Woden Plaza’s first instalment was completed in 1972.  But a little-known addition in 1974 was originally termed the “David Jones” extension, contrary to what it actually was:  Clock Court.

And more specifically, Big W.

Originally, Woden consisted of what was known as Palm Court (don’t believe me? – just look at those palm trees) but in the mid 1970s it expanded into what became Clock Court and the Big W, stretching all the way to Bonner House as it does to this day.

It’s important to make this distinction because there are more than a few speculators out there trying to pretend that David Jones suddenly became magically more important as a result of this expansion.

David Jones was already at Woden as an original tenant, and it became marginally bigger as a result, but the biggest winner by far was Woolworths Group, who sized up the department store category, blocking out Coles/Myer/Kmart/Target who aside from the Coles upstairs, have never had a presence at this shopping centre.

If you look carefully, you can see the brass plates which cover the joins at the end of David Jones which show the expansion joints of the original 1974 expansion.  Scroll right for the original Clock Court, with Clock fully in play over today’s surviving escalators.