I noticed that from Corrimal street up to the empty David Jones building at the corner of Church street ,there were approximately 12 empty shops for sale or for lease.

I know that we now have large shopping complexes in Fairy Meadow , Warrawong, Figtree and Shellharbour, but we have also increased our district population by a few million people.

The hanging palm tree and sandstone rocks have done nothing to attract a crowd. What can be done ?

Most pensioners shoppers nowadays are hanging to the little savings they might have, for a rainy day and go rarely shopping, plus the parking in Wollongong is not as easy, and can be costly.

I have said from day one, that when the mall was closed, that it should be left open for one-way traffic only, and have angle parking there. Have a look next time you are in Campbelltown,

The mall there is thriving, with slow traffic flowing, and parking right throughout that mall.. Should we bite the bullet, or let the Wollongong mall slowly die I ask?

John Pronk, Wollongong

Just recently the World celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first man landing on the moon. Many people over the years have question the 1969 Luna landing, saying that many visual elements in the photographs and film footage; like the shadows, foot prints and waving flag prove that the images were produced in a studio.

Ten years ago Myth Busters with the help of NASA, were depicted as having busting most, if not all, the conspiracies theories. However, in my opinion, the Myth Buster's re-enactments were very clever, and may have convinced a gullible audience.

Firstly, they used digital photography to display their results instead of 'emulsion films' used by the Luna landing crew. As a professional photographer for 35 years, I understand the limitations of film photography, and the advances achieved with digital photography, in respect to resolution and exposure latitudes.

In 1969, NASA astronauts used Hasselblad cameras which had bulk magazines loaded with a Kodak special double perforated 70mm thin-based emulsion film, which permitted 160 pictures in colour, or 200 in black and white from each loading. The camera was modified for the Luna mission to prevent accumulation of static electricity and given a silver finish to make it more resistant to thermal variations - no great feat for its time. Interestingly, the cameras had no view finder, no light meter and no automatic focusing.

The emulsion of this film, especially a thin based gelatine type used on the Luna mission, is suited for normal temperatures conditions on earth. Yet, the Moon's surface ranges from extremely hot during the day to extremely cold at Night, from 123C to -233 Celsius at night.

If truly, the astronauts had used these cameras with emulsion film, the films would surely have melted down and there would have been no visual record of the landing. For this reason, I believe that the photographs of the Apollo landing were contrived in a studio setting along with many other clever tricks to fool the public.

Patricia Bohackyj, Towradgi