Call for unity and respect for our mother country

One of the nation’s biggest regional shopping centre owners, Fawkner Property Group, has partnered with the RSL and retailing giants Coles and Woolworths to celebrate Australia Day.

Retail outlet owner Chris Garnaut promotes Australia Day. Picture: Nadir Kinani

One of the nation’s biggest regional shopping centre owners, Fawkner Property Group, has partnered with the RSL and retailing giants Coles and Woolworths to celebrate Australia Day across its multi-billion dollar network of malls around the country.

Fawkner Property chief investment officer and founder Chris Garnaut said the group’s Australia Day weekend celebrations were an invitation to people of all ages, races, creeds and colours to come together to honour the shared identity of Australians.

“We at Fawkner pay the ultimate respect to our mother country on her national day. We believe that if we cannot respect her for all her strengths, all her weaknesses, and all her failings, we will fail as a nation. This is true acceptance and tolerance,” Mr Garnaut, the cousin of famed academic Ross Garnaut, told The Weekend Australian.

“We, as one Australia, have fought, won, and lost many wars, battles, and disputes but remain one Australia – on our lands, on our farms, in our cities, and in our communities and parliaments. We at Fawkner stand for one united Australia and invite all people of all races, all creeds, and all colours to join us in standing for one united Australia. We believe in respecting the value of Australian mateship, Australian hospitality and Australian generosity.”

Fawkner’s network of regional shopping centres have each entered partnerships with their local RSL to charge a gold coin donation to shoppers to be part of a giant nationwide sausage sizzle this Saturday, for which Woolworths and Coles are donating the food and drinks.

All proceeds will go to the local RSL.

Mr Garnaut said an internal poll of Fawkner’s unit holders, which include a string of rich listers and high net worth individuals, had strongly encouraged the firm to celebrate Australia Day as a “wonderful day for unification” in its shopping centres.

In addition to its regional and sub-regional shopping centres, Fawkner now has a portfolio of 132 roadside retail, convenience retail and childcare assets, including a petrol station portfolio that ranges across NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

It is the largest owner of 7 Eleven stations and second largest owner of Shell-branded stations in the country.

Fawkner is also a large freehold owner of McDonald’s, KFC, GYG and Hungry Jacks fast-food outlets.

“We are the largest and fastest growing fund manager in Australia in essential services. We have been largely buying from institutions in recent years. Large Australian corporates, to date, have historically been shy to celebrate Australia Day. This appears to be changing as Coles and Woolworths are providing all of the food and drink at our shopping centre celebrations,” Mr Garnaut said.

“We, as a proudly owned and operated private Australian company, absolutely encourage our staff and customers to celebrate Australia Day.”

Earlier this month Woolworths announced it would return to running Australia Day promotions this year after the retailer was heavily criticised in 2024 for ceasing to sell Australia Day merchandise in its stores, when it blamed a “gradual decline” in sales for the decision.

Coles remained steadfast in facilitating celebrations for Australia Day, despite its rival dropping the products.

A poll released by the Institute of Public Affairs earlier this month found 69 per cent of Australians did not want to change the date of Australia Day from January 26th, compared to 63 per cent in 2024.

Support for celebrating Australia Day on January 26th among 18–24-year-olds also rose, from 42 per cent in 2024 to 52 per cent in 2025.

Approximately 11 million Australians read, listened to, watched, or engaged with the survey.

Peter Dutton has promised to make it a requirement for local councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day, should the Coalition win government at the coming election.

His announcement was a repudiation of 18 local councils that chose not to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day in 2024.

Mr Garnaut said Fawkner was also running a competition for all of its shopping centre operators this week, offering a $10,000 cash prize to the centre that generates the most interest in Australia Day Weekend celebrations from its shoppers and retailers.

Each centre will be ranked on a scorecard including foot traffic, media and social media engagement, as well as community and retailer involvement.

Community engagement will be measured based on the ­collective number of volunteer hours that are committed to at each centre.

As an example, if four RSL volunteers cook the BBQ for an hour and are then relieved by five Lions Club volunteers for the next two hours, that would be a collective 14 volunteer hours.

Retailer involvement will consider the percentage number of tenants within a centre that engage in the Australia Day Weekend celebrations with Big W having the same value as a Donut King, being one tenant.

“Having strong foot traffic through our centres this weekend is only going to be good for our ­retailers. Our core job is to help our tenants increase their sales,” Mr Garnaut said.

Fawkner, which has $3.5bn in funds under management, has been one of Australia’s most active acquirers of regional and sub-­regional shopping centres across the nation in recent years.

It has been buying unwanted assets from large institutions under pressure to either cut debt or fund redemptions.

Its portfolio of 16 regional and sub-regional centres has grown dramatically, especially in Queensland where it has bought centres in Gladstone, Mackay and Cairns. It also owns Traralgon Centre Plaza in Victoria.

In the past 12 months Fawkner has added more than $1.1bn of centres to its portfolio. Its current annual foot traffic is about 60 million visitors per year.

Fawkner has also been active in Western Australia, where it bought Midland Gate shopping centre for $465m, with the backing of Hong Kong private equity and real estate house PAG. It also owns The Square Mirrabooka in Perth’s northern suburbs.