Here we go again. Yet another call to rip up the Armidale mall and drive cars down the middle of one of the city’s most treasured public spaces.
It’s an idea that surfaces every few years, gets shot down by the community, and yet somehow refuses to die.
We went through all this in 2017/2018. The proposal was strongly opposed at the time, complete with petitions and rallies, and for good reason – it’s a bad idea.
In typical fashion for Armidale Regional Council, the consultation process was a mess. As locals may remember, there was little community involvement in the original proposal, and big money had been spent on plans before any real consultation took place. Even the feedback form was structured to assume you already supported the road going through the mall. If you didn’t, you had to reject the premise of the question at every turn. And that’s before even mentioning the casual disregard shown for heritage features and the Reconciliation Fountain.
A similar motion to allow cars in to the mall at night came up in 2023 and was voted down pretty quickly at the council meeting. I thought that would be the end of it.
But no: the issue is back, this time with Federal MP Barnaby Joyce and former Business NSW regional director Diane Gray throwing their random comments behind the idea for no apparent reason. Joyce says “Armidale is really struggling”, while Gray points to Maitland, claiming reinstating vehicle traffic there has revitalised retail.
The problem is, these comments do not survive even the most basic scrutiny. Armidale is not “struggling” – it is quite literally bursting at the seams. There is a huge housing shortage, primary schools are full, a massive need for additional childcare, and our health systems are beyond breaking point. The big business and big employers in Armidale, however, are not retail – it’s manufacturing and services – which means it is not as visible – but almost every shop in the central mall is full.
What Gray is referring to is the Maitland Levee, which isn’t really a mall and hasn’t been for over a decade. The old mall was turned into a shared zone in 2014, along with really extensive work to open up the riverfront to enable bigger street events (a “Lifestyle Precinct” they call it), but it’s hardly a bustling retail paradise – and an absolute pain to try and navigate in a car. For a community of more than 100,000 people within the Maitland local council area, the Levee is pretty dead most of the time, except during their (honestly pretty great) community events and markets, and at meal times in the spots where there is extensive outside seating, eat street style. The real shopping action is at Greenhills, a giant multi-story Stockland centre in East Maitland that pulls in more than 10 million visitors a year.
Cars did not save Maitland’s historic CBD – events and hospitality did. And that gets to the heart of the issue: allowing cars into a pedestrian zone does not magically generate sales for local businesses. What boosts foot traffic is activity, activation, entertainment, and giving people a reason to be there. Brad Widders’ recent very informal lunch in the mall events (who doesn’t love a devon and sauce sanga?) will bring more people to the mall than a road.
Limited vehicle access for deliveries, taxis, drop-offs, and short stay parking, already happens in the east and west malls and works perfectly well. The centre mall is pretty full – the empty storefronts are in the parts where there is vehicle traffic, particularly the east mall. The problem isn’t the absence of cars, in my view, it’s the local liquor accord.
I know, it’s an unusual take. We have this liquor accord – like a club of local publicans and other stakeholders like police – that agree to things like lock outs, limits, and other rules with specific local solutions to reduce problem drinking and keep people safe while out enjoying the night. A good thing right?
The accord rules were introduced to the first time in the late 90’s, and seem to get tighter and tighter all the time until you had to be in the door before midnight, bar was closed at 2.30, everyone out of the premises by 3am, limits on this that and the other… and no hanging around in the mall.
So, in the pursuit of preventing a very small number of people from engaging in anti-social drunken behaviour, all people are quite literally prevented from the traditional Armidale right of passage of wandering up and down the mall from pub to pub.
Are we really supposed to be shocked that a generation after we started telling young people they aren’t wanted in the mall that the mall is quiet?
Ok, sure, there is a dose of nostalgia in my fond memories of dropping down to the mall after school with friends to share a focaccia at Cafe Midale, or wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce at Caffiends, or spending way too much time flicking through CDs at Good Vibrations. Perhaps it wasn’t awesome to go wandering from the Wicklow to the Royal or Impies (now closed), before later kicking on to Sevens (became Mojos, then closed) or the Newie – frequently going back and forth between the two. Maybe my memories of grabbing something greasy from the Midnight Food Bar (long gone, was opposite Sevens) before the obligatory relocation to the Mobil (now the BP opposite the Wicklow) to hang out in the car park for some reason I literally cannot remember, are just a bit rosey.
But whatever hue glasses I may have, I know that I could tell you almost every business and shop in the CBD, certainly from the Newie to what was then the office of the Independent newspaper (now Burger Bulls) in my silly years. If I tried, I probably still could remember most of them – although these days many of the memories are more “that health food place that had the awesome mango soft serve” or “the great cafe that the Garbos’ had with the best coffee and that Chicken Apollo dish with the avocado and the bacon”.
That exposure to the mall, even at night when most things are shut, meant that the newcomers to town were familiar and comfortable in the mall, and would get to know what businesses were in town. So they come during the day. And as they get older and no longer want to wander between pubs, they remain accustomed to coming to town and familiar with what is there, while younger people hang out in the mall as they aspire to be like the grown ups.
This isn’t rocket science, it’s basic human behaviour. Entice people to do something often enough and they’ll keep doing it. Discourage people from going out and specifically from being in the mall, as the liquor accord agreement does – and is designed to do – and they won’t go there at any time of day.
The Beardy Street Mall should be the beating heart of our community life.
It is a rare asset that most regional cities would die for: an open, central, walkable space with heritage character, ripe for consistent festival programming and regular events.
The mall doesn’t need to be ripped up for cars – the liquor accord needs to be ripped up for our mall.
RK (Kath) Crosby is the CEO of research and strategy company KORE CSR, former strategist for the Australian Democrats, and a well known migraine advocate. She is also the Publisher of New England Times and North Coast Times.
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