Mount Barker, South Australia - Culture

Culture

Mount Barker is the largest town in the Adelaide Hills, with more than 10,000 people. It is the home of a number of different businesses including five shopping centres, four supermarkets and many restaurants, cafés and fast food outlets. Mount Barker also has many recreational activities available such as walking trails and a cinema. Mount Barker has five shopping centres, Mount Barker Central, also known as The Bilo Mall (The original Bilo Mall was formerly the Mount Barker Tannery which closed down in the early eighties) is the largest and oldest, containing a Coles (Previously BI-LO), a Kmart and more than 50 speciality shops. Mount Barker Village is a smaller shopping centre based around the Foodland supermarket. It has fewer speciality shops although it does have a playground. Mount Barker Plaza which used to house another Coles supermarket (that was around before the one in Mount Barker Central was converted from a BI-LO) has recently been redeveloped, adding new stores such as Dick Smith, Gloria Jeans and The Reject Shop, which is located where Coles used to be in the mall. The developers have also increased car parking on property adjacent to satisfy the requirements of the new retail additions to the site. The Woolworths Complex is not really a shopping centre as such, but is just a Woolworths and a few small shops nearby.

The most recent shopping centre is the Adelaide Hills Homemaker Centre. It replaces some old industrial buildings (which was Jacobs Smallgoods and Abattoir) near the St Francis de Sales college that were bulldozed in 2003. This industrial site also was used as the meatworks in the movie The Honorable Wally Norman. This shopping centre has a Harvey Norman, a Radio Rentals, about ten speciality shops, and a multi-storey office block housing the District Council of Mount Barker.