Toys R Us aims to close the doors on its last Australian stores on or around the first weekend of August.

Plans to wind up the 44 stores were announced in May and administrator McGrathNicol said on Thursday it has now accelerated the liquidation of stock.

It will discount heavily over a final 10-day sale and is selling off store fixtures and fittings.

About 700 full-time workers in Australia will have lost their jobs by the time the last of the local stores closes.

“The realisation of stock across the network will enable all employee accrued entitlements, including redundancy payments, to be paid to Toys R Us and Babies R Us employees,” McGrathNicol restructuring partner Jason Preston said in a statement.

Nine stores have already sold all their stock, and stores at Werribee and Knox City in Victoria will close this coming weekend.

The closure of the Australian stores follows the failure of Toys R Us in the US in March.

The group’s 885 US stores were slated for closure after it was unable to meet the payments on billions of dollars in debt accumulated since it was bought by a real estate investor and two private equity firms in 2005.