Charnwood

The Charnwood Group Centre is located just off Ginninderra Drive near the junction of five suburbs:  Charnwood, Flynn, Macgregor, Dunlop and Latham.  The style is similar to Hawker with colonnades along the shopfronts, which surround a large car park.  This photograph and the one below show the main shopping strip.  A supermarket is located at the western end of the car park.  A church is located at the eastern end.

The central car park is very busy with cars looking for parking spots, cars parking and leaving and pedestrians crossing at all points between the shops and the cars.  The one advantage of the central car park arrangement is that there is no through traffic as there is on Hawker Place.  In particular, there are no buses and large trucks can use the car park behind the supermarket.

The central car park has a single access point from Lhotsky Street which can lead to congestion at times, especially when there is an accident at the intersection with Lhotsky Street.

A fastfood outlet is situated on the corner of the street and, behind it, another two-storeyed building is being constructed which will add to traffic congestion around the car park.  The entrance to this car park is close to Tillyard Drive which brings shoppers from eastern Charnwood, Fraser and Flynn.

The former IGA supermarket store was taken over by Woolworths a few years ago and was recently expanded.  It fronts onto the end of the main car park.

The external side wall is now a blank face or “inactive shopfront”.  This wall faces onto a small, sheltered plaza area connecting with the photograph shown above.  At the bottom of the above photograph, the plaza leads into the car park behind the supermarket.

Despite being quite large and with easy access to the shops, the car park behind the supermarket is rejected in favour of the original central car park.  Drivers prefer to circle the central car park in hope of finding a spot, rather than walk the short distance from behind the supermarket.

The walkway to the shops is to the left of the above photograph.  This car park has a separate entrance from Lhotsky Street which is shown in the rear of the photograph.  This entrance is close to Florey Drive and would be most convenient for shoppers coming from Macgregor, Dunlop and western Charnwood.

Several shops on the side of the main car park away from the majority of shops have difficulty retaining tenants.  This row of shops has office-type tenants and cafes  rather than retail, along with a computer service shop.  Several shops have been empty for some time.