OPINION | Changeable city with people at its heart

The city's main street was named for Scottish astronomer and army officer Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, who became Governor of New South Wales in 1820.

As Launceston grew around Brisbane Street, so did the number of shops and offices as traders and businesses moved in to service the community.

There were banks, insurance brokers, mining companies, haberdashers, milliners, footwear and clothing shops, hardware merchants, grocers, booksellers, tobacconists, jewellers, wine and spirit merchants, sporting goods retailers and coffee houses.

Popular hotels, the Brisbane and Launceston, were also in the main street and the Majestic and Princess picture theatres opened in the early 1900s, swiftly becoming popular entertainment venues.

Department stores McKinlays and Ludbrooks were joined by national retailers Cox Bros, Myer, Coles and Woolworths in the 1930s. Coles Variety Store opened on the corner of Brisbane and Charles streets in 1954.

It was the company's third-biggest shop and featured a modern cafeteria on its first floor that became a popular meeting place. And at the risk of showing my age, I have fond memories of family outings to the Coles cafeteria as a young child.

The Coles family had strong ties to Tasmania - the first Coles store opened in Wilmot, in the North-West, in 1910. Edgar Coles, the company's managing director in 1954, had been a boarder at Scotch College and joined the family retailing business in 1919.

EB Coles' older brothers opened their first Tasmanian variety store in Launceston in 1933 and by 1954 the Coles retail chain had grown to 186 stores across Australia. Coles Variety Stores sold everything from confectionery to clothing.

At the other end of the mall, on the corner of Brisbane and St John streets, the Myer building also dates from the 1950s, but it was not always the Myer building.

Melbourne construction company Hansen and Yuncken built the eight-level department store in 1959 for Cox Bros.

It was then, and still is now, Launceston's tallest shop. When Cox Bros went into receivership in 1966 competitor Myer bought its Launceston store.

While many such businesses can still be seen in Brisbane Street today, there is no doubt the Launceston CBD has changed significantly in two centuries.

Coles' CBD site was sold for $3.21 million in 1988 and redeveloped into smaller shops. Woolworths Variety Store, Edments, McKinlays, Dornaufs butchery, Duncans Shoes, Coogans and Maples also disappeared.

The most recent closure was Birchalls, the bookshop and stationery retailer that had traded in the CBD since 1844.

Gourlay's Sweet Shop, which was established in 1896, and Routleys menswear shop, which opened in 1927, are two of the last remaining long-term traders in Launceston.

Over the past 50 years there has been a move in cities and regional centres around the world to draw shoppers away from the CBD to urban shopping centres on the outskirts.

This can be characterised by Coles' investment in US retail chain Kmart, which brought a new shopping trend to Australia in 1968.

As we see today with the Racecourse Crescent development, the large, purpose-built shops that house Kmart and Coles form a centrepiece for urban shopping outside the CBD.

In response to this movement away from the CBD, the city's council announced it would build Tasmania's first street mall between Charles and St John streets to make a pedestrian-friendly shopping precinct.

Brisbane Street Mall opened in 1975, followed quickly by Quadrant Mall and The Avenue, making the CBD much more people focused.

The mall has been upgraded several times since it opened, most recently in 2018.

This upgrade was part of the City Heart Project, jointly funded by the Federal Government, Tasmanian Government and Launceston City Council.

The City Heart Project reinvigorated the CBD again, with more than 3000 residents contributing ideas to the development of the project master plan.

The finished plan won a Planning Institute of Australia Excellence Award in November 2015.

The first element to receive the City Heart treatment was Quadrant Mall, which was redeveloped in early 2016. Civic Square's upgrade soon followed, and then the Brisbane Street Mall.

The Launceston City Heart Project was the largest project of its kind ever undertaken by the City of Launceston council.

This project comes under the umbrella of the 10-year Launceston City Deal, another cooperative initiative between the Federal and Tasmanian governments and the City of Launceston council.

Launceston's City Deal, which was signed in 2017, aims to make Launceston one of Australia's most liveable and innovative regional cities, with initiatives covering education and employment, city planning and housing, digital innovation and sustainability all playing a role in its development.

While these associated projects expand beyond the Launceston CBD, they each focus on liveability and community, putting people at the centre of change once more.