Revealed: Australia’s haunting mall mystery
It was, for a brief moment in time, a bustling shopping centre packed with retail outlets over multiple floors – until it spectacularly failed and was left to rot a decade ago.
Now, the former Brands on Sale factory outlet in Campbelltown, southwest Sydney, is set to become a new community with around 558 apartments across five buildings after years of decay which led to its reputation of being Australia’s most trashed and abandoned shopping mall.
But what led to its demise less than 12 months after opening in 2009?
Longstanding legal feud reveals Brands on Sale backstory
The $65m four-storey development – featuring about 80 shops, a food court and hundreds of parking spaces – was unveiled almost half-empty on December 10, 2009, shortly after the Global Financial Crisis hit.
By November 2010, the discount outlet had failed.
The following year, property developer Terry Bassal and his father Albert, whose company CFO Unit Trust owned 40 per cent of Brands on Sale, launched legal action against global commercial real estate firm Savills, claiming the firm was ultimately responsible for the downfall of the discount outlet.
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The Brands on Sale factory outlet on Queen St Campbelltown in 2010.
Brands on Sale owner Terry Bassal in front of the new Campbelltown store.
It was alleged the international business failed to honour its commitment to lease 90 per cent of the shopping centre by the December 10, 2009, grand opening.
They also claimed the business failed to mount an acceptable leasing campaign or allocate appropriate resources.
An eight-year legal feud followed with a judgment published by NSW Supreme Court judge Natalie Adams in 2019, subsequently finding no wrongdoing on the part of Savills.
According to The Daily Telegraph, the Judgement revealed friction between Terry Bassal and hotel mogul and business partner Dr Jerry Schwartz, who owned 60 per cent of the failed development and intentions from David Jones to relocate from Macarthur Square to Brands on Sale.
It was also declared Savills had asked multiple times for the 2009 opening to be delayed.
About 400 businesses were approached to be part of the discount outlet store.
Abandoned site has urban explores transfixed
A near-decade long legal dispute meant the site sat empty for most of its existence, subsequently providing the perfect setting for vandalism and unruly behaviour.
In 2021, an urban explorer – who went by the name @chris.grima – took his camera inside the eerie remains of the four-storey property and posted his findings on TikTok. The video, which amassed countless views, revealed dismantled furniture and product displays, graffiti, shattered windows, piles of abandoned stock and sale signs stuck in a time warp.
One shot showed brand new shoes with price tags strewn across the shop floor and another showed tall stacks of boxes branded with electronics company
Inside the abandoned shopping centre in Campbelltown, southwest Sydney. Picture: urbex_gc/reddit
The facility had seen better days: TikTock/ @xistfilm
Many of the former stores were covered in graffiti: TikTock/ @xistfilm
In another shot, lifts in pristine condition stood eerily still, having not seen a customer in over a decade.
The video attracted comments from locals who reminisced about the outlet centre during its fleeting time in operation.
“Woah I used to come here all the time,” someone said.
“I loved this place, so chilled to shop at, last time I was there was like 2011,” another wrote.
“I went to school right next to this place and we believed it was haunted even before it shut down,” another person commented.
“I used to go to the outlets there,” someone else said.
“I miss Campbelltown and its eeriness sometimes.”
There was damage everywhere you looked. Source: TikTock/ @xistfilm
Not even the bathroom was spared. Source: TikTock/ @xistfilm
Piles of abandoned stock. Picture: @chris.grima
YouTuber, @xistfilm, also offered a sneak peak of the abandoned shopping centre.
The explorer found old Apple accessories on the floor — all compatible with iPhone 3 and iPad 2.
“Oh my god, these are old as,” the YouTuber says in his video.
“It’s absolutely nothing like, spooky or scary about this place, to be honest, whatsoever, because it’s so new.”
From shopping mall to urban village
Some 15 years later, the former Brands on Sale site has now been bulldozed to make room for a high-rise complex of 558 apartments spread across five buildings.
The two-hectare site will also comprise an Eat Street with retail and hospitality spaces and over 4000 sqm of publicly accessible space, including a two-level community building with an auditorium, kiosk, and multipurpose spaces.
Concept images of the new $400m apartment and retail complex in Campbelltown.
The development will also comprise an Eat Street with retail and hospitality spaces and over 4000 sqm of publicly accessible space
Property developer ALAND, who is overseeing the estimated $400m project has previously described the new development as a new “gateway precinct” which would provide several new jobs for the Macarthur region during planning and construction.
“The Queen St site presented us with a unique opportunity to create a vibrant, community-centric development to act as a gateway to Campbelltown CBD,” ALAND’s CEO George Tadrosse told The Daily Telegraph.
“The current site has been abandoned for many years, and we know the community is ready for new shops and eateries, a public park, community building and much-needed housing within walking distance to a train station and a bus stop.”
