Vicinity-owned Bankstown Central in Sydney’s south west region, turns 50 years old tomorrow.

On Wednesday 21 September 2016, it will mark 50 years since Lady Cutler, the wife of the then NSW Governor General, Sir Roden Cutler, officially opened Bankstown Square, amidst great fanfare. At the time it was heralded as Australia’s largest shopping complex and placed Bankstown at the epicentre of Sydney’s south west.

Almost 2000 people were waiting when the gates opened at 8.30am with an estimated 100,000 people through the doors on opening day

Lady Cutler described the Centre as ‘fascinating for a woman” and said that during her 20 years abroad she had never seen a better designed nor more attractive shopping centre.

The opening speeches concluded with a fly over formation of light aircraft entirely crewed by female pilots.

The complex spread over 6.27 hectares and featured two departments stores, David Jones and Big W and 130 specialty shops along with parking for 2900 vehicles, and in a first at the time, music was piped throughout the centre.

In the mid-2000s the centre underwent a major, two-stage refurbishment and by July 2006, the extensions had added 26,000m² of retail space to bring the total gross leasable area to 66,500m².

The Centre was rebranded as Bankstown Central in 2013 and today comprises numerous government and community service providers amongst the 320+ specialty stores with an annual customer headcount exceeding 15.2 million.

“Just as the Bankstown community has grown, changed and flourished over the past 50 years, Bankstown Central has grown with it,” said Anthony Wilson, centre manager.

“The Centre has always prided itself on enriching the community experience and we look forward to continuing to do so for many more generations to come.”

Access exclusive analysis, locked news and reports with Inside Retail Weekly. Subscribe today and get our premium print publication delivered to your door every week.