Minto Mall begins

Surprisingly, Minto Mall was named, not by a corporate think tank, but by a local primary school boy. Prior to its grand opening on April 28 1981, developers launched a competition asking for suggestions to name the brand new shopping centre. The winning entrant was Mathew, a young local with his nicely alliterative entry.

14 Nov 1980
Arthur Jones Collection

At a cost of 13 Million dollars not only did the building itself employ 200 workers during its construction but an additional 300 would be employed in the shopping centre. Opening with Coles New World, Ansett Travel, Mr Whippy, bank and also Kmart boasting 13 Checkouts!

18 Feb 1981
Arthur Jones Collection

Coles Managing director, Mr Bevan Bradbury said they would “offer a form of shopping that has proved enormously popular.” - referring to the latest fashion for malls. He also proclaimed New World itself would have a 132 metres of refrigerated selling space.

Minto News April 1981
The advertising materials ushering in
this new form of shopping experience,
 proclaiming “Yes, right now you can step into
 1980’s style shopping”

For two weeks the mall offered tickets in various competitions. “Up for grabs” was a refrigerator, colour television and dishwasher. The winning ticket was presented by the “Multimedia” personality of Michael “Hollywood” John Howson and flamboyant Gold Logie award winning comedian, Jeanne Little who's catchcry of "Ohhhhh, Daaaahling was no doubt heard throughout Minto Mall. 

Minto News April 1981

Other promotions in the inaugural weeks included model train displays and free balloons for kids young and old.

According to the advertising there are
 spaces here for 950 cars in this one stop shop.
Photo by Ron Hutchings in the Minto News.

Macarthur Square

Macarthur Square Shopping Centre was officially opened on Monday, September 10, 1979. A crowd of about 600 people attended the opening. The centre cost $30 million and was completed six months ahead of schedule. Workers were still delivering the finishing touches to the centre on opening day as live music played in the background as well as the Macarthur Square jingle!

Various businesses immediately advertised their products and services. P & S Michael advertised a 2 piece safari suit for $89.90 and the supermarket sold Stork margarine and a 1kg bag of sugar each for 10 cents. Macarthur Dry Cleaners offered an enticement of $1.20 per article of clothing to be dry cleaned.

High drama struck the square one day in early December 1983. A three year old boy plunged 10 metres from the balcony to the tiles below and fractured his skull. Ali Elassad and his brother were looking over the railing at Christmas decorations on the ground floor when the accident happened. Ali became known as the miracle boy of Sydney after he escaped death and permanent injury. After some weeks in hospital he returned home for Christmas.

I'm sure many people have wondered who the faces of the people are on the Bolger Street facade of the centre. The artworks were created by local artist Fiona McDonald in 2006 and are of people connected with the Campbelltown region. They include John and Elizabeth Macarthur, their son James, Nanny Barrett a representative of the local Aboriginal people, Charles Sturt, Hamilton Hume and local community identities teacher Kat McGuanne, town clerk Fred Sheather and publican John Hurley.

An $160 million expansion in 2005, which expanded the centre's floor area from 29,000m² to 90,000², saw Macarthur Square become one of the largest shopping complexes in Sydney.

This photograph is of Macarthur Square looking from Macarthur Station. It was taken in the 1980s. (Macarthur Development Board Collection. Campbelltown City Library. Local Studies Collection.)

Written by Andrew Allen