Wentworthville mainstay Sandra Brown reflects on Wentworthville’s past

Third-generation Wentworthville resident Sandra Brown has seen the suburb shift from an economic powerhouse to its Struggle St challenges today.

Sandra Brown at Station St, Wentworthville, where her grandfather's produce store (inset) once stood.

• Wenty’s ‘sad’ changes
• Bypass planned for ‘revitalisation’

Third-generation Wentworthville resident Sandra Brown has seen the suburb shift from an economic powerhouse to its Struggle St challenges today.

Her maternal grandfather, Frank McDowell, was among its first traders and in 1919 opened F. McDowell produce store on Station St.

He started the Wentworthville Volunteer Fire Brigade up the road in 1920 when he was captain.

Before that he ran a poultry farm sprawling more than three hectares from Dunmore St to what is now Springdale Rd for a couple of years.

The whole clan, including her father’s parents, became Wenty mainstays.

Sandra Brown at Friend Park, Wentworthville. Picture: Jordan Shields

Ms Brown, a former Our Lady of Mt Carmel Primary School teacher, recalls when Wentworthville was an economic powerhouse, bustling with shops that meant residents just had to stroll to Dunmore and Station streets, or even The Kingsway, to pick up the bread or indulge in a spree.

Businesses went gangbusters, enough for the chamber of commerce to publish The Wentworthville Shopper.

“In the 1970s Wentworthville was a wonderful shopping centre,’’ Ms Brown said.

“You could buy anything from the fruit to electrical appliances.

Wentworthville Volunteer Fire Brigade. Picture: Jordan Shields

“We used to have two Woolworths in the town. We started with a Woolworths variety store.” There was also Coles Foodland.

“The mall used to be so busy,’’ she said.

“You used to go there on a Thursday night and it was crowded. It was a wonderful town.

“You didn’t have to leave the town then it gradually started to change a little.

F. McDowell’s produce store at Station St. Picture: Jordan Shields

“I think it was when we got the Westfields in Parramatta. Things did change even then in Wentworthville we lost some of our beautiful clothes ware shops. The ‘80s were still good.”

These days she travels to Winston Hills for grocery shopping.

“For a person that lives right near the shops … I don’t eat takeaway food, Wentworthville’s got nothing for me,’’ she said.

A 1966 copy of the Wentworthville Shopper.

The publication was chock full of bargains.

The IGA supermarket’s closure at Wentworthville Mall spelt more erosion and “it went downhill and downhill after that.”

“They would have to be a wonderful drawcard to get people back,’’ Ms Brown said.

St George bank shut in November. The baby clothes shop shut and only a handful of businesses remain.

Ms Brown sees the need to transform Wentworthville but is sceptical about Cumberland Council’s plans which are on public exhibition until Sunday.

They include a $4.8 million bypass to divert traffic from Dunmore St between Garfield and Station streets on to Pritchard St. A road between Pritchard and Lane streets, then on to Veron St, will be constructed.

Plans for Wentworthville revitalisation shows the plaza at Dunmore St.

The plan is for Dunmore St, where the mall and other shops now stand, to become a pedestrian friendly plaza.

Sprouting up will be 600 units, some up to 20 storeys, and 9700sq m of retail space including a supermarket.

The council spruiks the plaza a vibrant and modern filled with public art, landscaping and a new lease of life for Wentworthville Mall.

But a bypass and development plans worry Ms Brown.

A proposed Kingsway pedestrian link.

How Station St opposite Friend Park could look.

“Traffic’s absolutely impossible now. Think of Garfield St with those 200 units on the bypass coming to Garfield St, it’s going to be impossible,’’ she said.

“Because you’ve got so much traffic — I see people doing a right-hand turn in front of you because there’s so much traffic.”

She welcomes the council’s plan to upgrade Wentworthville swimming pool but wants more parks for high-rise dwellers.

“These children are in units,’’ she said.

“All they do is come back home, live in a box, live in units, go to these tutoring systems.

“That’s not a life to me. I wonder how many units are occupied. I think it happened all at once everywhere and I don’t think they’re fully occupied. What are they doing about getting schools if they’re having this great population living in units?

Wentworthville Mall in 1962.

The abandoned Wentworthville Mall in November last year, before the area was blocked off.

“To me I feel that with all these units Wentworthville could become a slum in years to come and something I’m not terribly impressed with is hanging washing over the balconies.

“I can see other areas and units, it’s not just Wentworthville. It’s just lost its beautiful village. It was a lovely place.”

The suburb’s overhaul is part of the Wentworthville Planning and Placemaking Strategy,

for which public comment closes on Sunday.

Cumberland Mayor Greg Cummings said the council was assessing options to revitalise its library and community centre site.

“Council’s planned streetscape revitalisation works will deliver a vibrant and modern town centre which reflects the distinctive energy of the Wentworthville community, while retaining an intimate, local scale and character,” he said.

Submissions to Wentworthville’s Centre Planning Proposal and Draft Development Controls close on Sunday. Comment at haveyoursay.cumberland.nsw.gov.au

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