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Waltons (department store)

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Waltons was an Australian department store chain, founded by John Robert Walton (1904-1998).

Contents

History

Walton bought a menswear store in 1951, located in George Street, Sydney, opposite the Queen Victoria Building and Sydney Town Hall and close to Town Hall railway station.

In 1955, he formed an alliance with the American retail giant Sears and Roebuck. In the early 1960s he formed a finance company in partnership with Citibank, and also moved into insurance.

There were changes in the retail scene in Australia in the 1960s and Waltons Limited bought out Marcus Clark & Co. in 1966, and then Anthony Hordern & Sons and merged its country store operation into the Walton's store group. This excluded the Brickfield Hill store in the south of Sydney's CBD, which by 1969 had already closed. Next they acquired McDowell's Holding Ltd in 1971, the owners of McDowell's department stores. By 1972, the Waltons chain had expanded to 96 department stores before Walton retired as executive chairman. Sir John severed his ties with the company in 1976, and his son John took over.

Alan Bond bought Waltons Ltd. in 1981, but the purchase became a financial disaster, with Bond losing $199 million in 1983. The Waltons department store name then disappeared, when Alan Bond sold and split up Waltons in 1987, to interests associated with the Cookes family. The Cookes family then turned the remaining stores into Venture and Norman Ross outlets. In 1994, Venture went bankrupt.

The flagship Waltons department store in George Street, Sydney, was demolished and employees and the media were informed Bond Corp. intended to build Australia's tallest building including a brand new Waltons store on the same site. Due to the above-mentioned losses, this didn't happen. This piece of prime real estate remained nothing more than a huge hole in the ground for years. It was finally replaced by the Citibank office tower which includes the Galeries Victoria retail space. The main Melbourne store, in Bourke Street Melbourne was remodelled into a Village Cinema complex which in turn closed in 2006.

The Waltons store in Fortitude Valley still has a Brunswick Street Mall store front with signage "Waltons" but with blacked out door glass since the store closed around 1987. The Street entrances or exits to the bottom level which are occupied by Asian novelty product stores still have the words Walton screwed into the wall with the S removed perhaps as a souvenir.

Australian Capital Territory

  • Canberra City (acquired from Marcus Clark & Co.)
  • New South Wales

  • Albury (occupied Mates Building)
  • Armidale (acquired from Marcus Clark & Co.)
  • Auburn (homewares only)
  • Bankstown (opened on 21 September 1961)
  • Blacktown (opened 1973)
  • Bondi Junction
  • Burwood (opened 1978)
  • Caringbah (acquired from McDowells)
  • Chatswood (opened 1958, homewares only)
  • Coffs Harbour
  • Dee Why (acquired from McDowells)
  • Dubbo (opened 1958)
  • Eastwood (acquired from McDowells)
  • Engadine (homewares only)
  • Fairfield Apparently this store was burnt down in 1983,then relocated in a temporary location
  • Forbes (acquired from Marcus Clark)
  • Gosford (original store on Mann St (Froggy's building) then moved to Marketown SC, upgraded from a homewares store 1979)
  • Goulburn (acquired from Marcus Clark)
  • Grafton
  • Gunnedah (acquired from Marcus Clark)
  • Hornsby (acquired from McDowells)
  • Hurstville (opened in Westfield 1978)
  • Inverell (acquired from Marcus Clark)
  • Lismore (acquired from Marcus Clark)
  • Lithgow (acquired from Marcus Clark)
  • Liverpool (opened 1972)
  • Maitland (opened 1971 acquired from A.S Mehan and Co)
  • Manly (homewares only)
  • Newcastle- Hunter Street (Bank Corner) (acquired from Marcus Clark)
  • Newtown
  • Orange (acquired from Marcus Clark)
  • Parkes
  • Parramatta (opened 1975)
  • Penrith (opened 1973)
  • Rockdale
  • Summer Hill - closed sometime in the mid 1970s
  • Sydney City - Cnr George & Park Streets (Town Hall)
  • Tamworth (acquired from Marcus Clarke)
  • Taree
  • The Entrance This was a small homewares store opened 1968 closed sometime in the early 1970s, was operated from the Gosford Store.
  • Wagga Wagga (acquired from Marcus Clarke)
  • West Ryde
  • Wollongong (acquired from Marcus Clark)
  • Queensland

  • Brisbane City
  • Fortitude Valley, Queensland (acquired Overells in 1956)
  • Everton Park, Queensland
  • Nundah, Queensland
  • Mount Gravatt East, Queensland (closed 1987)
  • Cannon Hill, Queensland
  • Palm Beach, Queensland (opened 1984)
  • Southport, Queensland
  • Toowoomba, Queensland
  • Cairns, Queensland
  • Redcliffe, Queensland
  • Indooroopilly Shoppingtown, Queensland
  • Bundaberg, Queensland (closed 1987 became Norman Ross then Venture)
  • Maryborough, Queensland
  • Rockhampton, Queensland
  • Townsville, Queensland
  • Aikenvale, Townsville, Queensland
  • IpswichStones Corner Queensland
  • Victoria

    Nearly all these stores closed in 1983

  • Bourke Street, Melbourne
  • Chapel Street, Prahran
  • Westfield Doncaster
  • Wodonga
  • Lonsdale Street, Dandenong
  • Blackburn (Warehouse)
  • Box Hill
  • Brunswick
  • Croydon
  • Frankston
  • Geelong
  • Prahran
  • Reservoir
  • Ringwood
  • Sunshine
  • Greensborough
  • Maribyrnong
  • Glenroy
  • South Australia

    Miller Anderson Limited was acquired by Waltons Limited, as a result over its 1966 takeover of Marcus Clark & Co. Ltd. Miller Anderson Limited. Miller Anderson Limited had stores in the following locations:

  • 16-24 Hindley Street, Adelaide - closed in 1989
  • Clare
  • Brighton
  • References

    Waltons (department store) Wikipedia