Page "Bondi Junction, New South Wales" Paragraph 20

With the promise of the Eastern Suburbs Railway, a larger shopping centre was built by AMP and the Uniting Church ( who owned part of the site ).

This shopping centre, called Bondi Junction Plaza opened in 1976 and included a David Jones department store.

In 1979 the first of two commercial office towers (" Plaza Tower I ") was opened above the site.

The second (" Plaza Tower II "), larger tower, opened in 1985.

Both these towers are over 80m in height.

The construction of the shopping centre was a watershed, as Australia had no other commercial shopping projects of such scale during the 1970s.

Migrant labourers brought their experience gained from large construction projects in Europe and a tradition of trade unionism.

The construction site became a bastion of the Builder's Labourers Federation ( BLF ) and the Communist Party of Australia ( CPA ).