Westfield has just renamed its Garden City shopping centre into Westfield Mt Gravatt. An online petition has been launched to convince Westfield to reinstate the centre’s name.
On 8 August 2022, Westfield announced that Westfield Garden City will be renamed Westfield Mt Gravatt to reflect its location in the community.
“The names of our Living Centres across Australia and New Zealand are reflective of the areas and communities in which they are located. We have renamed our centre to Westfield Mt Gravatt after our suburb,” the announcement on its official website reads.
They furthered that apart from physical and digital signage updates, the centre will remain Brisbane’s “cultural hub for dining, shopping and entertainment.”
Some locals, however, are not happy with the decision prompting them to launch the petition “Don’t change the name of Garden City!”
“For a lifetime Westfield Garden City has been a part of our wonderful community in Mt Gravatt (Upper Mt Gravatt to be exact), which also extended to the greater Brisbane area. Memories have been made here for decades,” the petition reads.
“All those first job feels, first date dinners and last minute Christmas shopping trips. Westfield Garden City transcended from just a regular shopping centre to a home for all.
“This strips Garbo of its entire individuality! You can’t just remove such a pillar of our rich society in the 4122! In a time of such uncertainty, there are things we need to hold sacred.”
Some 1,369 individuals have already supported the petition and indicated their reason for signing. Many questioned the need to change their beloved Garbo’s name when it’s not even located in Mt Gravatt. They described the idea as a waste of money and said that there was no proper consultation prior to the name change.
“Garden City is an iconic name and so many fond memories of going there as a kid with my nanna.” – A. Mak
“No need to change name, particularly when not accurately located. Garden City is geographically located Upper Mt Gravatt not Mt Gravatt. Mt Gravatt already has its own small shopping centre.” – A. Newton
“I’m devastated to think that were losing Brisbane history. First Lang Park, Last Cilento Children’s Hospital, now this!!!
It will always be Garden City to many of us anyway so why the the massive amount of money to be spent to change the name. Donate that money for good use elsewhere if they’ve got surplus funds.” -J. Riley