Canning Vale College Nears Completion

4 January 2004

The first stage of Canning Vale College is nearing completion. Stage 1 includes the middle school, art facilities, cafeteria, library and a business centre.

The second stage is planned for completion for 2007 school year will include the senior school, sports hall and hard courts.

College Concept

July 2003

January 2004

Greening Canning Vale College

Comment News, 16 December 2003

Bannister Creek Catchment Group is helping to landscape the new Canning Vale [Senior High School] College site in Ponderosa Street Canning Vale.

The Group with the Assistance of landscape developers and designers, BGC and Year 7 Students from Ranford, Campbell and Canning Vale primary schools spent a day planting native trees around the site.

Bannister Creek Catchment Group spokeswoman Georgie Davies said the rehabilitation of the area was to complement the living stream environment designed by Beckenham.

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Roe Highway Stage 6 Update
New Willeri Drive Bridge Scheduled to Open in January

Community Newspapers, 6-12 January 2004

During January 2004, pedestrian, cycle and car traffic flowing north and south along Willeri Drive will be directed over the new bridge. The existing Willeri Drive will be closed and the Roe Highway on and off ramps on the eastern side of the bridge will be constructed once the traffic is flowing over the new bridge.

Safety Award for Forest Lakes Shopping Centre

Community Newspapers, 6-12 January 2004

Forest Lakes Shopping Centre received a meritorious Fire and Emergency Services Authority (FESA) Award.

The award acknowledges the positive contribution to community safety in Western Australia during 2003.

Fire Safety activities were held at Forest Lakes during the October school holidays. Funds raised from activities were donated to the burns unit at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH).

Smokers’ butts under fire

21 January 2003
The Examiner, 18 December 2003

Canning Vale is set to become the front line in the battle against smokers who cause fires with their butts. Emergency Service Minister Michelle Roberts said in a trial area was being set up in the suburb and motorist could face up to $5000 in fines if caught throwing their cigarettes out of the car window.

She said police and fire fighters would be issuing infringement notices during the trial.

“This offence is deplorable and preventable,” the Minister said.

“These fires damage the environment, waste fire fighters time and put them at unnecessary risk.”

Mrs Roberts said last summer there were 550 mulch fires around Perth and in one day a total of 17 fires were reported along Bannister Road , Canning Vale.

“Often these fires occur on busy stretches of road which means fire fighters have to work on the roadway, putting their lives in danger,” she said.

Authorities say hot conditions are shaping up to make this a “challenging summer” for fire fighters – they say it is imperative that emergency services are not unnecessarily tied up at preventable fires.

Great Deal at Cherubs Beauty Salon!

Cherubs Beauty Salon

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Marko Opens in Canning Vale

4 January 2004
Article from the West Australian
Author: By Ruth Williams Article Title: Retail takes a gamble on hypermania
http://www.thewest.com.au/20031213/business/tw-business-home-sto117029.html

ANYONE who tried to get close to the new Makro Warehouse in Canning Vale on Thursday would have needed plenty of time, patience and sturdy walking shoes.

At some times traffic was backed up along nearby Ranford Road and, with the carpark full, would-be shoppers were parking in a nearby housing estate and on road verges.

Inside, customers jostled to get to a baffling range of goods - including outdoor furniture, bulk packages of soft drink, artificial flowers, coat hangers, corn chips, wide screen television sets, fishing rods, air mattresses and dog food.

The Makro Warehouses - in Canning Vale, Joondalup, Mandurah and Bunbury - are WA's first real taste of a hypermarket phenomenon which has already swept the

Canada

, much of Asia and parts of Europe .

But it has had a chequered history in

Australia

.

The concept is a combination supermarket and discount department store - carrying bulk grocery items and big-ticket household goods, but no fresh food and often with a limited selection of grocery brands.

Khair Mirza, Asia-Pacific retail research manager at consultancy firm Euromonitor International in

Singapore

, says hypermarkets often sell the same kind of goods as supermarkets but also use their size advantage to offer non-food products that appeal to their target consumers.

"For instance, hypermarkets in the UK are selling CDs and DVDs well, while in France, clothes and bicycles make increasingly profitable parts of hypermarkets' offerings," he says.

The selection changes depending on the operator and the country but the principles are always the same - it is a big, no-frills building, with management committed to moving goods quickly on a big scale.

"Unlike department stores, hypermarkets normally focus on price competitiveness more than personalised, quality service," says Mr Mirza.

"Hypermarkets like to say that consumers get to shop as a family, or individually, in one place and get good value for money for as wide a range of goods as is possible."

Coles Myer tested the hypermarket concept in the 1980s with Super Kmart, while in the early 1990s Foodland Associated flagged grand plans for a 75-store national hypermarket network under the Venture banner. Both proved unsuccessful.

The Makro Warehouses are owned in Australia by listed retailer Miller's Retail, which owns a swag of Australian retail chains including Crazy Clark's and Miller's Fashion Club.

There are four WA Makro Warehouses and two in Queensland , and Australian Securities & Investments Commission records reveal that Makro Warehouse NSW has been registered as a business name.

A Miller's spokesman said yesterday the company was trying the concept in Perth to see how it performed.

Miller's says its Makro Warehouses were developed wholly within

Australia

and are unrelated to the Makro hypermarkets operated by Dutch consortium SHV in Asia and South America and German group Metro in Europe .

Worldwide, the big hypermarket players are

France

's Carrefour - which invented the concept four decades ago - the British chain Tesco ,

France

's Auchan and the Casino Group.

They have been a particular success in South-East Asia . In

Thailand

, the runaway success of the hypermarket concept prompted that country's government to freeze the expansion of hypermarket chains - including Makro - amid fears the big retailers were wiping out the small operators.

There are similar concerns in the

, where the world's biggest retailer Wal-Mart runs a chain of "supercentres" credited with crushing small stores and supermarkets alike.

But it hasn't been all good news for the hypermarket.

Perth-based retail consultant John Stanley says the concept has been slow to catch on in countries like Italy and South Africa which are more "family business oriented", as opposed to the US which is all about value.

So will the concept work in

Australia

? Mr Stanley says success will depend on whether

Australia

is still more attracted, like

Italy

, to the family-run, neighbourhood store, or value-driven like the

.

Mr Mirza is equally unsure. "It might be the start of a new beginning, or it might simply encourage the existing grocery players to be more competitive in their own retail formats," he says.

"Hypermarkets continue to be a leading feature of the retailing landscape in Europe , especially Western Europe , but in this decade the Asia-Pacific will probably be the main area of growth."

Property agent Burgess Rawson director Cameron Hopkins believes Perth could support another four to six hypermarkets, but doesn't think that smaller operators should fear them.

His research indicates that outlets in Livingstone Marketplace near Makro in Canning Vale enjoyed a boost in sales after the Makro opening.

"Customers were combining the shopping experience - going to one then filling in the gaps at the other," he says.

He believes Makro's biggest competitors will be the discount department stores such as K Mart and Big W, and tips New Zealand retailer The Warehouse to be the next company to bring the concept to Perth.

So can Woolworths and Coles Myer beat hypermarkets, or should they join them? The arrival of the Makro Warehouses may well reignite speculation that Coles Myer or Woolworths will wade into the hypermarket game.