Mooroolbark Terrace - A community shopping centre stuck in time
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- Опубліковано 2 лют 2025
- This is Mooroolbark Terrace, an Australian shopping centre that hasn't changed significantly since it opened in 1982.
This is my first video in this style, and I'd love to hear your feedback on what you liked, and what you didn't like about it. I intend to produce more videos in the future on this channel, so please look forward to them!
**CORRECTIONS**
Since this video went live, two pieces of information have come to light:
Coles don't own stores in the Terrace. Rather, the owner of the building that they lease for their Mooroolbark store owns the stores
The building may have been constructed by a company named Permian and Wright, with the strata title coming in at a later date.
You can support me on Patreon: / stormo (this is currently set up for my gaming videos but I'll update it soon)
I'm calling it, this place is even more depressing than Boronia Mall. Shout out to the remaining tenants, but my god the owner could give the building some love.
I'm so torn between wanting to see the Terrace preserved in it's current state forever and seeing it completely renovated and invigorated. I bought big box copies CounterStrike 1.6 and AVP from the games shop there in the 2000s; that shop was great.
I've lived in Mooroolbark my whole life. Thanks for the awesome history lesson. Learned so much.
I went to Mooroolbark Tech in the 80s I would stop in at the music shop after school on my way to the train station to go home. The Tech is long gone but this joint remains. Thanks for the vid, cheers
The $2 sign out the front wasnt for a $2 shop. It was in fact for Terrys Meats. He used to have a range of meats in the freezer section for $2. Had manymeal from there
i miss how cool this place was. cause of places like eastland and chirnside park being so much bigger and and more modern it just got out dated. I still walk in every once in a while and remember my young self with my mum
Coles owning most of the storefronts in the centre to stop a competitor moving in is extremely on brand.
where i used to live there was an opp shop that was closed for a number of years, and they were going to demolish it, a "random donor" gave the people that ran it 100k and they rebuilt it. Turns out the random donor was mcdonalds that was accross the road as KFC put in an offer for the site.
A shopping centre near me has two Coles in it (one the OG, the other a converted Bi-Lo) because they’d rather operate two Coles’ in the same shopping centre then let Woolies in) - though they couldn’t stop Aldi moving in
@@Brucetiki1 Are you talking about westfield knox or Northcote?
Well done buddy, this was a trip down memory lane.
Also knowing that Coles Property group owns most of the leases in the centre we will not see a redevelopment for some time. It will be stuck in time for some time.
I went there recently and its changed even more so.
thanks again.
I can't believe that place is still exactly what it was like from so long ago... Chirnside shopping center is just as outdated but nothing like the Terrace... Poor old ghost mall... 🤦👻🦇🕸👻
Thanks for the nostalgia ride 🤓👍
Great video! I felt so strange watching it, feeling both sad and elated at the same time. Even though I've never been to this shopping center the nostalgia was immensely strong for me for some reason. The choice of music was also spot on, conveying a dreamlike nostalgic feel to it all. Really well done!
Brilliant idea mate , and very well done. I recently moved back to the Boronia area after leaving in 85 or 86 and it's kind of sad to see what's happened to the entire eastern area. The Boronia Mall just celebrated its 50th year and is quieter than ever. Not as bad as Mooroolbark ,but so much has changed. I'm gonna keep an eye out for your next one. Cheers.
Oh man... Tucka bag! I forgot about them. We occasionally went in when we lived in the area, but probably only when Coles was being rebuilt as IGA was always more expensive. Even back then in the 90s it felt like it was dying a slow death. We'd usually go to Chirny as it was closer to our place on the hill in Mooroolbark, or the old Bi-Lo in Croydon at the centre on the corner of Dorset and Maroondah Hwy (there's a sad old mall) These suburban centres never seem to change much. Even now living in NZ, last time I went through Mooroolbark, it felt the same as it did back in the early 2000s.
This place feels a lot like the old Shades Arcade in Christhchurch before the quakes. Had the same ceiling, only more 80s in chrome... bling bling.
Love the 80s typography.
Very interesting film about this old mall which reminds me of Gladstone Park SC it looks exactly the same inside as MT and its about the same era. I went to a retro Mall in Hawaii too called Pearl ridge Mall when I revisited it in 2017 it looked exactly same as 1988 was amazing time warp experience!!
I've been out the back of this joint and wondered what KFL was. Great info, this SC really is an extension of just how we know Coles and Woolworths operate as a filthy duopoly. As much as you can enjoy this time capsule, it goes to show the lengths these corporate entities will go just to stop competition.
Btw absolutely loved the choice of Library music for the vid, works really well with the era this shopping centre was opened, its prime and decline.
wow what a throwback i lived next door like 20 years ago
Finding this video was a gem... Love this sort of thing...
This was so interesting and what a fascinating insight to a gone by era. Can you do another documentary on the Boronia Mall?
Man, what a great video to kick the channel off with and such an interesting mall... way to get after it Stormo!
Thanks! I just finished watching your most recent video and it was great too! (I gave it a like).
Oh snap its Brick Immortar.
The Tuckerbag/IGA used to be the only shop open on a Sunday, before Sunday trading was allowed by law. That was really the only time we went here. There also used to be a shoe shop where the guy was really nice.
Also, it was always deserted - it was never the "meeting place", even back in the 80's and 90's. Nobody ever wanted to go over there unless they really had to, for example, to go to the bank.
I hope they keep the style and make it at like an antique Centre and still have modern like modern supermarkets and revive it keep it going
I live in Mooroolbark and walk through the Terrace all the time and it's a ghost town. I was also there when Humphrey B Bear came as a kid. They used to have a great toystore in there where I got all my toys as a kid. My brother worked at Tuckerbag and my sister worked at the chicken shop. The place started going empty in the 90's. My high school friends and I used to joke about how long it would take a new store to close down. I've often wondered who owns the whole center and why they don't just bulldoze it?
I remember looking through an old two storey weatherboard house on the future terrace site many years ago. There used to be a Payless supermarket in the terrace back in the 90's where my mother used to shop. Seems like the centre was doomed to fail almost as soon as it opened - I used to walk through it occasionally and it struck me as a moribund depressing place full of businesses that probably never had a hope of succeeding.
This is excellent work. Great job!
Brilliant. We almost leased a store there to run our ecommerce operation a few years ago. Sad to see the Japanese restaurant move out of the old kiosk.
I came from the Boronia Mall videos, and this video of the Mooroolbark Terrace, brings similar themes. I remember when the Oakleigh Mall opened in the 80's, and security guards had to let people in , when others had left. At full capacity. How goes the Oakleigh Mall today? And what lessons can be learned? The Oakleigh Mall didn"t try to make a fashion statement for the time. It just let the shops be the shops. It never considered itself, some kind of artistic statement, that would recede into curiosity, just bricks and mortar for simple money.
I remember this mall being built, and I also remember Coles being built - how old do I feel!!
lol just realised the no smoking/dogs/bikes/skateboards out the front and as a kid I did all!! great vid dude
Union Square Shopping Centre in Brunswick was clearly built by the same architect. It's a lot smaller but the shops on the outside look very similar. Even got the same font on the sign. The Shopping Place in Niddrie also has the exact same flooring
The meat auctions at the butchers on Saturday mornings would attract large crowds
Grew up in Chirnside Park and Mum and Dad moved house to Mooroolbark in 2005. I remember the Tuckerbag at the Terrace way back in the 90s and it was a good little shopping precinct for local but it’s a sad state of affairs now. The IGA really went downhill with the most recent and last ownership. I don’t know what will become of that land. I assume it probably turns into high density living in time given it’s so close to public transport.
I remember seeing Con The Fruiterer there in the 80s
Walking into this depressing place a few times recently to go to the electronics repairer, I have wondered what the hell was going on. So your explanation re Coles explains a lot and highlights the anticompetitive practices these supermarket giants engage in. Given the hustle and bustle of the rest of the Mooroolbark shopping area, this space could clearly be a thriving centre with a competitor. I think there's a current enquiry into these anticompetitive practices and lets hope it has some bite.
I can remember the Terrace being filled with a variety of shops when I was a child and I even remember getting my picture taken with Santa at Xmas time back then. The recession of the early nineties; made worse by the terrible incompetence of John Cain and Joan Kirner I think was what triggered the downward spiral of this once bustling shopping centre.
Another mall I remember from my childhood when I went to MDA Grammar and eventually Pembroke Sec College just up the road.
Never been there but I remember some of the stores elsewhere. Treasurway was like a Fosseys or small Target (but only clothes and Manchester). Not sure I’d call Treasurway a discount store. Makes it sound downmarket. And Half Case supermarket.
9:30 looks like the sickest place to play some downball / 4 square.
It's neat seeing what malls are like outside of NA even though I have never heard of any of those tenants except IGA
Thanks for the memories
I just moved Ino mooroolbark last year and the IGA was the first place I went to
Have you got one of hub in Dandenong
Parkmore Shopping Centre Keysborough used to look a little bit like this with the red balloon cafe I think it's still there there's been modernised Waverley Gardens Shopping Centre and the hub Dandenong and would you believe that fountain gate used to look very small like that that it's massively extended now
Great videos like to see more
Best video ever
I think it is a real shame that this old centre sits empty when so many people could use it.
Thanks for this video.
Never knew of this shopping centre.
So many small shopping centres have closed as they have not moved with the times such as technology.
Rates and land tax would be high even though the tenants are not all occupied.
A good taxation right off for Coles and other owners.
Car park busy because of train travellers as well as school run.
Well there are potential good customers, perfect location for shops.
Well what's wrong with centre.
First needs just one owner ,this formula is not working.
Next a make over,let's move out of the 70s and give this a decent appearance that will attract good tenants as well as good customers.
The bones are there,the people are there as well a major increase in population since the 70s.
Replace the management team to the centre,put all the centre into one ownership and with the right funding this can be a in demand shopping centre.
With the makeover ,those old noisy doors will also be gone
It was a great little shopping centre,lack of maintenance and keeping up with modern shop fronts has be its downfall
permian and wright owned the centre they sold it of as strata title that was the beginning of the end. i ran steves farm market next to teds butchers, we had two cash register open most days, it was flat out. bloody shame whats happened
Ahh okay. This is information that never came up in my research. I'll add an update with this and another correction I received to the description shortly.
Supermarket was a 1/2 Case Warehouse then Went To Payless (Black and White Motiff) And was busy. Ted Butcher and I ran an end of Week auction at 12 on Saturdays. You couldn't move out the front of the shops. We had a spruker Bill Boyle who seconded as our Santa at Christmas. The centre was vibrant back then we had a toy shop opposite us. A bakery who opened while we were there. Bojangles the music shop was a secondary business to the music school being ran by the owner. Leo's was big especially with local school uniforms. I took his big gas oven of the truck, then ask if it was electric he said no Gas! Only problem no gas in any shops. The thing was the combination of Payless, a Cheap Butcher and Market Priced fruit shop bought people into the centre.
This is a fascinating historical record.
Why did you stop doing these videos?
I’d like to see more. 🙂
hey if i wanted to film a robbery-type-scene for a student film in this place, who would i have to ask about it?
also how many people tend to walk around the main area on a sunday?
My first job was at the Tuckerbag when I was 18
Hey cool video, is that Microbee place still there and what is in it? I wouldn't mind checking it out for the 8 bit and we had one of them when I was in Primary school!
I like this
Leaving Coles and fix up more about Terrace and keep it antiqued
Put a Coles in there
Hi ... @ 10:24 ... is that Microbee shop still open and trading ? ... just wondering ...
It moved to a new location within the centre (it's next to Stay Tuned now), but it's still there and still open.
@@stormofilms4415 Thanks bro ... it must be selling antique computers or something to be still in business all these decades ..😂🤣😂🤣 !!! a lonely store ....
So many coles undertake anti competitive behaviour. Clayton also has issues where there 2 coles literally across from one another just to block woolworths out...
I worked at Leo’s Shop for Men in 1980.
Unleash an ocean at Ocean Massage, where the waves pull hard.
I’m actually sitting in hookey park that’s next to the shopping centre
Shout out to Danny at Stay Tuned 🤘
Nice video, how many other old shopping malls like this are in Melbourne or around Australia?
Boronia Mall is pretty iconic. The Dandenong Hub Arcade & Gladstone Park Shopping Centre are also worth checking out
The Pier in Cairns is extremely dead on the inside, but looks more modern than this. I have a video on it on my channel. But you have to put up with my shaky southern U.S. accent, and terrible editing.
The crazy bit, my city had several legendary dead shopping centers (or malls as known here in the US) such as Cloverleaf which I went to during the start of its decline, the place was pretty dingy then, and its now demolished & apartments & stores are in its place now.
But The Pier is the first one I actually filmed, likely due to being as I am not from Australia, I figured I'd only have one shot as it is a pricey trip. Also the dead malls in my area are very obnoxious about no filming.
We only have one active enclosed mall in my area now, Chesterfield Towne Centre which itself was a former dead mall during its early year.
We also typically don't have supermarkets in our malls.
RIP Terrys meats, the best vegemite sausages ever made....
Are they should paint it all back rad like it originally was I gathered that they'll probably demolish and rebuild it with apartments on top like most of the places
You should do a video on Northcote Plaza.
0:41 When the pain wasn't pealing off ua-cam.com/video/K2GvelnXXbM/v-deo.html
I have never been inside this terrace, although having lived in mooroolbark for about 5 years now. Wish you had some stabilisation in your camera, felt seasick after it 😂😂
Yeah the A6400 I used on this video has no IBIS sadly and I didn’t have a gimbal when I made it so it’s all handheld shooting.
The butcher used to be the Chicken Stop.
what on earth does that Microbee store even do?
Ahh memories
went there today, the signs have now changed, and only one store was open for trade
Hi ... @ 10:24 ... is that Microbee shop still open and trading ? ... just wondering ...Thanks ...
@@Hero.Lone-Wolf yes, limited hours
@@hhgttg69 cool thanks ... that place looks like stuck in timewarp .. !
@@Hero.Lone-Wolf it is
Treasureway was the down market version of Venture…
Definitely what nowadays is called a 'liminal space'
there was NEVER a Half Case supermarket here.
Op shop use to be there and Toyworld.
Companies like Coles need to be banned from these strategic property holding practices.
Surely it wouldn’t be that hard to write a Fken law to end this grubby practice.
Strata ownership strikes again.....Boronia mall is strata too......While this one certainly has a charm about it, Boronia mall has the ceramic tile feature wall, and a major 70s feel ....Strata has killed the local mall, time to reclaim them!
Almost as depressing as Gladstone Park
If your going to continue to make these types of info films, I suggest you buy a Gimble.
It's definitely on the list of things I want to get. Either that, or one of those nifty gimballed pocket cameras that DJI make. Actual camera gimbals are super-expensive, unfortunately :(
Sorry, but you need to do some work on your camera skills.
Walking and filming the picture shouldn't bounce with every step you take.
💯💯💯
What a dump
This place ain't got nothing on Norwich plaza in Ballarat