Venture was a chain of discount department stores operating in Australia. It was developed by South Australian department store John Martins and was opened in 1970. The chain grew to cover much of the country. It was sold to the Cookes family which purchased the Waltons 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 and the statewide expansion of FitzGeralds in Tasmania (FitzGeralds was merged with Harris Scarfe a year later).