Watergardens Town Centre is a super regional

shopping centre A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...

located in

Taylors Lakes Taylors Lakes is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, north-west of Melbourne's Melbourne City Centre, Central Business District, located within the City of Brimbank Local government areas of Victoria, local governm ...

, 24 kilometres north-west of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

. It opened in 1997, and is owned by the

Queensland Investment Corporation QIC (Queensland Investment Corporation) is a Government owned investment company owned by the Queensland Government. It was founded on 1 July 1991 pursuant to the ''Queensland Investment Corporation Act 1991'' to serve the long-term investment r ...

History

The site was purchased by the

(QIC) in February 1995, with construction commencing in October 1996. The initial proposal for the site included of retail space at the cost of , with

anchor tenants In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. Wit ...

Bi-Lo,

Hoyts The Hoyts Group of companies in Australia and New Zealand includes Hoyts Cinemas and Val Morgan. Hoyts operates more than 450 cinema screens and 55,000 seats, making it Australia's second largest movie exhibitor after Event Hospita ...

Safeway Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, d ...

and

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...

. The centre opened as Watergardens Shopping Centre on 29 September 1997 with 100 speciality stores: the name Watergardens was reportedly chosen in homage of the adjacent Taylors Creek. The adjacent Watergardens Town Centre Homemaker Centre opened in 2001, expanding to of retail space in 2002.

Watergardens railway station Watergardens railway station is located on the Sunbury line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the western Melbourne suburb of Sydenham, and it opened on 26 January 2002.

was also opened in 2002 following the extension of

M-Train M-Train (stylised as M>Train) was a train operator in Melbourne, Australia, and operated some of the city's suburban rail operations. Formed in October 1997 as Bayside Trains, a business unit of the Public Transport Corporation, it was priva ...

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

services to Sydenham, with QIC purchasing the

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...

to the station. A further expansion to the centre was announced in 2003, adding a further of retail space south of the complex. Construction commenced in December 2005 and was originally planned to open in April 2007, but was delayed until May of that year. The expansion included

Big W Big W (stylized as BIG W) is an Australian chain of discount department stores, which was founded in regional New South Wales in 1964. The company is a division of Woolworths Group and as at 2019 operated 176 stores, with around 22,000 employee ...

JB Hi-fi JB Hi-Fi Limited is an Australian consumer electronics and home appliances retail company. It is publicly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Its headquarters are located in Southbank, Melbourne, Victoria. The company has 316 stores ...

and a second Safeway supermarket. A record crowd attended the centre on 23 December 2007, with more than 45,000 customers attending the centre. An expansion of the centre was undertaken between 2019 and 2020, resulting in the closure of the Coles (previously Bi-lo) store. The expansion, known as 'The Marketplace', was completed in 2020 and included an

Aldi Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when t ...

supermarket. As part of nationwide restructuring, the Target store was replaced by Kmart in early-mid 2021.

Transport connections

Watergardens is serviced by the adjacent

Watergardens railway station Watergardens railway station is located on the Sunbury line in Victoria, Australia. It serves the western Melbourne suburb of Sydenham, and it opened on 26 January 2002.

, with all

Metro Trains Metro Trains Melbourne, often known simply as Metro, is the franchise operator of the electrified suburban passenger service on the Melbourne rail network. Metro Trains Melbourne is a joint venture between Hong Kong-based MTR Corporation (6 ...

Sunbury line The Sunbury Line (formerly known as Sunbury Subdivision) is a rail line owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Railway which in turn is owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation. The line travels from Sunbury, Pennsylvania, to Binghamton, New Yo ...

and some

V/Line V/Line is a statutory authority that operates regional passenger train and coach services in Victoria, Australia. It provides passenger train services on five commuter lines and eight long-distance routes from its major hub at Southern Cross ...

Bendigo line The Deniliquin railway line (also known as the Echuca railway line) is a broad-gauge railway line serving northwestern Victoria, Australia. The line runs from the border settlement of Deniliquin into Bendigo, before turning south-southeast to ...

trains stopping at the station. Seven bus routes originate at Watergardens station, with the 476 to

Moonee Ponds Junction Moonee Ponds Junction is a bus and tram interchange on the junction of Ascot Vale Road / Pascoe Vale Road and Mount Alexander Road in Moonee Ponds, Melbourne (Puckle Street / Dean Street also meets at the same point). It is located approximately ...

making additional stops to the north of the main complex building and outside the homemaker centre complex.

Tenants

Watergardens Town Centre has more than of floor space, comprising 250 stores including two Woolworths supermarkets,

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

Rebel Sport Rebel (formerly Rebel Sport) is an Australian sport equipment and related apparel chain. History Rebel Sport was established in 1985 with its first store in Bankstown. After being listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1993, it was p ...

JB Hi-Fi JB Hi-Fi Limited is an Australian consumer electronics and home appliances retail company. It is publicly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Its headquarters are located in Southbank, Melbourne, Victoria. The company has 316 stores ...

, with

Zone Bowling Zone Bowling is a group of bowling centers in Australia and New Zealand currently owned and operated by The Entertainment and Education Group (TEEG). Zone Bowling has 34 locations across Australia, and 3 locations across New Zealand. History ...

& Timezone on the rooftop. Tenants at the adjacent homemaker centre include

Bunnings Warehouse Bunnings Group Limited, trading as Bunnings Warehouse or Bunnings, is an Australian household hardware chain. The chain has been owned by Wesfarmers since 1994, and has stores in Australia and New Zealand. Bunnings was founded in Perth, Wester ...

and

Harvey Norman Harvey Norman is a large Australian-based, multi-national retailer of furniture, bedding, computers, communications and consumer electrical products. It mainly operates as a franchise, with the main brand and all company-operated stores owned ...

References

External links

* {{Shopping centres in Victoria Shopping centres in Melbourne 1997 establishments in Australia Shopping malls established in 1997 Buildings and structures in the City of Brimbank

History

Transport connections

Tenants

See also

References

External links