Concerts, weddings and a famous fruit bowl: How shopping centres changed western Sydney

The occasion was so lavish, so monumental, so unabashedly American, that The Sydney Morning Herald published a 10-page special supplement to cover it.

It was October 12, 1965, and western Sydney had just got its first major shopping centre: Roselands, a “shopping-community centre” just south of Lakemba that was branded as a “city-in-the-suburbs that has everything!”

A Roselands supplement cover of The Sydney Morning Herald from October 12, 1965Credit: The Sydney Morning Herald

With a food court, a “chandeliered hairdressing salon” and a revolutionary decked car park, the new Grace Bros development was the beginning of the west’s love affair with gigantic malls. The glory of the new Roselands development soon led to the establishment of similar ventures, including Penrith Plaza, Westfield Parramatta, Bankstown Square and Stockland Merrylands.

They brought much to suburbs that were rapidly growing and changing, and still are. Huge amounts of investment and property development took place in and around the centres. But the venues also brought something surprising: community and nostalgia.

That strong connection to western Sydney’s shopping centres is behind a public call-out from the under-construction Powerhouse Parramatta. The museum is asking the public to share photos, memorabilia and personal stories that “capture the social and cultural spirit” of western Sydney’s shopping malls from the 1970s to the early 2000s.

The development of mega shopping centres across western Sydney has mirrored the story of transformation across the region, too.

“When they were introduced, they were marketed as bringing modernity and development to the western suburbs,” said Associate Professor Matthew Bailey, head of history and archaeology at Macquarie University, who has written a book about the history of shopping centres in Australia and is working with the museum on the exhibit.

“They were seen as essential infrastructure that was finally being introduced.”

As low-density suburbs in the west crept further out and cars became cheaper, parking lots became bigger and the shopping centre became the beating heart of suburban life. Penrith Plaza’s famous fruit bowl became a meeting place for generations, as did the Roselands Raindrop Fountain. Both are long gone, but their importance in the minds of shoppers remains.

“People got married in shopping centres,” Bailey said. “There used to be community halls people could hire fairly cheap. I’ve got one story from a couple who met working in Grace Bros at Roselands and then had their wedding reception at the Roselands community hall.

“We don’t think of shopping centres as historical, but 50 years is quite a period of time for a public building to be used and occupied. Even though they might look similar to all the other shopping centres, there are unique things about them because of the communities within which they’re placed.”

The museum is searching for photos, memorabilia or memories of concerts and celebrity appearances, community events, birthday parties, cinemas and amusement arcades, and any alternative uses of the malls. You can submit them here.

The Sydney Morning Herald has opened a bureau in the heart of Parramatta. Email [e-mail] with news tips.