John and Karen Trevenar are hoping that the tradespeople involved in building Gerringong Plaza will come along to its 20th anniversary celebration on Saturday 14 August.

Locals and visitors now take the Plaza, and especially the supermarket, for granted, but when it opened on 14 August 2001 it was the end of a hard-won battle for the Trevenars, as builder/developers.

Karen says they were fed up with the inconvenience of shopping in Kiama or Nowra.

“We would go to Kiama to buy groceries at Christmas – you know what the traffic used to be like over summer – and by the time you got home the ice cream would have melted and all the frozen foods defrosted.”

They were ready to build on a site in Fern Street, just south of the petrol station, where the post office is now located. But this was knocked back because it was outside the 1995 Gerringong Charrette zone.

“The fear was a supermarket located down there would separate the town,” John says.

It was a call from a council employee that alerted him to a more suitable block on Blackwood Street.

But many locals had decided by then that a supermarket development would wreck the town.

“People wanted a little country town, and many thought that a supermarket would ruin everyone’s business,” says Karen.

“There was a petition, we received letters of objection and it went on and on. We actually got a death threat.”

Sandra McCarthy, a Gerringong resident who was Mayor of Kiama Council at the time, remembers the DA was approved by only 5-4.

“It comes down to the fact that people don’t like change. That’s where there is a role for councils to provide strategic vision.”

The development was a mammoth undertaking.

“Banks wouldn’t touch us at the time because they said that there was no development happening south of Wollongong,” says John.

Sheer grit and dogged determination took their 1999 vision to completion in 2001 – a $4.5 million 2,800sqm complex with supermarket and five retail stores.

They used local tradespeople – painters, concreters, plumbers – local architect Bishop and Hitchcock, and MBK Engineering. Supplies were sourced from Gerringong Hardware.

The supermarket alone now employs around 50 staff, many of whom are local.

Karen and John with their 2002 Australia Day Award from Council

“John and Karen should be applauded for their vision,” says Sandra.

“This is their legacy for the town. This development has proved to be a significant community asset for the town.

“From an economic perspective, it has been a boost to Gerringong business by stopping ‘escape spending’ to Shellharbour and keeping dollars in town.

“From an urban planning perspective, Standon Lane [the lane that runs next to the supermarket] gives better drive-through access to the western carpark at the rear of the Fern Street shops.

“But more than that, when the public school in town moved, Gerringong lost its social hub. Slowly I saw that same social hub developing at the IGA, where people catch up with each other inside or outside the shop.

“The IGA has continued with the village feel through the Lions Club BBQs outside. The ethos of this IGA supermarket is very much community oriented.”

John and Karen agree it was a bold adventure.

“I often thought we must have been nuts and there was a time when we nearly lost everything,” Karen says.

“But then I think everytime it rained someone would spin out on the bends. It used to happen all the time. If we’ve done nothing else, we might have saved someone’s life by them not having to drive in a hurry to Kiama to get something from the supermarket.”

The 20 years will be celebrated with a sausage sizzle on Saturday August 14 from 11am and a cake cutting at 1pm.

They hope the tradespeople that helped build the Plaza come along.