A pedestrian mall is an area with a group of shops, which is closed to car traffic. Some Townsville people say that allowing cars to drive through their mall will bring more shoppers to the area.


TONY MOONEY, TOWNSVILLE MAYOR: We're finding that people have voted with their feet. They're no longer using and enjoying the mall as they used to.

NEVILLE SMITH, BUSINESS OWNER: Well if you visit Flinders Mall on a Sunday morning, it's wonderful, it's a wonderful atmosphere, everybody's in a good mood, there's markets, there's people. It's great. If you visit here Monday to Friday, you'd wonder if you were in the same spot.

NICK HARMSEN: In the 1970s, Townsville, like many Australian towns decided to build a pedestrian mall in its CBD. At the time Flinders Mall seemed a good idea for the council trying to stem the flow of businesses moving from the city to new shopping centres appearing in suburbs and on the urban fringe. It was successful for a while at least but times have changed.

TONY MOONEY: Our rate take from our mall directly related to property valuations has halved in the last seven years. That means that property valuations have gone down by the same amount. If that happened in your street in your suburb you'd be really starting to wonder whether you were living in the right street in your suburb.

NEVILLE SMITH: What was it you were after?

CUSTOMER: It was in the catalogue, the AFL catalogue.

NICK HARMSEN: Neville Smith's sports store has been in Flinders Mall since the beginning. It's a business rich in family tradition. Three generations have worked there. But now he says the mall is costing him money.

NEVILLE SMITH: Well it's certainly costing us in sales. You've only got to ask the Townsville folk and have a look by their feet, they don't come here. So, yeah, it's definitely costing us money.

TONY MOONEY: I believe that slow traffic with a pedestrian focus very clearly, high end retailing, a lot of outdoor dining, similar to some of those great and exciting strip shopping centres in Sydney and Melbourne where you get many thousands of people coming there every day. You get great outdoor dining, you get great local shopping, you get people living over the shops and nearby and you get a much safer environment. That's what I'd like.

NICK HARMSEN: But support for the idea isn't unanimous. Some argue a pedestrian precinct needs to remain to provide a tourist attraction and to showcase the city's heritage buildings.

IAN FLEMING, BUSINESS OWNER: Retailing has changed and bringing traffic back is not going to turn this back. We've got the heritage buildings, we've got the cultural identity. This is the first port of call for visitors and it should be the point at which the Townsville residents identify their future.

NICK HARMSEN: But that's an anomaly according to Brisbane-based urban planning specialist Trevor Reddacliff who chaired Townsville's Urban Renewal Taskforce. He argues pedestrian malls have been re-opened to traffic in several Queensland cities and says all have been a success.

TREVOR REDDACLIFF: Well not only in Queensland but in New South Wales is where they have converted the mall back to calm traffic and wider footpaths and it has worked every time because it has reactivated the heart of the cities and it is seen clearly in the improvement in values and it's led to these regional cities being able to reorientate themselves.