Tales from Tuggeranong - The Hype Dome

Chop71 said :

Build to the WEST.

For such a planned city ……
What the @#$% were town planners thinking.

Not sure if you’re advocating broad acre development in Tuggeranong’s west or saying it is a bad idea. Either way the Government looked at the concept during the late 70’s/early 80’s – West Murrumbidgee development. Like most things in Canberra it was knocked on the head due to environmental concerns.

(Interesting side note, I believe the reason that the Parkway dog-legs awkwardly into Drakeford Drive is because it was originally intended to follow the path of Kambah Pool Road into the proposed West Murrumbidgee development.)

Chop71 said :

Build to the WEST.

For such a planned city ……
What the @#$% were town planners thinking.

As I understand it, that’s exactly what they were thinking… until there was some sort of environmental study done which said you can’t do that.

Build to the WEST.

For such a planned city ……
What the @#$% were town planners thinking.

Dazzlar said :

It is just a shopping centre after all! The addition to Big W is welcome and the rest of the shopping centre has everything that most people need. Why is there always bashing of Tuggeranong? I’ve lived here for 5.5 years and never had a problem. My only gripe are the size of the actual car spaces but meh!, that is why I see a psychologist – to deal with my first world problems!

(To the earlier poster who mentioned Brisbane – there is also Toombul Shopping Centre!)

I don’t see anyone bashing Tuggeranong, little touchy and paranoid are we?

Deref said :

How can the market possibly support so many women’s clothing shops? You never see anyone in them.

I’ve often wondered that myself.

Jethro said :

Northside of Canberra only has Westfield Belco.

Don’t forget the Canberra Centre.

Yes, Virginia, there are still shopping centre experiences. Th US shopping centres have figured it out: lots of marble, chandeliers, and a generally pleasant-bordering-on-posh environment, and people stay longer and spend more. The ‘Gallerias’ and similar US centres bear absolutely no resemblance to what we have here.

On the whole, the traditional, enclosed suburban shopping centre is a dead concept in the US. The lower end of the retail spectrum is turning to cheaper and more convenient “big box” centres, and the higher end is turning to open air “lifestyle centres”.

http://theweek.com/article/index/94691/the-vanishing-shopping-mall is a good read for those interested in such things.

It is just a shopping centre after all! The addition to Big W is welcome and the rest of the shopping centre has everything that most people need. Why is there always bashing of Tuggeranong? I’ve lived here for 5.5 years and never had a problem. My only gripe are the size of the actual car spaces but meh!, that is why I see a psychologist – to deal with my first world problems!

(To the earlier poster who mentioned Brisbane – there is also Toombul Shopping Centre!)

Kmart just managed to plummet even lower with it’s makeover of a family’s Christmas tree on the annual Women’s Weekly Christmas program on tv. Replacing sentimental homemade decorations with crappy cheap plastic churned out in offshore factories, nice one Kmart! Btw I’m trying to remember where we bought the most recent set of Christmas lights, it was somewhere in the Hyperdome, after a few years they reeked so bad of cheap pvc wiring we had to throw them out.

Not disputing Kmart’s prices, but the only Kmarts that look snazzy or anything other than depressing are the ones in the TV ads. Kmart was never high class, but the reno has made the place very cold and sterile

c_c™ said :

Evil_Kitten said :

Kmart looks pretty snazzy now! It’s probably one of the main reasons I go there. I don’t care about Big W – it’s just like an over priced Kmart in my opinion.

Jeez, save me a glass of the kool-aid.

I don’t know where one can buy such an enticing elixir. Unless Goodberry’s of Erindale can help?

But the milk of paradise is available in the food court of the stately pleasure dome. Just up from Kmart.

I just meant that Kmart went all “bargain price” and for example you could get decent women’s singlets for $4 where Big W were still $10+ for a similar item ALTHOUGH I have noticed Big W offering the same priced cheap basics lately so I think they’re trying to keep up and competitive.

For the items I buy, Kmart is better and cheaper. That’s all I meant. I’m not saying Big W is expensive.

I use to buy lots of clothes and manchester in Kmart. I gave up on the towels when they started packaging them up in sets and you didn’t find out about the poor seams and discoloured patches until you got home. I gave up on the clothes when I bought some polar fleeces one winter which were ok but the following winter they were obviously flimsier and I had to return half of them for various faults. There’s a difference between not wanting to spend too much on basics for wearing around the house or while gardening, and not wanting to spend because it’s rubbish. For me Kmart went from cheap to rubbish, Target went from mid to cheap, and Myer just went. 🙁

I think it’s good news that retail stores aren’t dying. Or at least that’s what the expansion would indicate(?)

Evil_Kitten said :

Kmart looks pretty snazzy now! It’s probably one of the main reasons I go there. I don’t care about Big W – it’s just like an over priced Kmart in my opinion.

Jeez, save me a glass of the kool-aid.

Kmart looks pretty snazzy now! It’s probably one of the main reasons I go there. I don’t care about Big W – it’s just like an over priced Kmart in my opinion.

I really really really miss Myer though!

taninaus said :

a beef I have with the new set up is that there is no easy way to get to Big W. If you go to the shops downstairs there isn’t an escalator like they promoted in the strange floaty people hording that they had up and there is no longer an entrance from the carpark near the southern cross – making it a very long walk from either level car park.

Between the old and new loading docks on the ground level, there is apparently access. Not well marked though.

Most shopping centres are outdated, they come from the era of the all internal mall where you basically put a massive, brick, black hold in the middle of somewhere with minimal engagement with the surrounds.

The cafe strip the Hyperdome developed and North Quarter are decent attempts to turn that around, but really malls are terrible, sterile places. I’ll echo those who have commented they’re only good for quickly checking out things to buy online.

JC said :

You know it is pretty much a free market. You will find the shops that are in the Hyperdome are the shops where people are spending their money which in turn means they are the shops that the ‘market’ wants. Shops that don’t survive the market doesn’t want. Simple really.

How can the market possibly support so many women’s clothing shops? You never see anyone in them.

You know it is pretty much a free market. You will find the shops that are in the Hyperdome are the shops where people are spending their money which in turn means they are the shops that the ‘market’ wants. Shops that don’t survive the market doesn’t want. Simple really.

Perhaps Canberra is only big enough for 2 full-sized shopping malls.

Brisbane has a population of 2 million and only supports 5 proper shopping malls (Carindale, Garden City, Indooroopilly, Chermside and Starthpine).

Northside of Canberra only has Westfield Belco.

The Gungahlin and Tuggers shops are simply smaller local shopping centres… a bit bigger than a group centre, a bit smaller than a full-sized shopping mall.

Anywho, I do 95% of my shopping online and I don’t know why people still visit shopping malls at all.

a beef I have with the new set up is that there is no easy way to get to Big W. If you go to the shops downstairs there isn’t an escalator like they promoted in the strange floaty people hording that they had up and there is no longer an entrance from the carpark near the southern cross – making it a very long walk from either level car park.

Since when has a shopping mall been a thing to behold?

It just a place you go to get your shit & go home.

I just doe get people who carry on about how the Hyperdome was “dated”, to me it was the same as the Canberra Centre, only cheaper.

c_c™ said :

What sucks though is they boarded up and finally removed the window at St George bank, which offered a superb view over Tuggeranong.

It’s not all the Hyperdome’s fault though, it was built and located the way it is based on Tuggeranong being much larger, and extending west. That got axed, so it is on the edge of the suburbs not in the middle, and is probably larger than needed.

They’re building new office’s and everything in tuggeranong now. It only took the best part of 25 years!
They’ve put apartments up. Yet they are too small and not dense enough.
A few ACT government depts used to be in tuggeranong yet they were moved elsewhere.

There’s too much Piss poor planning in the ACT

c_c™ said :

What sucks though is they boarded up and finally removed the window at St George bank, which offered a superb view over Tuggeranong.

Used to be a restaurant back when it first opened, then a clothes shop, a few other shops tried and then Go Lo was there for a bit too.

poetix said :

#5, saying ‘I would argue that most tuggeranong residents find it adequate’ is what is called damning with faint praise.

It’s a shopping centre. not the Guggenheim. What more do you want?

Deref said :

grunge_hippy said :

6) I like the junk shops. It’s a teachers best friend.

Ever heard the expression “every teacher is a teacher of English”?

You picked out someone’s error. You win the whole internet. Go you.

What sucks though is they boarded up and finally removed the window at St George bank, which offered a superb view over Tuggeranong.

It’s not all the Hyperdome’s fault though, it was built and located the way it is based on Tuggeranong being much larger, and extending west. That got axed, so it is on the edge of the suburbs not in the middle, and is probably larger than needed.

Erg0 said :

At the very least they could build an actual dome on it…

It has 14 domes – one over centre court, and 13 others in 3 groups on each main building axis.

When the did the 99 reno, the continued the theme with a trio of tinted skylights.

The days of Malls being an ‘ experience’ are long gone. You don’t go there to admire the place.

The only reason to go there is to physically see a product and then go home and order it online at 30-70% cheaper.

And really, for most things that is not even necessary.

#5, saying ‘I would argue that most tuggeranong residents find it adequate’ is what is called damning with faint praise.

NoImRight said :

Erg0 said :

At the very least they could build an actual dome on it…

Front entrance. Look up.

I’ll have to do that. I had assumed it was some sort of clever post-modern thing.

Spitfire3 said :

There’s a front entrance? Every door into the place looks like a back entrance.

HAHAHAHA! Too true!

grunge_hippy said :

6) I like the junk shops. It’s a teachers best friend.

Ever heard the expression “every teacher is a teacher of English”?

There’s a front entrance? Every door into the place looks like a back entrance.

Erg0 said :

At the very least they could build an actual dome on it…

Front entrance. Look up.

At the very least they could build an actual dome on it…

Madam Cholet said :

Food courts selling absolute crap that encourage people who could do with eating a lot less crap to park themselves there

Gotta keep eating if you want to keep that disability permit!!!

miz said :

Limelight Cinema is tops, and now that Big W and JB are here

+1 for Limelight. About time bigw and jb made an appearance. There is, I agree more scope to improve the whole area.

Or perhaps this is appropriate?- Housos visit Tuggeranong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA9kTPJzyYM&feature=youtu.be

Madam Cholet said :

Ah ha…I’m glad this post has appeared, as it gives me an opportunity to just say how disgusting the Hyperdome car park is. If I ever have to go to the Hyperdome, and anyone would try not to on a regular basis, I park in the car park near the library so I can avoid the disgusting smell of cigarette smoke handily supplied by smokers who can’t wait until they get out of the building, even though the signs ask them kindly not to. It’s not policed in anyway by the management.

The whole place, regardless of the new parts, is awful. Food courts selling absolute crap that encourage people who could do with eating a lot less crap to park themselves there, shops selling tatty clothing so that the teenagers who eat all the crap can spill out of them and parade around the shopping centre. Makes me shudder.

And why does Australia need so many bloody JB Hi-Fi outlets?

I’m pretty sure you just gave a description of ALL shopping centers…. And those tatty cloths are apparently fashion.. And JB-HiFi is a pretty dam good electronics store and they give good advice, so long as you speak to the right staff member of course.

Its not so bad. What shops would you expect to see? Go to any shopping centre in Australia and you will see the same chain stores. Why blame the Dome for this? The supermarket downstairs is pretty good.

Was “flee market” meant to be ironic?

“There’s even ANOTHER elcheapo junk shop and more short term leases that look like they belong at the local weekend garage sale or flee market. “

Pretty sure it is the same junk shop that used to bu upstairs (opposite Australia Post), just located downstairs after the refurb. I love the junk shop. All the playtoys my pet Galah could ever want, and costs 10% of the price for an identical item at Pet Barn.

I choose the hyperdome 9/10 times that I need a mall… why?

1) it’s 5 mins from my house
2) has everything I need
3) Don’t have to pay for parking on the weekend (not that I am there much past the 2 hr mark anyway)
4) I can always find a park (apart from this time of the year, where I avoid all shops if I can help it)
5) It now has Big W. (which was the only reason I went to woden)
6) I like the junk shops. It’s a teachers best friend.

I would argue that most tuggeranong residents find it adequate.

Ah ha…I’m glad this post has appeared, as it gives me an opportunity to just say how disgusting the Hyperdome car park is. If I ever have to go to the Hyperdome, and anyone would try not to on a regular basis, I park in the car park near the library so I can avoid the disgusting smell of cigarette smoke handily supplied by smokers who can’t wait until they get out of the building, even though the signs ask them kindly not to. It’s not policed in anyway by the management.

The whole place, regardless of the new parts, is awful. Food courts selling absolute crap that encourage people who could do with eating a lot less crap to park themselves there, shops selling tatty clothing so that the teenagers who eat all the crap can spill out of them and parade around the shopping centre. Makes me shudder.

And why does Australia need so many bloody JB Hi-Fi outlets?

Pitchka said :

OP sound jealous! Im guessing her usual stomping ground is the Riverside Plaza. She has never seen anything like this before!!!!

Sounds more as if the OP is complaining that a particular suburban shopping centre is just like every other suburban shopping centre in the country.

OP sound jealous! Im guessing her usual stomping ground is the Riverside Plaza. She has never seen anything like this before!!!!

I disagree. The Hyperdome serves residents pretty well I reckon, and is looking schmicker than it has for a while. I rarely need to go elsewhere. (Some may go to the $2 shops, but I personally don’t bother.) Limelight Cinema is tops, and now that Big W and JB are here I won’t be going to the Woden Plaza much.
And I NEVER spend money in Belco – that would be treachery! (and always seems to be a parking nightmare). Except maybe that nice little French Provincial shop . . . bah! there’s one of them at DFO!