The new store, in High Street Arcade, specialises in high-quality “retro” clothing, furniture, accessories and memorabilia made between the 1950s and 1980s.

Southern Highlands Community Hospice Committee business manager Daphne Robertson said the idea to open a “retro” store came from the desire to connect with young Highlanders.

Mrs Robertson said the original Hospice Shop received lots of goods from the baby boomer generation that fit the “retro” description, which would appeal to young peoples’ tastes.

“Retro is just very hot with young people. In Sydney and Melbourne there are masses of retro shops,” she said.

“We want to bring young people into the project.”

The Hospice Shop fundraising model was borrowed from community hospices run in the United Kingdom.

Shops selling high-quality, second-hand, donated goods fund the day-to-day running of community hospices.

High Street’s latest store was the third opened by the Southern Highlands Community Hospice Committee in the past 12 months.

The committee had another successful Hospice Week recently, raising money for the daily operation of the proposed 10-bed hospice, which would provide palliative care for Highlanders regardless of whether or not they could pay. 

Hospice Week raised funds for ongoing costs attached to running the facility after ERF Hospice Foundation Ltd agreed to purchase land and fund the building late last year. 

An application to amend the Local Environmental Plan has gone before the NSW Department of Planning to allow the hospice to be built on land next to St Simon and St Jude’s Church in Bowral.

Wingecarribee councillors voted to support the proposal however the Department of Planning’s decision is still unknown.