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Carindale Shopping Centre

By JOL Admin | 5 November 2008

Did you know that Carindale Shopping Centre in Brisbane turns 30 in 2009?  We recently received a query regarding this fact and in the course of research discovered some fascinating information about the suburb.

Carindale was originally part of the suburb of Belmont.  The area was officially recognized as a separate suburb in 1980, the name Carindale originating from the housing estate which was developed there in the 1970s.

The early history of the area began with timber getting in the 1850s.  Once the land was cleared sugar cane was grown along Bulimba Creek.  Farmers in the area also grew bananas, pineapples and other small crops.  In 1898 Baynes Brothers established their fellmongery and wool scour where Carindale Shopping Centre now stands.

Baynes Brothers wool scour, 1908.  Image No: 191799

Planning of the shopping centre began in 1975 when property consultants, Jones Lang Wootton, were approached to submit a report on the feasibility of a retail centre to serve the Carindale housing estate.  In December 1976 the site of 12.87 hectares was sold by Jones Lang Wootton to the SGIO (State Government Insurance Office) for a major shopping centre development.  The complex cost $12 million and opened on the 14th November 1979 featuring 50 specialty shops.

Site of the proposed shopping centre. Image No: 181638

Site of Carindale Shopping Centre.  Image No: 181632

The Telegraph newspaper provided extensive coverage of the opening of Carindale in the issues of the 13th and 14th November, 1979.  An extract appears below:

Parties give way to shops

Back in the 1800s many of Brisbane's social set trekked to Belmont House for parties and balls.  Today the area resounds with the noise and bustle of a different social function - the new Carindale Shopping Centre.  Carindale was built on the site of the old Belmont House which, 79 years ago, was the birth place of Mrs Jean Simons, now of Derby Street, Coorparoo.  "It was demolished while I was still a child, for a new house we also lived in.  It was built somewhere in the mid 1800s by a Colonel Berneker and was the original Belmont House after which Belmont was named." she said.  Mrs Simons said that she lived on the site with her parents until her marriage in 1926.  "It was quite interesting when the shopping centre was being built and I went along often to see what was happening to the site." she said....Mrs Simons said one of her most colourful memories of the old house as a child had been its citrus and mango orchard in the back yard.

Large crowds and traffic jams heralded the opening of the shopping complex.  Even before the doors opened at 8.15 a.m. today thousands of people had gathered outside shop doors.  A spokesman said trading had been hectic...The shopping centre will service Carina, Belmont, Coorparoo and other suburbs.  

(Telegraph, 14/11/1979, p.5)

Other photographs of Carindale and Belmont may be viewed on Picture Queensland.

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