Brisbane Myer Centre: Complete history of Queen St Mall shopping centre

Everyone has a Myer Centre story to tell - a night out, date with that special someone, or the ultimate shopping spree. This is the history of the iconic site.

Everyone has a Myer Centre story to tell - a night out, date with that special someone, or the ultimate shopping spree.

It makes the changing face of the flagship Queens St Mall site all the more painful and poignant for many.

This is the story of when the centre was built, how it became a favourite and why it has left a legacy.

EARLY PLANS

A Myer store had long occupied a stretch of Queen St and Adelaide St, dating back to the early 1900s.

However the area really came alive in 1988.

Replacing the four buildings on the site - Hotel Carlton, New York Hotel, Newspaper House and the Barry and Roberts department store - the Myer Centre was truly born after construction began in 1986.

With Brisbane winning the bid for Expo ‘88, it was decided the time was right to modernise the city’s CBD.

Construction begins in 1987.

The revamped shopping complex was opened in April 1988, just in time for the World Expo, and by November was bought by the Gandel Retail Trust for $371 million.

The acquisition made it the second largest property transaction in Australia’s history at that time.

Following Australia’s largest urban excavation at that time, underground parking for 1450 cars was created.

On top of the car park they constructed nine levels for shopping with 180 stores and a five-level Myer Department Store.

Remm Property Management leasing consultant Rod Nash in 1988 expressed his ambition for the redevelopment.

90+ photos: Ultimate Myer Centre gallery through the years

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“We are virtually a regional shopping centre in the city and our main competitors will be centres such as Indooroopilly Shoppingtown, Garden City, Carindale, Toombul and Chermside,’’ he said.

“We will be providing one-stop shopping for anyone coming into the city.’’

By July 1988 it was reported that the centre was drawing about half a million visitors each week, rivalling the attendance at nearby World Expo 88.

Due to Brisbane’s hilly landscape, the centre adopted a unique method to name its floors:

■ Level S (named after the former Sizzler restaurant)

■ Level T (Lower Target level, one lift only)

■ Level A (Albert Street entrance)

■ Level E (Elizabeth Street entrance)

■ Level Q (Queen Street entrance)

■ Level 1 (first floor above any street level)

■ Level 2 (second floor above street levels)

■ Level 3 (third floor above street levels)

■ Level 4 (fourth floor above street levels)

■ Level R (centre management)

CHANGING FACES

Through the years our favourites have come and gone.

Endless food outlets have risen. Others have disappeared.

Fun park Tops Amusement Centre had long been the go-to destination for teens before its 2000 closure to make way for cinemas.

Tops included a series of small shops, an amusement centre, a train and ferris wheel.

In October 2000 News Corp reported that 20,000 people attended the farewell free rides.

Then there was something for the next generation.

In the early 1990s the lower floor was home to rock-loving nightclubs like The Funkyard, which hosted live gigs.

Shoppers in 1992.

Metropolis was another prominent nightclub of the era, while Rodger David, Angus and Coote, Jeans West, Suzanna Gras, Bookworld, Just Jeans, Michael Hill Jeweller and Fletcher Jones have long been favourites.

In August 2000 the Grandel Retail Trust announced they would spend $30 million to redevelop the centre, including adding a Coles Express Supermarket (later rebranded as Coles Central).

In April 2012 ISPT Core Fund purchased half of the Myer Centre, at the time valued at $735 million.

As of 2023 the centre was home to about 180 stores, with historical photos released in August 2024 showing the early days of the centre.

VALUE AND CHANGING HANDS

By February 1991 an independent report valued the retail complex at about half its June 1988 valuation of $495 million.

A review of the Interchase Corporation Ltd property portfolio by Devreal Capital Ltd estimated the centre was worth between $230 million and $260 million.

The review warned a buyer would be difficult to find for the centre.

The centre was valued at $470 million in June 1987, and reached it’s valuation peak of $495 million at the height of the property boom in June 1988.

By September 1990, when Interchase announced a June year loss of $114.3 million, the centre had been written down to $327 million.

There have been good times and bad through the years.

In April 1991 two accountants took charge of the centre after the collapse Interchase Corp, with estimated debts of more than $280 million.

Mr Richard Barber and Mr Greg Kelly of Price Waterhouse were appointed provisional liquidators.

The pain continued in April 1992 as the centre sold for half the price it was valued at five years earlier.

A group of private investors paid $207 million to buy the centre, which opened in 1987 at a cost of $385 million and which was soon valued at $495 million.

Stock exchange listed Gandel Retail Trust bought the centre for $371 million in September 1998.

In June 2013 superannuation fund-backed group ISPT bought a half stake in the centre for $366 million.

MAJOR INCIDENTS

August, 1994

A Brisbane City Council bus driver was accused of ejecting a student from a bus, punching him and pushing him against a glass door at the Myer Centre.

It was claimed the driver attacked the Griffith University behavioural science student for no reason.

A bus inspector present did not intervene, so police were called. The incident was witnessed by at least six people.

It was reported the driver attacked the student - who had a valid ticket and was not making trouble - after he refused to get off the bus.

A bus incident caused a stir at the Myer Centre in 1994.

She said the student tried to show the driver the ticket as he got on the bus, but the driver was too busy talking to notice.

The driver then grabbed the student in the aisle and, when the student again tried to show his ticket, the driver said “you can (expletive) off, you won’t go anywhere on this bus’’.

The driver then allegedly threw the student down the stairs and punched him as he tried to get back on the bus.

He also forced the student against a glass door and threw him on an escalator.

The student is alleged to have been left with bruising, headaches and a swollen finger.

November 2, 1997

The Myer Centre was forced into a backflip, vowing not to throw out customers because of their race, colour, dress or hairstyle.

The centre’s policy backflip followed three weeks of revelations of teenagers evicted because they had mohawk and punk haircuts.

The Myer Centre also apologised to 14-year-old Bajool teenager Ashton Locke, featured in The Sunday Mail after he was told to leave because of his mohawk haircut.

On Friday night about 100 protesters walked through the centre chanting: “Shame Myer, Shame!’’

A spokeswoman for Myer’s Brisbane City store said angry customers threatened to cancel their Myer Cards, though the store was only a tenant in the centre and managed separately.

She said the store did not set the policy for the Myer Centre.

Ashton Locke was kicked out of Myers over mohawk haircut.

“We don’t mind what people look like as long as they behave appropriately.’’

Mr Locke said he would laminate the written apology sent to him by Myer Centre director David Clare.

In his letter Mr Clare said: “It appears you were mistaken as a member of a group of youths who had been banned from the centre for previous anti-social behaviour on a number of occasions.

“I would like to offer you my apologies for the confusion and inconvenience this caused you.”

Annerley mother Eva Smith said her 15-year-old daughter Krista was asked to leave while the couple were shopping.

Ms Smith said she had spent about $400 in the centre when a security officer asked her daughter who has a punk hairstyle and clothes, to go.

She said the security guard told her he did not have to give a reason for evicting her daughter.

August 10, 2001

Serial pest Peter Hore caused a stir after interrupting a lingerie launch hosted by supermodel Sarah O’Hare.

Hore, who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic and who claimed to be the son of God, leapt on to the stage while Ms O’Hare addressed the audience at the Myer Centre in Brisbane during a national tour to promote a new Bond’s bra.

A screenshot of the incident.

Myer security staff pounced on Hore who was dressed in army fatigues and holding a didgeridoo.

Hore had been Australia’s No. 1 nuisance, disrupting major events around the country, including the Melbourne Cup and Michael Hutchence’s funeral.

April 2005

Luke Beam, 38, was in 2007 sentenced to 12 years’ jail for the attempted murder of his mother, Margaret Gray, 64, in 2005.

Scene of the stabbing incident.

Beam invited his mother to lunch at a Brisbane restaurant in the Myer Centre and then stabbed her more than 15 times in a frenzied attack because he blamed her for all his troubles.

The court was told he was suicidal when the attack occurred in April 2005, and that he wanted to kill his mother because he believed she had mistreated him as a child.

“(He was) blaming her for all his troubles because, essentially, she gave birth to him,’’ prosecutor Brendan Campbell told the court.

He said Beam had invited his mother to lunch at Sizzler in the Brisbane Myer Centre, but had made a special trip to the King of Knives store before they met.

There, he purchased a large hunting knife, which he took to lunch in a plastic bag.

Luke Beam arrives at the watchhouse.

The court was told the pair chatted before Beam took out the knife and started stabbing his mother in what Justice John Byrne described as a “vicious and frenzied attack’’.

Justice Byrne said he took into account Beam’s mental illness and his early guilty plea when sentencing him.

March 2006

Jacqueline Elizabeth Forbes, 57, of Brisbane, had her case referred to the Mental Health Court after she was charged with two counts of contaminating goods with intent and three counts of acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm.

Ms Forbes was arrested after Sizzler was forced to shut down its salad bars nationwide, after rat poison was found in food at two Brisbane outlets.

Police allege Ms Forbes was responsible for placing green pellets in salad bar food at Sizzler’s Toowong outlet and at the Myer Centre in the Brisbane CBD.

March 2013

Queen St Mall gunman Lee Matthew Hillier was sentenced to four-and-a-half years’ jail over the 90-minute standoff .

The sentence came after the release of dramatic CCTV footage showing the final moments of Hillier’s standoff with officers.

The footage shows Hillier, who took a gun into the busy Queen Street Mall and begged police to shoot him, waving the weapon around at various locations as armed police confront him.

After 90 minutes, Hillier is seen going down after being shot and armed SERT officers swarm over him.

The siege started just before 11.30am when three plain-clothes officers approached the man in the Myer Centre in the city’s Queen Street Mall.

A witness, Olivia, said she was having a meal in the centre when the confrontation began.

“The guy ripped off his shirt and pulled out a gun and pointed it at them,’’ she said.

2017 flooding

The Myer Centre was among Brisbane CBD locations impacted by flooding in 2017.

Bus services were halted when Brisbane’s Myer Centre bus station flooded from a burst water main, which shut down CBD public transport hub.

The Myer Centre closed the previous week at the request of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk as ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie impacted the state’s southeast.

Originally published as Brisbane Myer Centre: Complete history of Queen St Mall shopping centre