Bondi Junction, New South Wales
Encyclopedia
Bondi Junction is an eastern
suburb
of Sydney
, in the state of New South Wales
, Australia
. Bondi Junction is located 6 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district
and is part of the local government area of the Waverley.
Bondi Junction is a largely commercial area which has undergone many changes since the late 20th century. There have been many major commercial and residential developments around the main street and surrounding area, notably a new bus/rail interchange and large shopping mall.
Bondi Beach
is a neighbouring suburb to the east with a world-famous beach. Bondi
and North Bondi
are also neighbouring suburbs.
The first house in the area was Waverley House, which was built by Barnett Levey in 1827, on the current site of Waverley Street. The house changed hands many times over the years before finally being abolished. When Waverley Municipality was proclaimed in 1859, the name was taken from Waverley House.
Henry Hough was first given a grant of land on the site of Bondi Junction in 1832. On his estate, he built a wind-powered flour mill. This was accessed by a track leading of the South Head Road (now Oxford Street) the suburb's main thoroughfare. Hough named his farm Hope, but it was colloquially dubbed Mill Hill.
In 1854 the first hotel in the area opened. It was named The Waverley Tea Gardens and the surrounding area quickly took that name, quickly shortened to simply "Tea Gardens", which stuck for the next 30 years. By 1878 steam had supplanted wind in milling and the estate was closed. In May 1881 it was subdivided. Streets in this subdivision that exist today are Mill Hill Road and Hough Street. The subdivision of the estate coincided with the opening of the first tramway to the area - steam trams
began operation from Taylor Square in Darlinghurst on March 12, 1881.
With the extension of the tram lines to Bondi Beach, Charing Cross
and Bronte
later in the decade, the term Bondi Junction was coined. It referred to the junction of the Bondi and Bronte tram lines
at the corner of the now Oxford Street and Bronte Road.
With the subdivision of surrounding suburbs complete by 1930, Bondi Junction quickly grew into a major entertainment and commercial centre. Tram lines ran to Bondi Beach via Birriga Road, Bondi Beach via Bondi Road
, Bronte Beach and The Spot
, Randwick
and of course, the City at Circular Quay and Central railway station
. A tram depot was established on the corner of South Head Road (renamed Oxford Street with the completion of widening works in Darlinghurst) and the present day York Road. Oxford Street quickly became crowded and congested. By the 1960s traffic was at the point that Bondi Junction was one of the worst bottlenecks in Sydney.
The suburb was historically divided by the border of Waverley and Woollahra
councils. In 2003 the boundary was realigned from Oxford Street to the bypass road (see below), giving Waverley Council full control of the commercial areas of the suburb.
system. A bus interchange is located at ground level, above the railway station and below residential towers.
The Sydney tram network
was finally closed in 1961 and the Waverley tram depot converted to a bus depot. This temporarily reduced the traffic problem in the area, but the rise of the private motor vehicle soon made the problem acute. A railway to Sydney's eastern suburbs was first proposed by John Young, Mayor of Sydney in the 1870s. This was subsequently incorporated into Dr John Bradfield's Scheme for improving Sydney's railways. The line was never built as Bradfield envisaged. See: Eastern suburbs railway.
In 1976 with construction of the railway underway and the NSW Government resolving to actually complete the project as far as Bondi Junction, construction was also begun on an elevated freeway-standard bypass of Bondi Junction. The Bondi Junction Bypass (later renamed Syd Einfeld
Drive after the notable local man and one-time Member
for Phillip
), unlike the railway, was constructed quickly, opening in January 1979. The road runs around the northern side of the business district from Oxford Street at Ocean Street to Oxford Street at Bondi Road and is elevated at approximately five metres from ground level. It is constructed as a continuous concrete plank bridge. At less than 2 km it is often noted as the shortest freeway in Sydney. The freeway is, in fact, the only section ever built of a much longer planned road known as the Eastern Freeway - a proposed freeway abandoned in the 1960s, which would have travelled between the Sydney CBD and Bondi.
With the railway opening in June 1979, major changes to traffic flow were made in Bondi Junction. The main thoroughfare, Oxford Street became devoted to buses only between Adelaide Street and Bronte Road and a pedestrian mall was created between Bronte Road and Newland Street, known as Bondi Junction Mall. The opening of the railway provided the opportunity to rationalise bus services in the Eastern Suburbs, with most city services eliminated entirely or terminated at the new Bondi Junction Bus-Rail Interchange. Due to cost cutting, the pedestrian mall, bus-rail interchange and indeed the railway station itself, were of poor design and construction. Nonetheless the popularity of the railway was manifest and Bondi Junction interchange became the largest suburban bus terminus in Australia.
In 1998, Woollahra Council which controlled the site of the bus interchange, finalised an agreement to sell the airspace above the site to Meriton Apartments. Construction began in April 1999 for a new bus interchange and two residential apartment towers of over 70m height. While this took place, upgrade works were also performed on Bondi Junction railway station. The new interchange was tentatively opened in September 2000 for the Sydney Olympics
but subsequently closed for further work. The new bus interchange opened in July 2001. In 2003, Waverley Council upgraded the Oxford Street pedestrian mall and embarked on a general upgrade of streets and footpaths in the commercial area.
opened a large department store
on the site of a former picture theatre
on Oxford Street in 1939. This store dominated shopping in the region until modern shopping centres
arrived.
In the early 1970s a shopping centre known as The Carousel was opened. This three-level centre of around 50 shops included a Safeway supermarket (later Woolworths
) and notably for the time, a food court. The centre was characterised by a large carousel
in the middle atrium of the ground floor.
With the promise of the Eastern Suburbs Railway, a larger shopping centre was built by AMP
and the Uniting Church
(who owned part of the site). This shopping centre, called Bondi Junction Plaza opened in 1976 and included a David Jones
department store
. In 1979 the first of two commercial office towers ("Plaza Tower I") was opened above the site. The second ("Plaza Tower II"), larger tower, opened in 1985. Both these towers are over 80m in height. The construction of the shopping centre was a watershed, as Australia had no other commercial shopping projects of such scale during the 1970s. Migrant labourers brought their experience gained from large construction projects in Europe and a tradition of trade unionism. The construction site became a bastion of the Builder's Labourers Federation (BLF) and the Communist Party of Australia
(CPA).
The NSW Public Transport Commission (precursor to the present Rail Corporation of NSW (RailCorp)
) originally intended to construct a shopping complex around Bondi Junction railway station and link this to the Bondi Junction Plaza development by means of underground tunnel. The tunnel was opposed by the local Chamber of Commerce
and subsequently dropped together with the entire commercial development in 1976 when the railway was reassessed in a cost-cutting exercise. In 1985 a third shopping centre was opened below the Eastgate residential apartment development. A fourth shopping centre was opened above the new bus interchange in 2001.
In 1994 The Westfield Group
bought a controlling interest in Bondi Junction Plaza, renaming it Westfield Bondi Junction Plaza. They began planning a redevelopment of the shopping centre and the Grace Bros site opposite. The first Development Application was lodged with the two controlling councils (Waverley and Woollahra) in 1996. The councils were unable to reach a joint conclusion between themselves and Westfield on the development. While they agreed in principle to the development, they variously objected to the scale of the project. This dragged on into 1998 before the NSW government assumed planning control of the project. It was subsequently approved with minor modification. Westfield did not begin development immediately, in view of the now imminent 2000 Olympics.
In 2000 Westfield bought AMP's remaining stake in the shopping complex and also purchased the adjacent Carousel centre. Plans were amended to incorporate this centre in the redevelopment, further delaying the project. Construction of the new Westfield Bondi Junction
shopping centre began in 2002. It was completed in stages from November 2003 to August 2004 and has become one of the largest shopping complexes in the Sydney metropolitan area
. It is known colloquially as "WBJ" and is touted by Westfield as a new experience in shopping, featuring exclusive brand-name fashion stores and a restaurant precinct, which is a first for shopping centres in Australia.
, Parramatta
and Chatswood. Typical development in the commercial area consists of strip-mall type development two or three levels high. However, over the last 35 years, at least twenty buildings of 12 levels or higher have been constructed.
The first large development was the Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club (Easts), the local rugby league
club for the Eastern Suburbs Roosters
. This included a 14 floor office tower which opened in 1968, which was the largest high-rise commercial office development outside the CBD at that time.
In the 1980s, following the completion of the Eastern Suburbs Railway, commercial development reached a peak with several office buildings built in the centre of Bondi Junction. By the 1990s these were mostly displaced by residential developments.
Bondi Junction features high density residential developments close to the commercial centre and low density housing further away. Domestic architecture includes Victorian
and Federation
designs.
Eastern Suburbs (Sydney)
The Eastern Suburbs is a general term used to describe the metropolitan area directly to the east and south-east of the Sydney central business district in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Eastern Suburbs can refer to the suburbs within the local government areas of Woollahra, Waverley, Dover...
suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
of Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, in the state of New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Bondi Junction is located 6 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district
Sydney central business district
The Sydney central business district is the main commercial centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It extends southwards for about 3 kilometres from Sydney Cove, the point of first European settlement. Its north–south axis runs from Circular Quay in the north to Central railway station in...
and is part of the local government area of the Waverley.
Bondi Junction is a largely commercial area which has undergone many changes since the late 20th century. There have been many major commercial and residential developments around the main street and surrounding area, notably a new bus/rail interchange and large shopping mall.
Bondi Beach
Bondi Beach, New South Wales
Bondi Beach is a popular beach and the name of the surrounding suburb in Sydney, Australia. Bondi Beach is located 7 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Waverley Council, in the Eastern Suburbs...
is a neighbouring suburb to the east with a world-famous beach. Bondi
Bondi, New South Wales
Bondi is an eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Bondi is located seven kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Waverley Council. The postcode is 2026.-Location:...
and North Bondi
North Bondi, New South Wales
North Bondi is a coastal, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. North Bondi is located 7 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Waverley Council....
are also neighbouring suburbs.
History
Bondi is an Aboriginal word meaning water breaking over rocks. It has been spelt a number of different ways over time: for example, Boondi, Bundi and Bundye.The first house in the area was Waverley House, which was built by Barnett Levey in 1827, on the current site of Waverley Street. The house changed hands many times over the years before finally being abolished. When Waverley Municipality was proclaimed in 1859, the name was taken from Waverley House.
Henry Hough was first given a grant of land on the site of Bondi Junction in 1832. On his estate, he built a wind-powered flour mill. This was accessed by a track leading of the South Head Road (now Oxford Street) the suburb's main thoroughfare. Hough named his farm Hope, but it was colloquially dubbed Mill Hill.
In 1854 the first hotel in the area opened. It was named The Waverley Tea Gardens and the surrounding area quickly took that name, quickly shortened to simply "Tea Gardens", which stuck for the next 30 years. By 1878 steam had supplanted wind in milling and the estate was closed. In May 1881 it was subdivided. Streets in this subdivision that exist today are Mill Hill Road and Hough Street. The subdivision of the estate coincided with the opening of the first tramway to the area - steam trams
Trams in Sydney
The Sydney tramway network once served Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales, Australia. In its heyday, it was the largest in Australia, the second largest in the Commonwealth , and one of the largest in the world. It was extremely intensively worked, with about 1,600 cars in service at any...
began operation from Taylor Square in Darlinghurst on March 12, 1881.
With the extension of the tram lines to Bondi Beach, Charing Cross
Charing Cross, New South Wales
Charing Cross is a locality in eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Charing Cross is part of the suburb of Waverley and is situated at the intersection of Bronte Road and Carrington Road...
and Bronte
Bronte, New South Wales
Bronte is a beachside suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Bronte is located 8 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the Waverley Council local government area of the Eastern Suburbs....
later in the decade, the term Bondi Junction was coined. It referred to the junction of the Bondi and Bronte tram lines
Trams in Sydney
The Sydney tramway network once served Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales, Australia. In its heyday, it was the largest in Australia, the second largest in the Commonwealth , and one of the largest in the world. It was extremely intensively worked, with about 1,600 cars in service at any...
at the corner of the now Oxford Street and Bronte Road.
With the subdivision of surrounding suburbs complete by 1930, Bondi Junction quickly grew into a major entertainment and commercial centre. Tram lines ran to Bondi Beach via Birriga Road, Bondi Beach via Bondi Road
Bondi Road, Sydney
Bondi Road is a road in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. The road traverses east from Oxford Street in Bondi Junction to Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach. It is 1.8 kilometres long and is located in the local government area of Waverley Council....
, Bronte Beach and The Spot
The Spot, New South Wales
The Spot is a locality in south-eastern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Spot is located in the south-eastern part of the suburb of Randwick, around the intersection of Perouse Road and St Pauls Street...
, Randwick
Randwick, New South Wales
Randwick is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Randwick is located 6 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the City of Randwick...
and of course, the City at Circular Quay and Central railway station
Central railway station, Sydney
Central Railway Station, the largest railway station in Australia, is at the southern end of the Sydney CBD. It services almost all the lines on the CityRail network, and is the major terminus for interurban and interstate rail services...
. A tram depot was established on the corner of South Head Road (renamed Oxford Street with the completion of widening works in Darlinghurst) and the present day York Road. Oxford Street quickly became crowded and congested. By the 1960s traffic was at the point that Bondi Junction was one of the worst bottlenecks in Sydney.
The suburb was historically divided by the border of Waverley and Woollahra
Municipality of Woollahra
The Municipality of Woollahra is a Local Government Area in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The administrative centre of the Municipality of Woollahra is located on New South Head Road at Double Bay....
councils. In 2003 the boundary was realigned from Oxford Street to the bypass road (see below), giving Waverley Council full control of the commercial areas of the suburb.
Transport
Bondi Junction railway station is an underground station which is the eastern terminus of the Eastern Suburbs railway on the CityRailCityRail
CityRail is an operating brand of RailCorp, a corporation owned by the state government of New South Wales, Australia. It is responsible for providing commuter rail services, and some coach services, in and around Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong, the three largest cities of New South Wales. It is...
system. A bus interchange is located at ground level, above the railway station and below residential towers.
The Sydney tram network
Trams in Sydney
The Sydney tramway network once served Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales, Australia. In its heyday, it was the largest in Australia, the second largest in the Commonwealth , and one of the largest in the world. It was extremely intensively worked, with about 1,600 cars in service at any...
was finally closed in 1961 and the Waverley tram depot converted to a bus depot. This temporarily reduced the traffic problem in the area, but the rise of the private motor vehicle soon made the problem acute. A railway to Sydney's eastern suburbs was first proposed by John Young, Mayor of Sydney in the 1870s. This was subsequently incorporated into Dr John Bradfield's Scheme for improving Sydney's railways. The line was never built as Bradfield envisaged. See: Eastern suburbs railway.
In 1976 with construction of the railway underway and the NSW Government resolving to actually complete the project as far as Bondi Junction, construction was also begun on an elevated freeway-standard bypass of Bondi Junction. The Bondi Junction Bypass (later renamed Syd Einfeld
Syd Einfeld
Sydney David "Syd" Einfeld AO was an Australian politician and Jewish leader. Born in Sydney, he was educated at Fort St Boys' High School before becoming a manager of a merchandising company...
Drive after the notable local man and one-time Member
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Phillip
Division of Phillip
The Division of Phillip was an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It was located in the Sydney's eastern suburbs, and was named after Captain Arthur Phillip, captain of the First Fleet and first Governor of New South Wales...
), unlike the railway, was constructed quickly, opening in January 1979. The road runs around the northern side of the business district from Oxford Street at Ocean Street to Oxford Street at Bondi Road and is elevated at approximately five metres from ground level. It is constructed as a continuous concrete plank bridge. At less than 2 km it is often noted as the shortest freeway in Sydney. The freeway is, in fact, the only section ever built of a much longer planned road known as the Eastern Freeway - a proposed freeway abandoned in the 1960s, which would have travelled between the Sydney CBD and Bondi.
With the railway opening in June 1979, major changes to traffic flow were made in Bondi Junction. The main thoroughfare, Oxford Street became devoted to buses only between Adelaide Street and Bronte Road and a pedestrian mall was created between Bronte Road and Newland Street, known as Bondi Junction Mall. The opening of the railway provided the opportunity to rationalise bus services in the Eastern Suburbs, with most city services eliminated entirely or terminated at the new Bondi Junction Bus-Rail Interchange. Due to cost cutting, the pedestrian mall, bus-rail interchange and indeed the railway station itself, were of poor design and construction. Nonetheless the popularity of the railway was manifest and Bondi Junction interchange became the largest suburban bus terminus in Australia.
In 1998, Woollahra Council which controlled the site of the bus interchange, finalised an agreement to sell the airspace above the site to Meriton Apartments. Construction began in April 1999 for a new bus interchange and two residential apartment towers of over 70m height. While this took place, upgrade works were also performed on Bondi Junction railway station. The new interchange was tentatively opened in September 2000 for the Sydney Olympics
2000 Summer Olympics
The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
but subsequently closed for further work. The new bus interchange opened in July 2001. In 2003, Waverley Council upgraded the Oxford Street pedestrian mall and embarked on a general upgrade of streets and footpaths in the commercial area.
Commercial area
Grace BrothersGrace Bros.
Grace Bros was an Australian department store chain, founded in 1885. It was bought by Myer in 1983. There were 25 stores across New South Wales and the ACT, until they were re-branded under the Myer name in 2004.-History:...
opened a large department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
on the site of a former picture theatre
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
on Oxford Street in 1939. This store dominated shopping in the region until modern shopping centres
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
arrived.
In the early 1970s a shopping centre known as The Carousel was opened. This three-level centre of around 50 shops included a Safeway supermarket (later Woolworths
Woolworths Limited
Woolworths Limited is a major Australian company with extensive retail interest throughout Australia and New Zealand. It is the:* largest retail company in Australia and New Zealand by market capitalisation and sales...
) and notably for the time, a food court. The centre was characterised by a large carousel
Carousel
A carousel , or merry-go-round, is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders...
in the middle atrium of the ground floor.
With the promise of the Eastern Suburbs Railway, a larger shopping centre was built by AMP
AMP Limited
AMP Limited is an Australian financial corporation. It operates primarily in Australia and New Zealand. AMP formed in 1849 as the Australian Mutual Provident Society, a non-profit life insurance company. In 1998 it was demutualised and listed on the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges...
and the Uniting Church
Uniting Church in Australia
The Uniting Church in Australia was formed on 22 June 1977 when many congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, the Presbyterian Church of Australia and the Congregational Union of Australia came together under the Basis of Union....
(who owned part of the site). This shopping centre, called Bondi Junction Plaza opened in 1976 and included a David Jones
David Jones Limited
David Jones Limited , colloquially known as DJs, is a high-end Australian department store chain.David Jones was founded in 1838 by David Jones, a Welsh immigrant, and is claimed to be the oldest continuously operating department store in the world still trading under its original name. It...
department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
. In 1979 the first of two commercial office towers ("Plaza Tower I") was opened above the site. The second ("Plaza Tower II"), larger tower, opened in 1985. Both these towers are over 80m in height. The construction of the shopping centre was a watershed, as Australia had no other commercial shopping projects of such scale during the 1970s. Migrant labourers brought their experience gained from large construction projects in Europe and a tradition of trade unionism. The construction site became a bastion of the Builder's Labourers Federation (BLF) and the Communist Party of Australia
Communist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia was founded in 1920 and dissolved in 1991; it was succeeded by the Socialist Party of Australia, which then renamed itself, becoming the current Communist Party of Australia. The CPA achieved its greatest political strength in the 1940s and faced an attempted...
(CPA).
The NSW Public Transport Commission (precursor to the present Rail Corporation of NSW (RailCorp)
Rail Corporation New South Wales
Rail Corporation New South Wales is a statutory authority of the New South Wales government. RailCorp owns, operates and maintains the Sydney suburban and interurban rail network which is marketed under the CityRail brand; in addition to operating rural passenger services under the CountryLink...
) originally intended to construct a shopping complex around Bondi Junction railway station and link this to the Bondi Junction Plaza development by means of underground tunnel. The tunnel was opposed by the local Chamber of Commerce
Chamber of commerce
A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...
and subsequently dropped together with the entire commercial development in 1976 when the railway was reassessed in a cost-cutting exercise. In 1985 a third shopping centre was opened below the Eastgate residential apartment development. A fourth shopping centre was opened above the new bus interchange in 2001.
In 1994 The Westfield Group
The Westfield Group
The Westfield Group is an Australian shopping centre group undertaking ownership, development, design, construction, funds/asset management, property management, leasing and marketing activities...
bought a controlling interest in Bondi Junction Plaza, renaming it Westfield Bondi Junction Plaza. They began planning a redevelopment of the shopping centre and the Grace Bros site opposite. The first Development Application was lodged with the two controlling councils (Waverley and Woollahra) in 1996. The councils were unable to reach a joint conclusion between themselves and Westfield on the development. While they agreed in principle to the development, they variously objected to the scale of the project. This dragged on into 1998 before the NSW government assumed planning control of the project. It was subsequently approved with minor modification. Westfield did not begin development immediately, in view of the now imminent 2000 Olympics.
In 2000 Westfield bought AMP's remaining stake in the shopping complex and also purchased the adjacent Carousel centre. Plans were amended to incorporate this centre in the redevelopment, further delaying the project. Construction of the new Westfield Bondi Junction
Westfield Bondi Junction
Westfield Bondi Junction is a large, upmarket shopping centre located in the suburb of Bondi Junction in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.The six-level complex, notable for its modern structure and retail mix, has several anchor tenants including David Jones and Myer department stores, Coles and...
shopping centre began in 2002. It was completed in stages from November 2003 to August 2004 and has become one of the largest shopping complexes in the Sydney metropolitan area
Metropolitan area
The term metropolitan area refers to a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories, sharing industry, infrastructure, and housing. A metropolitan area usually encompasses multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships,...
. It is known colloquially as "WBJ" and is touted by Westfield as a new experience in shopping, featuring exclusive brand-name fashion stores and a restaurant precinct, which is a first for shopping centres in Australia.
High-density developments and housing
Bondi Junction is Sydney's fifth largest business district behind the CBD itself, North SydneyNorth Sydney, New South Wales
North Sydney is a suburb and commercial district on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. North Sydney is located 3 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of North Sydney...
, Parramatta
Parramatta, New South Wales
Parramatta is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Greater Western Sydney west of the Sydney central business district on the banks of the Parramatta River. Parramatta is the administrative seat of the Local Government Area of the City of Parramatta...
and Chatswood. Typical development in the commercial area consists of strip-mall type development two or three levels high. However, over the last 35 years, at least twenty buildings of 12 levels or higher have been constructed.
The first large development was the Eastern Suburbs Leagues Club (Easts), the local rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
club for the Eastern Suburbs Roosters
Sydney Roosters
The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League and is one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Australian rugby league history, having won twelve New South Wales Rugby League...
. This included a 14 floor office tower which opened in 1968, which was the largest high-rise commercial office development outside the CBD at that time.
In the 1980s, following the completion of the Eastern Suburbs Railway, commercial development reached a peak with several office buildings built in the centre of Bondi Junction. By the 1990s these were mostly displaced by residential developments.
Bondi Junction features high density residential developments close to the commercial centre and low density housing further away. Domestic architecture includes Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
and Federation
Federation architecture
Federation architecture refers to the architectural style in Australia, which was prevalent from around 1890 to 1920. The period refers to the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901, when the Australian colonies collectively became the Commonwealth of Australia...
designs.