campbelltown tafe sits unmentioned in the official programme, but the day belonged to a different kind of local education — history lived and remembered. Just after 11: 00 a. m. ET on March 5, 2026, Mayor Darcy Lound stood in Downtown Plaza to unveil a photographic collage titled Living History, a public tribute to the Downes family and their long-running contribution to Queen Street and the town’s retail life.
What is the Living History mural and why does it matter?
The Living History mural is a photographic board installed opposite the entrance to the Campbelltown City Library in Downtown Plaza. It commemorates the three Downes brothers — Rex, Clive and Bryce — accountants who, in 1951, opened what became the oldest continuously run shopping centre in Campbelltown. The board marks 75 years since that first shopping mall opened and places the family’s story back into the centre of a streetscape that shifted dramatically when larger centres later appeared.
Campbelltown Tafe — who attended the unveiling and what voices shaped the event?
Mayor Darcy Lound led the unveiling. Derek Downes, a second-generation member of the family, represented the Downes family at the celebration and spoke about the family’s ties to the town: “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, ” Derek Downes 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. ”
Also present were Jamie Zois, who bought the Downes building with his father around 10 years ago and has carried forward the property’s commercial life; Michael Chalker, who ran Chalker’s Music in Downes Plaza for decades and is connected with the Campbelltown historical society; real estate agent Darren Zammit; veteran councillor Meg Oates and councillor Khaled Halabi, who is a longtime tenant of Downtown Plaza. Chalker helped bring the event together and marked the occasion with a playful nod to time travel: he brought a small Tardis to the proceedings while outlining the timeline of the Downes presence in town.
How are local people and institutions preserving the Downes legacy?
The mural itself is a practical act of preservation: a public photographic record placed in a high-traffic civic setting opposite the two-floor premises occupied by the Campbelltown City Library. Derek Downes said discussions with local stakeholders had led to a continuity of the family name in the town’s memory. He recounted meeting Darren Zammit, who connected him with Michael Chalker, and called it “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 present signalled a mix of custodianship and civic recognition: elected officials endorsed the mural through the mayoral unveiling, property owners and tenants acknowledged their roles in keeping the site active, and community historians helped shape the narrative image the board presents to passersby.
The mural’s placement opposite the library ties personal memory to a public institution and ensures that the Downes story sits alongside other civic uses of the building. The event emphasized how everyday spaces — shopping centres, storefronts, libraries and plazas — carry layers of local memory that demand acts of stewardship if they are to remain visible.
Back in Downtown Plaza after the unveiling, the crowd lingered under the shadow of the new photographic board. For Derek Downes and those who remembered walking Queen Street in earlier decades, the mural was both a reminder and an invitation: to notice the town’s changes, and to keep telling the stories that knit neighbourhoods together.
