Dapto Mall is a

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 colle ...

in the suburb of

Dapto Dapto is a suburb of Wollongong in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia, located on the western side of Lake Illawarra and covering an area 7.15 square kilometres in size. As at the , the suburb had a population of 10,730. History ...

, a suburb of

Wollongong Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wa ...

in the

Illawarra The Illawarra is a coastal region in the Australian state of New South Wales, nestled between the mountains and the sea. It is situated immediately south of Sydney and north of the South Coast region. It encompasses the two cities of Wollongo ...

region.

History

Dapto Mall opened in the 1980s and featured 30 stores. In 2003, the centre expanded to the old Dapto Library site. The first stage of the $60 million redevelopment commenced in mid 2006 and took around 15 months to complete. This development saw a large car park built and opened on 12 February 2007. The first stage of the expanded centre opened on 6 September 2007 with a refurbished Woolworths supermarket, an expanded Coles supermarket, over 30 new specialty stores (including

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 ...

) along with new customer amenities and parking spaces. The opening was planned for 30 October 2007, but then got pushed to the 31st. The redevelopments upgraded the Mall's total retail floor space from 6,000m² to over 23,000m², making it the fourth-largest shopping centre in the Illawarra, after competitors

Wollongong Central Wollongong Central is a large shopping centre in the Wollongong CBD in the llawarra region. It is located along Crown Street which the main road of Wollongong. Transport Wollongong railway station is a five minute walk from the centre. Wol ...

, Stockland Shellharbour and Warrawong Plaza. On 20 March 2019, $3.5 million facelift of Dapto Mall had commenced. ‘Bringing the outdoors within’ was the design concept of this refurbishment which featured upgrades to level one. The upgrade included a new food court dining concept, a new kids play area, lush internal landscape design and a bespoke Diemme designed and constructed sculpture. The sculpture is a nod to the surrounding countryside and Illawarra coastline, the colours and décor reflect nature with greenery and natural tones. The level one entry and external ramps were also refurbished. This $4.5 million refurbishment was completed on 15 October 2019. Dapto mall interior

Tenants

Dapto Mall has 21,920m² of floor space. The major retailers include

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 ...

, Coles and Woolworths.

References

External links

Dapto Mall Official Website
{{Shopping centres in New South Wales Shopping centres in New South Wales Shopping malls established in 1980 1980 establishments in Australia Buildings and structures in Wollongong