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CINEMARECORD


           OUT IN THE STICKS                                                       Cinema History No. 78

           Early cinema in Melbourne's outer eastern suburbs ·


           By Roger Seccombe

           The Sticks                                             claypits of the prosperous brick and tile trade. Even around about
                                                                  1948 it was still very much like this. This was the year when I had
           In  the late  1960s when I  was  moving  from  the  ci.vilized   my first  glimpse of this area,  'dinked' as a child  on the back of
           respectability of Kew to the wilds of Mitcham, friends would joke   my mother's bicycle on sketching and painting expeditions from
           that the Aborigines  still roamed the roads  around  there!  While I   Kew to Ringwood Lake (quite a haul by bicycle in those days!).
           was to subsequently  find  this  was far from accurate, for an avid
                                                                  Nunawading (or Tunstall as it had been named up until l945) was
           film-goer from  the inner suburban  picture palaces, cinema-going
                                                                  a few commercial buildings on Springvale Road beside the station
           'out in the sticks' was quite a different affair: Once you left Box
                                                                  while Mitcham  was similar.  Ringwood  was,  of course, a  larger
           Hill behind, you were definitely into the territory of 'country hall'
                                                                  settlement. In between  was  open space and  little else along a
           cinema!
                                                                  straggling two-lane country road that was Whitehorse Road.
           The Lilydale and  Femtree Gully  Railway  and Whitehorse Road
           (further out,Maroondah Highway) were the main parallel arteries   The Country Hall Cinema
           of transport to  the east of Melbourne. The railway had been   Despite the sparsely settled nature of much of the outer east it's
           opened between Box Hill and  Ringwood and, out along these   remarkable that th.e cinema came early - a measure, I suppose, of
           corridors, Melbourne's suburban sprawl had  expanded towards   the appeal of this  new marvel, especially for  the many migrants
           the east and  the Dandenong Ranges.  As the suburbs thinned  out   from Britain who  had  settled in .areas  like Croydon and brought
           after Blackburn (and I'm talking immediately post-war) you were   with them a lifestyle habit of cinema-going. One of the easiest and
           into  an area of market gardens, orchards, small farms  and  the   least risky ways of opening a cinema was to operate from  one of



                          Cinema Halls in Melbourne's Outer Eastern Su.burbs, circa 1950
                                                t.;
                   .  \                Warrandyj.~.\     1  Box Hill Rialto                     {       N
                      I                      I     "'\   2  Box Hill Regent                     I       t
                     {         - /''--/"1           ;    3  Boronia Progress Hall
             .  • rr·-----·,/ '....:     .I   .1    1    4  Boronia Electra
             '·~~- - --t..T.emplestowe   f  /       \
                     ;  ~·---.t         '  F        4.  I
                     ,
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                 }  \.       ;    '\1 Donvale        1      ~~--      ·                     1 Moun~.   ..
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             '··~·-1 I. Blac  urn   I   --.- '':'··~- ~-  •Ringwoo'd   o i   I   . • ...... - -  _.,..,   ·,
             ~ .....  ~ ,,.........--.}-~-··--  .   'i  '   .,   East   .   a:  !   , . ·   ·   r  ,.--   '",  --.
                                                                          t, """"',:.  '
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              ~ox Hill · { - t• ' Nl.ui~wadingl   i   ·  ,~~·· -..   I.  •   )-..   i   1   Mount~·          ""-\
             -r-j---J.,£ANTER.   1   ~            1    • • •   '..  I  .. -"'  t   !   l   Dandenqng           .
             ~ ··-~-.·      8 UF!y  1      ?.a _____ .       '--!""   I   .    ~          .                    .
             ~              ~1:-·--      _.,..-   i Heathmon  ·   \   .--).   1  ~   \    {                     ',
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                           :
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             l  1g   ·  :   •    ' Forest   ·,  '"',   1   _.. .  --~  .Bayswater,l   1   •   \                ;'
                                 !  Hill
             f  1 ~   I    1    1            - ..... _   .,..-  1  .   I   .....   ,       ~  01"  d           I
             1   , ~  1.   t    1                -.._,.::::   i   "   .   1  '· .,. -- The   ,.\  m  a
            ~ .'L.,, .CI.>   '   '               , .   '·· ... :-.   -~  0  .i • -...,, .  -                ,
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            aut=rw 00-r~·---f·· ~--~   .       /        ..... ..   1   4  /   ,, _!_5'"  .. ~·," .  \-'-.    ,,)
               1   D,     1   •   1 --"._     ,    .   I
                    l.._   Burwood   Hwy---,-~<., Want,rna/   ·-~  - .  . - ~- .-  .•  ··'   -~  ,.;   t    !
                    1    1  East  ~o            ~....   1     ./  3 • . Boronla   \   r..,  \  ... - . '-/   '')   r·v--...
                 Mourt   .:    1cr                ' · .•• Jsu.   1             - · ,  -,  Sassafras   \    1
                Waverley   '   I                    <" - .... ~11ro 0   J        ·-~   .r        \  ...-....... ;   ,.
            ~o...../ Gien                           I    "·..,~ ~y   a:              r            ...   v.·-··,
                                                                    1
                   t     1- '"""(),Waverley         l       \ ''-...~ 2i             i         ,-..    j   /
                   I    I   . li!:J                 ',      :   _.:..,,                                   l  ..
             .     i           ~                            •  ,                  ......  J   (   - ··-......,.·   . ....  ,
             ·~._,_~,·   !    f~                    lKnoxfleld 1  >"                         /  Kallista     1
             sr~. ""-..e~---'   z                   I    ;  .....,.-'                     /  /               ·--·
               '7  s  ----- ~'·4
             --~~TER ~~.  :fWheelers           .#""-~·, .. -,.,-                 ·        {
                  I       ........ ~--;Ct.>   Hill   ,.,  Scoresby             '  -.,....,.Jo._ Beigrave
                 J  /  -9~~ .... - .. _  _, ... •·   l                         Upwey -~-~~~~~'--~/'~,
                 I    f     ! ~~       Map drawn by Martin  Powell,  March 1999.           . -~ \
                                                             4
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