Campbelltown needs to have a conversation about what it may look like 50 years from now. It’s true plenty of locals like it just the way it is, but there are also just as many who want to see it become a true “city’’ – a mini Melbourne or New York, that kind of thing.
For more than 150 years since it was founded by NSW Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1820, Campbelltown was a relatively thriving country town, living off the fat of the land, or farming to put it another way.
Agriculture has pretty much disappeared now and has been replaced by manufacturing and retail, which provide most of the local jobs.
And on that point, too many Campbelltown locals still have to travel outside the area for employment.
From the late 1960s the major change in Campbelltown came in the arrival of thousands of Housing Commission homes in several estates across the entire town, from Macquarie Fields in the north to Rosemeadow in the south, Claymore in the west, and Minto and Airds in the east.
It was too much too quickly, and as we now know, it was a social disaster that attached to Campbelltown a stigma as “houso central’’ that still lingers to this day.
Urban renewal programs in the past 20 years have started to turn things around in this area.
But as far as the town centre is concerned, inertia set in about 30 years ago, and the skyline remains almost the same as it was in 1995.
The reality is that change – and progress – is inevitable, and that’s why Campbelltown needs to have a conversation about what it wants to be when it grows up, so to speak.
If you look at Liverpool, despite having mediocre people in charge, there’s been a stampede by developers, who can sniff big profits from a mile away.
The late Paul Tosi, a general manager at Campbelltown Council, used to tell me that Liverpool was always 10 years ahead of Campbelltown.
I have a feeling that 10 years is almost upon us, so what are we going to do about it, that’s the point.
Will we be happy to let things run their course and end up with a city with a buzz down our main street, and cool laneways lined with bolthole bars and cafes?
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves here, so first things first: let’s kick this exercise off by having a home grown conversation about where we’re headed.
Frankly, it’s embarrassing that right now when national and state leaders come to Campbelltown to talk about us, such events are organised by outsiders expanding their business interests.
That has to stop, not by decree, but by locals who care.
It should be a case of “by Campbelltown, for Campbelltown’’, and the sooner this occurs the better.
Queen St has become a horrible 3rd world disgusting embarrassment over the years. How many barbers, tobacconist and kebab shops do Campbelltown really need??
The conversion of Queen St to one-way traffic in the 1990s and closure of Lithgow St to Queen St in the 1980s never really worked. Plus too many retail uses were allowed outside of the main centre. Council cutting down half the trees in Queen St about 10 years ago was another death blow. Pretty hard for Queen St to recover at this point. It’s a bit of an embarrassment actually. Perhaps 5-6 storey housing might be the only way forward.
Why can’t we have a bridge and connect both sides of train station. Also it seems like our council takes years to approve bigger projects. Campbelltown has so much potential but we need to pitch ourselves as a possible city and push governments for projects like metro to new airport etc.
How about discussing the elephant in the room…. Lendlease
This company is largely responsible for the state of Queen St, by diverting investment and retail tenants to Macarthur Square property over many decades.
And the primary reason Gilead and Appin are being developed is because Lendlease’s Macarthur Square was losing tenants to Narellan Town Centre, so by boosting the population south of Campbelltown, Lendlease will have an ongoing supply of consumers being funnelled towards Macarthur Square.
Take a look at the transit plan… it’s all about getting people to shop at Macarthur Square.
No ones wants it to become a mini Liverpool, its already too packed with the new suburbs getting built. Lets not mention how much of our wildlife we are harming by these new estates
My parents moved to the Campbelltown area when I was about to start high school in the late 70’s, to get away from Bankstown (ok very different times back then but geez look how that area has turned out) well over the next 40 plus years.
I’ve watched Campbelltown head slowly in the same direction but in that time I strongly defended the area from people who made comments that I thought were wrong cause they didn’t live here ( don’t get me wrong I’ve got great memories and have good people who are friends from my time here) but my wife and I made the decision to leave the area (my son and his family left 2years ago to live in ACT) and we’re very happy we did, not that far away but just enough.
Yes moving shopping out of Queen St absolutely killed it.
Retailers need to move back in to enliven the street once more.
The Mall began the shift and the Macarthur Square monolith just robbed Queen St of any chance of success.
Perhaps a restaurant precinct, however, traffic needs to be able to move and parking needs to be available.