Campbelltown: Downes family tribute in photographic mural honours a local shopping‑centre legacy
Just after 11: 00 a. m. ET on March 5, 2026, a crowd gathered in the Downtown Plaza as Campbelltown Mayor Darcy Lound unveiled a photographic mural titled “Living History” — a public tribute to the Downes family and their long-running shopping centre that helped shape campbelltown’s Queen Street for decades.
What is the Downes family mural in Campbelltown?
The mural, mounted opposite the entrance to the Campbelltown City Library, is a photo collage called “Living History” that honours the contribution of the Downes family to Downtown Plaza and Queen Street. The library now occupies two floors of the premises once filled by earlier tenants, and the mural board stands as a visible link between present uses and the site’s commercial past.
Who stood behind the original Downes presence on Queen Street?
The Downes story began in 1951, when three brothers — Rex, Clive and Bryce Downes — all accountants from the lower North Shore of Sydney, opened what became the oldest continuously run shopping centre in Campbelltown. That Downes centre included a downstairs supermarket in its earlier years, serving as a focal point for shoppers on Queen Street before later retail developments changed the town’s shopping patterns.
Speaking at the unveiling, Derek Downes, a member of the second generation of the family who represented the family at the event, reflected on the intent behind the original expansion into regional towns: “The family wanted to open stores in regional NSW, and in those days that pretty much what Campbelltown was – even though things started to change in the 1970s, ” he said. “We were synonymous with Campbelltown. Queen Street was the hub of Campbelltown, until the 1980s, and we were the focal point of Campbelltown. Everybody would come to us – we had a supermarket downstairs as well, before Coles and Macarthur Square came into town. “
Who attended the unveiling and what does the mural mean to the community?
The unveiling drew a mix of people tied to the site across generations: Derek Downes for the family; Jamie Zois, the current owner who purchased the Downes building with his father about 10 years ago; real estate agent Darren Zammit; long-time tenants including Councillor Khaled Halabi; veteran Councillor Meg Oates; and Michael Chalker, who ran Chalker’s Music in Downes Plaza for decades and represented the Campbelltown historical society at the event.
Michael Chalker played a central role in organising the tribute, recounting the timeline of the Downes presence in town and bringing a lighthearted touch by bringing a small Tardis to the proceedings in homage to his interest in television time travel. His participation linked business memory, local historical stewardship and community storytelling in one ceremony.
How is the Downes legacy being preserved and carried forward?
The mural itself is part of a modest but tangible effort to preserve memory in the urban landscape. It acknowledges the Downes family as one among several Downes shopping centres across regional NSW while situating the Downtown Plaza location within Campbelltown’s retail evolution. Derek Downes noted continuing connections that help keep the name present in town life: “I met Darren Zammit four years ago, he put me in touch with Michael Chalker and it’s great we’ve been able to talk about where we’re going and there’s someone who can continue the tradition, the family name in Campbelltown, because a lot of people still recognise the name of Downes. “
Those attending framed the mural as both a celebration of a family business and an act of local conservation: a way to ensure that the place-based memories tied to Queen Street remain legible to new generations who pass the library entrance and pause at the plaza.
Back in the plaza where the unveiling began, the photographic collage now hangs opposite the library entrance, a square of images that folds personal recollection into the town’s public face. The scene — a mayor lifting a curtain, a second‑generation family member standing beside a former tenant who brought a Tardis for amusement, and new owners watching — returns the reader to that morning and leaves the mural as both memorial and invitation: to remember a retail past and to watch how that legacy is carried forward in Downtown Plaza and beyond.
