The area now comprising the suburb was used between 1939 and 1945 as a plantation for the growth of opium poppy to provide a source for medications in the unavailability of imported supplies.

The large pine and gum trees which surround the block around the shops were planted in this time as a wind break for the CSIRO building.

With the development of the suburb the trees became diseased during the 1980s and a program is underway to replace them with more amenable local varieties of gum.

[citation needed] Downer has a local oval between Frencham, Melba, Bonython and Bradfield streets, with a shopping centre.

[2] Nearby, the Canberra Business Centre until recently occupied the site of the former Downer Primary School.