ABSTRACT
Next to the Pacific Highway, at the northern end of Australia’s Gold Coast, lie two of the region’s larger shopping centres, Australia Fair and Pacific Fair. They are similar to most of the mega-malls that one finds in large metropolitan centres all over the world, with their familiar architecture of everything ‘under the one roof ’, the relative absence of perimeter windows that address local geography versus the abundance of windows dividing the interior private spaces, disorienting escalators, fluorescent lighting and air-conditioning, and the plasterwork pediments adorning each shopfront which pay homage to a public street culture which they have all but abolished. These shopping malls are not the same as all other super-malls, however, by reason of one feature that connects them with global culture in a way other than simply through architecture. At the centre of each complex there is something called a ‘tourist lounge’, primarily for overseas visitors. Busloads of tourists are taken to these lounges immediately on arrival at the centre – the only shopfronts where one can be delivered right to the door – and treated to an exhibition of the centre’s wares.1 At the Australia Fair lounge, which has been operating seasonally since the centre opened in the early 1980s, samples of what the shopping centre sells are displayed in glass cases, a video of the centre’s role on the Gold Coast is run, and a talk is given to tourists about how to use the centre. Following the presentations, the initiated shoppers are informed that they are ‘free to wander’ the centre of their own accord, have a look around and enjoy themselves.
