Venture was a chain of discount department stores operating across Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It was developed by South Australian department store John Martins

John Martin & Co.

John Martin & Co. Ltd, colloquially known as John Martin's or simply Johnnies, was an Adelaide-based company which ran a popular chain of department stores in South Australia. It operated for more than 130 years, from 1866 until its closure in 1998...

 and was first opened in 1970. The chain grew to cover much of the country. It was later sold to the Cookes family which purchased the Waltons

Waltons (department store)

Waltons was an Australian department store chain, founded by Sir John Robert Walton.-History:Walton bought a menswear store in 1951, located in George St, Sydney, opposite the Queen Victoria Building and Sydney Town Hall and close to Town Hall railway station.In 1955, he formed an alliance with the...

 chain of department stores in 1987 and promptly closed it down, converting most of the stores to the Venture banner. In 1994, the company went bankrupt due to financial difficulties and soon after, it was closed down. The demise of Venture accelerated the national expansion of Harris Scarfe

Harris Scarfe

Harris Scarfe Department Stores was founded in Adelaide, South Australia in 1849. At its peak, Adelaide was home to several major South Australian department stores , of which Harris Scarfe is the sole...

 and the statewide expansion of FitzGeralds

FitzGerald's Department Stores

FitzGerald's Department Stores was Tasmania's largest chain of department stores.The chain was rebadged and relaunched as Harris Scarfe in 1995, and the renamed stores continue to trade today.-History:...

 in Tasmania (FitzGeralds would be merged with Harris Scarfe a year later).

South Australia

• Salisbury
  Salisbury, South Australia
  Salisbury is a northern suburb in Adelaide, South Australia. It is the seat of the City of Salisbury, and in the South Australian Legislative Assembly electoral district of Ramsay and the Australian House of Representatives divisions of Wakefield and Port Adelaide...
  
   (Parabanks) (eventually acquired by Harris Scarfe and becoming the first suburban Harris Scarfe store, this occurred before the collapse of the Venture chain)
• Elizabeth
  Elizabeth, South Australia
  Elizabeth is a northern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is located in the City of Playford.-History:Elizabeth was established in 1955 as part of a planned satellite town by the South Australian Housing Trust on rural land between the older towns of Salisbury and...
  
   (this Venture store had 2 stories, and was eventually taken over by Harris Scarfe).
• West Lakes
  West Lakes, South Australia
  West Lakes is a suburb of Adelaide in the City of Charles Sturt. It contains the Westfield West Lakes Shopping Centre, AAMI Stadium and the Riverside Golf Course...
  
  
• Woodcroft
  Woodcroft, South Australia
  Woodcroft is a metropolitan suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, located 20 km south of the Central Business District of Adelaide. It is bordered to the north by Reynell Road, to the south by Bains Road, to the west by Panalatinga Road and by the Hills Face Zone to the east.- History :Originally...
  
  
• Arndale, now Centro Arndale
  Centro Arndale
  Centro Arndale Shopping Centre is located at in the suburb of Kilkenny in Adelaide and is currently managed by the Centro Properties Group. It was previously managed by The Westfield Group. The facility is located on a main arterial, Torrens Road...
  
   (Kilkenny
  Kilkenny, South Australia
  Kilkenny is a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is located in the City of Charles Sturt.-History:The area incorporating the current suburb of Kilkenny was subdivided in 1849 as the Township of Kilkenny..-Demographics:...
  
  )

Tasmania

• Devonport
• Eastlands
• Hobart (Now Wendy's and Priceline on the upper level)
• Ulverstone
• Launceston (Now Target)
• Kings Meadows (Now Chickenfeed)

Australian Capital Territory

• Monaro Mall/Canberra Civic (Acquired from Waltons)
• Woden Plaza
• Belconnen Mall

New South Wales

• Albury
• Armidale (Acquired from Waltons)
• Bankstown
• Baulkham Hills
• Blacktown (Acquired from Waltons)
• Bondi Junction (Acquired from Waltons)
• Burwood (Acquired from Waltons)
• Cabramatta
• Campbelltown
• Caringbah
• Carlingford
• Cessnock
• Chatswood
• Coffs Harbour
• Dee Why (Acquired from Waltons)(free standing store over 3 floors)
• Fairfield
• Gosford (acquired from Waltons)
• Hornsby (Acquired from Waltons)
• Hurstville (Acquired from Waltons)
• Kotara (Garden City)
• Liverpool
• Merrylands
• Mount Druitt
• Newcastle - Hunter Street
• Nowra
• Parramatta (Acquired from Waltons)(part of the Westfield site; over 2 floors)
• Penrith
• Seven Hills
• Taree
• Top Ryde
• Wollongong (Crown Central)

Victoria

• Coburg
• Box Hill
• Brandon Park
• Clayton (now Coles Centre Rd)
• Waverley Gardens
• Frankston (Acquired from Waltons)
• Keysborough (Parkmore Shopping Centre)
• Dandenong (Acquired from Waltons), later occupied by Dimmeys
• Greensborough
• Morwell
• Sale
• Shepparton
• Sunbury
• Ballarat
• Geelong (Market Square)
• Corio Village
• Richmond
• Melton
• Wantirna South (Knox City)
• Vermont South
• Boronia
• Bulleen Plaza
  Bulleen Plaza
  Bulleen Plaza, is a local shopping centre in the suburb of Bulleen, Victoria, in the city council of Manningham. During mid-2008, the centre underwent a revamp and was repainted, retiled and new lights and seats were fitted....
  
  
• Mildura (two stories)
• Maribyrnong (Highpoint West Shopping Centre)

Queensland

• Brisbane City
• Carindale
• Deception Bay
• Fortitude Valley
• Indooroopilly
• Loganholme (Logan Hyperdome)
• Redbank (Redbank Plaza)
• Rockhampton (Rockhampton Shopping Fair)
• Southport (Gold Coast)
• Toowoomba (Clifford Gardens)
• Upper Mount Gravatt (Garden City)