. Liverpool and Blacktown illustrate the importance of big retail development to local government and communities in the outer west. Parramatta is important as the major city in the western suburbs, because it has traditionally been the strongest retail area outside of central 1 Lesley Johnson, ‘Western Sydney and the Desire For Home’, Australian Journal of Social Issues, vol.
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