Westfield Plaza was built on a three acre site, on the block between Edgeworth David, Hunter, George, Florence Streets and the Pacific Highway. The construction required the removal of number of older Hornsby houses including, the once magnificent mansion, “Packenham”, that was built in 1894.
Westfield Hornsby was the second shopping complex to open, after Blacktown which opened in July 1959.
However, Hornsby was the first purpose built Westfield centre. It was officially opened nearly exactly 60 years ago, on 3rd August 1961, under the name, “Westfield Plaza”, with the then Hornsby Shire President, Max Ruddock and the local State MP and Hornsby Councillor, Sid Storey present,.
The cost of the entire project was £345,000 and when it opened it made Hornsby one of the first suburbs in Sydney to have a modern style shopping centre. There were 26 stores, the largest being the department store McDowells, which later became Waltons. Other stores included Knock & Kirby’s, Mick Simmons, Buttles, Hy Grade Meats, Gay Shores, Jackie K Fashion, St Kilda Health Foods, Clarkes, Mansours and Ashley’s. In a major boost for the local area, 250 retail jobs were created.
Within a decade Westfield Plaza had a major upgrade at a cost of $15 million. When it reopened on 16th October 1968, as a much larger complex, it was known simply as Westfield Hornsby. It had increased to 64 shops with 3,000 car parking spots, which included roof top parking.
In 1971, Sydney’s first rooftop restaurant opened at Westfield Hornsby to much fanfare. It was called, “Rendezau Theatre Restaurant”. Then on 21st September 1976, the complex was increased to 89 shops including a McDonalds, which opened near the Hunter Street entrance. There was another extension that opened in October 1979, increasing the number of shops to 96, including a Franklins. This was done in preparation for the opening of its major competitor, Northgate, which opened nearby in November 1979.
After nearly two decades of fierce competition Westfield purchased Northgate in March 1997.
The old Westfield Hornsby complex closed its doors on 22nd January 2000 and was demolished. It was rebuilt and connected, both underground and with a sky-bridge, to the old Northgate complex costing $360 million.
In June 2014, Scentre Group was created to own, manage and develop Westfield Shopping Centres across Australia and NZ..
