‘Unfathomably cooked’: Brisbane’s worst shopping centre carparks exposed

Warnings of years of shopping centre carpark chaos have sparked a heated debate over which one is Brisbane’s worst, with several contenders named. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Warnings that Brisbane shopping centre carparks are expected to be chaotic for years due to the closure of the Toombul centre has sparked a heated debate over which is the city’s worst.

Hundreds of Brisbane residents have taken to social media platform Reddit to debate the topic.

A post that attracted more than 420 comments in less than 24 hours has answered the question every Brisbane shopper needs to know.

The leading contenders included the formerly named Garden City Shopping Centre, Cannon Hill and Indooroopilly shopping centres, Woolloongabba Officeworks and the Dan Murphys Oxley.

“Half the people don’t even know where the entrances and exits are, and the section of carpark at the Kmart end is particularly confusing and difficult to move around,” one commenter said of Garden City.

“Garden City (Upper Mt Gravatt) for sure. Only place I’ll park is on top of Kmart,” commented another.

“Christmas week parking at Garden City is a special kind of hell,” another comment read.

“I vote Cannon Hill shops as it’s so poorly laid out and always busy so it’s terrible to try and get around,” the original post read.

“Cannon Hill. If you’re a pedestrian, it’s 50/50 if you make it to the front door alive.”

Another commenter said it took them an hour to get out of Indooroopilly Shopping Centre from “insane” roadworks.

“Oxley Dan Murphys carpark is unfathomably cooked,” another user said.

Toombul shopping centre. Picture: Liam Kidston

It comes after a retail expert warned Brisbane to expect parking pain for “years to come” following the closure of Toombul Shopping Centre.

QUT retail specialist Gary Mortimer said Mirvac’s permanent closure of flood-prone Toombul, which had 1700 carparking spaces, would cause massive gridlock during peak periods especially in the lead up to Christmas.

On Saturday hundreds of shoppers were forced to wait hours and others abandoned their cars after Westfield Chermside and Westfield North Lakes car parks became gridlocked as last-minute Father’s Day shopping turned into a nightmare.