Page 13 - CR

Stardust Café in the early days.
Kitchen Staff – 1960s.
Storm damage – 2010.
Cyclone Aviu - 1989.
Cyclone Yasi – 2011.
The Stardust has a 360-car When Cyclone Aivu hit in April
capacity with the big 1964 original 1989, we patched one side of the screen
40 x 85 feet (12m x 25m) screen, along straight away, fired up a B.B.Q, and
with the indoor Galaxy Cinema on the with an Esky full of cold drinks,
same property. Construction of the cranked up the generator and screened
cinema was by Terry Pilcher from Dirty Dancing the same weekend with
Bowen and it opened on November 6, a reduced size picture on what was left
1996 with the film Independence Day. of the screen. We ran like this for
Today it is mainly used for birthday around four months but could not show
parties and functions. any CinemaScope films.
The giant outdoor drive-in screen In 2010 a freak storm caused
has had to weather many storms as well damage to the Stardust screen and
as a few large-scale cyclones – more programs had to be cancelled until
than once, losing the battle with repairs could be made.
mother-nature! Fate was again unkind when in
January 2011, Cyclone Yasi struck
wreaking havoc across the state and yet
again the screen was damaged – this
time putting the drive-in out of
operation for nearly half of the year.
Insurance delays caused repairs to
wait until June, these involved
replacing the entire screen-face with
new corrugated panels screwed onto
large steels battens attached to the
original structure.
Repairs – June 2011.
CINEMARECORD 2011 13