‘Out of the Shadow of Brisbane’: CBD Development and Local Identity Laurence Johnson The story of the shopping centre and CBD redevelopment in the regional Queensland city of Ipswich provides a cautionary tale for local politicians and regional civic

The story of the shopping centre and CBD redevelopment in the regional Queensland city of Ipswich provides a cautionary tale for local politicians and regional civic developers. Indeed, the fact that this history is so bound up in ‘stories’ is a key part of the lessons to be learned. The Ipswich Centre Shopping Plaza was used as a key reference point for the creation of myths shaping a particular ‘Ipswich’ identity in local discourses such as newspaper reports, planning policy documents and promotional material. These discourses suggest that lessons from the decline of a retail complex may not merely relate to recognising failures in spatial planning or strict economics. The lessons may also relate to how we talk about the built environment and how this impacts on the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, that is, how we fashion our own sense of cultural identity.