Coles New World, Lonsdale Street, Dandenong, in 1965

Coles New World, Lonsdale Street, Dandenong, in 1965

Coles history in Dandenong started with a Variety store on Lonsdale Stree, Along side the long standing Woolworths store. But with the expanded vision of Superstores in the late 1950s/early 1960's Coles soon looked to building it's biggest New World on the outskirts of the CBD. By 1963 the store had been built ushering in the age of the Rocket.

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Bellow courtesy of Robert Smith (Past2Present)

It certainly was a 'New World of Shopping' when this supermarket opened in November 1963. Located on the Princes Hwy in Dandenong, it was considered the largest free-standing supermarket at the time but not the first to show the rocket. That accolade went to the Frankston store.

At the time, the Dandenong store was the biggest supermarket in Australia with 14 checkouts and 160 feet of refrigerated cabinets. It had a large 'meat shop', a fresh fruit and vegetable department, a modern bakehouse and a cafeteria (luncheonette) with seating for 34 people. One of the main attractions of the new building was the four feature windows facing Princes Hwy depicting early landmarks of Dandenong over 100 years ago.

The huge storeroom out the back was used on occasion for indoor cricket. Such was the size of the building, it certainly handled all incoming deliveries with ease. During my time there (late 80's), the cafeteria was gone but a liquor department was in operation.

In late 2000, the building was demolished. A new Coles was built along with an Officeworks and underground car parking. Officeworks later moved to newer premises on the corner of Frankston Dandenong Road and the Dingley Arterial (Dandenong Bypass).

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