--- title: "420 Superstore, Toowoomba: A Hydro Store and Cannabis Culture Shop in One Building" url: "https://growingexposed.com/420-superstore/" markdown_url: "https://growingexposed.com/420-superstore.md" llm_canonical: "https://growingexposed.com/420-superstore.md" canonical_for_llm: true entity_type: "Article" primary_entity: "420 Superstore, Toowoomba: A Hydro Store and Cannabis Culture Shop in One Building" citation_value: "Published on Growing Exposed; canonical URL https://growingexposed.com/420-superstore/." last_updated: "2026-10-20T17:52:51+00:00" --- # 420 Superstore, Toowoomba: A Hydro Store and Cannabis Culture Shop in One Building Gavin Bagnall used to run rap battle leagues. Now he is one of the owners of 420 Superstore in Toowoomba, Queensland, a hydroponics store and culture shop that sells grow gear and nutrients next to its own merch and work from Australian brands and artists. It started in a small shop in a tiny shopping center. Gavin and his partners grew it into a whole building west of Brisbane, then opened in Ipswich, and the company now lists stores in Toowoomba, Ipswich and Surfers Paradise. We visited with Justin Cooper, co-founder of GreenPlanet Nutrients, while touring Australian gardens and stores. Gavin talked about what medical legalization did to the stigma around a store like his, the years when Australian flower was full of growth regulators, and why he thinks no medical facility can do better than a home grower with the same knowledge and three or four plants. GreenPlanet Nutrients is on his shelves, and he says his customers have had nothing but great results. ## Who owns 420 Superstore? Gavin Bagnall is one of the owners. Before the store, he was a music promoter. He ran rap battle leagues and put on shows. When the chance came to open a store, he brought the music side and his friends from that world with him. > “When I found the opportunity to open this store, and also involve the culture side of it, my friends from the past, and build basically a cannabis army.” > > > > — Gavin Bagnall, co-owner, 420 Superstore He thinks Australia is close to producing its first hip hop artists known for cannabis, the way the US has Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa and Cypress Hill. The store works with brands connected to those artists, and it backs local shows. GreenPlanet sponsored a tour by the rapper Shadow, and Justin and the GreenPlanet crew were at the show. ## Is 420 Superstore a head shop? Not right now. Gavin calls it a culture shop. > “Technically we’re not really a head shop at this present stage. I guess we are a culture shop. We’d love to be a head shop, but due to regulations obviously there’s a lot of vapes we can’t sell.” > > > > — Gavin Bagnall, co-owner, 420 Superstore Instead, the store makes its own merch and works with brands and artists across Australia, all in the same building as the hydroponics gear and nutrients. ## How has medical cannabis changed hydro stores in Australia? It took away a lot of the stigma. Australia legalized medical cannabis in 2016, and Gavin says a much wider group of people now uses it as medicine. Those people now walk into his store. > “That’s probably the most powerful thing, that we’re getting grandmas walk into our store now. It’s not just cultural base.” > > > > — Gavin Bagnall, co-owner, 420 Superstore He sees older customers educating themselves on the medical side and telling their friends. He also sees people who smoked when they were younger realize they had been self-medicating, and now learn about terpenes and the different effects of different plants. Gavin says cannabis in Australia has gone from being called a gateway drug to being treated as proper medicine. His explanation for the old gateway idea is practical. The people you had to buy from might have had other things on the menu. When you get your medicine through a health professional, that risk is gone. ## What is PGR weed? PGR weed is flower grown with synthetic plant growth regulators. These are chemicals that keep plants short and pack the buds tighter, so the crop weighs more. Paclobutrazol and chlormequat chloride are two of the common ones. PGR flower usually looks dense and rock hard. Under a loupe the trichomes are less developed, and the flower tends to have fewer terpenes, so the smell and taste are weaker. Gavin says Australia had a bad PGR problem for 10 to 15 years. When he started out as a teenager, there was plenty of good flower around. Then money came into it, and some international groups grew PGR flower as fast and as hard as they could. For a while he says it was all you could get. > “Low percentages with stuff sprayed on it.” > > > > — Gavin Bagnall, co-owner, 420 Superstore Gavin says regulated medicine fixed the quality problem for a lot of people. > “Now that people are getting nice, clean, regulated medicine, it has made a big change.” > > > > — Gavin Bagnall, co-owner, 420 Superstore ## Why is medical cannabis irradiated? Medical flower is irradiated to kill mold and microbes before it reaches patients. It is treated with gamma rays or with an electron beam, which growers call e-beaming. Gavin counts irradiation and e-beaming as one of the big quality issues in Australian medical flower. Justin calls it a shame. The research is mixed on how much it changes the flower. A 2016 study by Arno Hazekamp for Bedrocan, a Dutch medical cannabis producer, found gamma irradiation did not change THC or CBD levels. Several terpenes dropped by 10 to 20 percent, and some by up to 38 percent. Bedrocan’s position is that this does not meaningfully change the product. Terpenes give flower its smell and taste, and Hazekamp noted the loss could change both slightly. Justin expects the rules to change as countries learn from each other. > “Countries that are medically legal need to celebrate the fact that they have a foot in the door. … I think eventually governments will get it right.” > > > > — Justin Cooper, Co-Founder, GreenPlanet Nutrients ## Do home growers grow better flower than commercial growers? Gavin thinks they can. A home grower with the same knowledge as a commercial grower has far fewer plants to look after. > “No matter how good your medical grow facility is, there’s no way you can do better than somebody with the same knowledge that’s only growing three, four plants and can baby those plants all the way through that grow.” > > > > — Gavin Bagnall, co-owner, 420 Superstore Justin agrees that home growers drive the boutique side of the industry. He has also seen large commercial growers in Australia who grow with the same care. > “Really they are no different than that little guy. They’re just expanding that. And they have the teams to expand that love.” > > > > — Justin Cooper, Co-Founder, GreenPlanet Nutrients Gavin says he is impressed by the genetics some Australian cultivators have come up with. He believes the recreational market will get its chance, and when it does, small growers will be the ones to watch. > “Boutique growers, small grow ops, all that sort of stuff, we’re going to see plants that you’ve never seen before.” > > > > — Gavin Bagnall, co-owner, 420 Superstore ## What nutrients does 420 Superstore recommend? GreenPlanet Nutrients. Gavin says the store has had nothing but great results with it. > “In fact, I’ve had customers in here like they’ve just witnessed the birth of their son. It’s crazy. They’re that happy that things are just growing so fast.” > > > > — Gavin Bagnall, co-owner, 420 Superstore One customer’s plants grew so big they broke his equipment. Gavin says he cannot fault the line. After quality, the biggest advantage he sees is concentration. A concentrated nutrient takes less product per liter of water, so his customers get a lot more feeds out of one bottle. He also likes that GreenPlanet makes combination products, so a grower buys one bottle where they would otherwise buy two or three. Justin says that is on purpose. > “We don’t want to sell you four or five bottles. We want you to buy what you need and achieve incredible results with less.” > > > > — Justin Cooper, Co-Founder, GreenPlanet Nutrients He says GreenPlanet comes out of decades of medical cultivation in Canada, has PhDs on staff who work on plant physiology and plant chemistry, and makes its products under ISO certification. Growing Exposed does not sell nutrients, but GreenPlanet Nutrients does. Contact them directly, or use the links below to learn more. **In Australia,** buy GreenPlanet at [420 Superstore](https://www.instagram.com/420superstore_/) in Toowoomba, Ipswich or Surfers Paradise, or learn more and find a store at [GreenPlanet Nutrients Australia](https://greenplanetnutrients.com.au/). **In North America,** learn more and buy at GreenPlanet Nutrients in [Canada](https://greenplanetnutrients.ca/) or the [United States](https://greenplanetnutrients.com/). **Commercial grower? Find your GreenPlanet rep.** Call GreenPlanet toll free at 1-866-913-4769 or email info@mygreenplanet.com and ask who your sales rep or distributor is. GreenPlanet has reps and distributors in Canada, the United States, Australia and Europe. [Contact GreenPlanet Nutrients](https://greenplanetnutrients.ca/contact-us/) ## Common questions ### Where is 420 Superstore? 420 Superstore lists stores in Toowoomba, Ipswich and Surfers Paradise, Queensland. The first store is in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane. The Ipswich store sits between Toowoomba and Brisbane. Their main Instagram is @420superstore_. ### Who owns 420 Superstore? Gavin Bagnall is one of the owners. He came to the store from music promotion, where he ran rap battle leagues and live shows. ### What is a culture shop? A culture shop is Gavin Bagnall’s name for what 420 Superstore is. The store sells grow gear and nutrients alongside its own merch and work from Australian brands and artists. He says it is not a head shop because regulations stop it selling a lot of vapes. ### What does PGR stand for? PGR stands for plant growth regulator. Synthetic PGRs such as paclobutrazol keep plants compact and make buds denser and heavier. Flower grown with them tends to be rock hard with fewer terpenes. ### What is e-beaming? E-beaming is electron beam irradiation. It uses a beam of electrons instead of gamma rays to kill mold and microbes on medical flower. Both methods are used for the same reason. ### Does irradiation lower THC? Not in the study most often cited. A 2016 study by Arno Hazekamp found gamma irradiation did not change THC or CBD levels in four varieties. It did reduce several terpenes, mostly by 10 to 20 percent. ### What is the TGA? The TGA is the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the Australian government regulator for medicines, including medical cannabis. In 2025 it ran a public consultation on unapproved medicinal cannabis products, open from August 11 to October 7. Gavin hopes the responses show the government how many people in the medical market are recreational users. ### Is 420 Superstore expanding? Yes. After Toowoomba it opened in Ipswich, and its site now also lists Surfers Paradise. Gavin has said he would like to open a store in Melbourne. ## Watch the full visit Justin Cooper of GreenPlanet Nutrients with Gavin Bagnall at 420 Superstore in Toowoomba, Queensland. About 12 minutes.