Mogo pop-up mall to give fire-hit retailers a lift

Temporary shopping mall sprouts on the main street of Mogo, on the NSW south coast, in a bid to speed up bushfire recovery.

A temporary, pop-up mall is being set up on the main street of Mogo on the NSW south coast after a number of local businesses were razed when a bushfire ravaged the town on New Year’s Eve.

A 213-tonne convoy transporting 10 demountable buildings donated through the Business Council of Australia’s BizRebuild project arrived in Mogo on Saturday.

The temporary mall will house up to 10 local Mogo businesses, who lost their premises, equipment and merchandise when the Clyde Mountain bushfire swept through the historic tourist town just south of Batemans Bay in the early hours of December 31.

The demountable buildings will be fitted out over the next three weeks by local tradesmen and suppliers.

The initial local businesses in the Mogo pop-up mall will be Roman Leathergoods, Boho Chic in Mogo, Alison Thomson Accounting & Taxation, Mogo Mutts, ABC Property Sales and La Shabbie.

The convoy was met on Saturday morning by the chair of BizRebuild, Sir Peter Cosgrove, Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott and Mogo Village Business Chamber president Richard Adams.

“The Mogo pop-up mall is giving burnt out small business owners hope and reassurance that the Australian business community cares about them,” Ms Westacott said.

“We are doing everything we can to help regions like Mogo get back on their feet after the devastating fires.”

Mr Cosgrove said the business community’s response to the bushfires was “philanthropic, compassionate and very practical in its approach’’.

“Businesses are the glue that keep people in a community, and we cannot stand by and allow small and local businesses to fail and communities to fade away,’’ Mr Cosgrove said.

All parties involved in the pop-up mall understand it will take months, if not years, for the town and many others like it along the south coast to fully recover from the devastation of the bushfires.

“We’ve got to have the rest of Australia stick with this issue, because it’s not going to go away in two months or three months,” Mr Cosgrove told the Nine Network.

“It’s going to be more likely years before everybody’s back where they need to be. They can help in endless ways. They can come to places like Mogo for holidays. They can put their business through here. They can send cash, of course, always, but in kind, there are ways that people bring their expertise to help communities that are doing it tough.”

The pop-up mall will operate until alternative arrangements have been made for local businesses, which is expected to take about 12 months to two years.