After Christmas , the lights eventually went out in Santaland, in Townsville's CastleTown shopping centre . It remained closed for some time , the large, unlit Angus and Robertson Bookshop sign over the entrance , long gone, still visible . Last week the space was open...occupied by cars . A short distance along was another space filled with cars .
In November , without much detail , it was announced that the Myer store in Townsville's Stockland shopping centre would be altered to contain a Degani Café.This was dutifully reported in the Townsville Bulletin , along with an ominous statement by Myer CEO Richard Umbers that 19 stores were at risk of closure .
There was no media follow up to ask the management of the existing large café near the Myer entrance what it felt about Myer getting into the tucker business as well . Umbers has just resigned , the company is in dire financial strife , will the food business plan go ahead ?
Some years ago, it was trumpeted politically that Myer would be opening up in the second stage of Darwin's Casuarina Shopping Centre , in the Northern Territory . Did not happen .
However, the second stage , which has a Singaporean look about it , went ahead and many people say it and other large shopping centres at Palmerston and Coolalinga have sucked the life out of the ailing Darwin CBD , especially the Smith Street Mall , once a thriving part of the city.
In December, this was the closing down sale of the Aussie Shop NT in the Smith Street Mall. There are signs, however, that new life is about to be injected into the mall . Word is that the famous Vic Hotel , where pioneer aviators stayed and NT News reporting staff of yesteryear had a close association, which has been closed , below, for a long time , has been bought by a smart operator, with catering interests locally and Alice Springs.
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The Darwin City Council plans to move its library into the mall and Anthony's Arcade, the subject of planned major development in the past , has been bought by a southern group. This tale endeth on a sad footnote : a long running eatery, not far from the mall , Ducks Nuts , closed due to a large amount of money taking flight, instead of nesting in the till . |
