Page 12 - CR
P. 12

“Located at the junction of Stud
          and Wellington Roads, Rowville – four
          miles on the city side of Dandenong –
          the theatre is surrounded only by a few
          farmhouses, sheep, cattle and a stud
          farm.
            From the top of the 80ft-tall screen
          tower you can look down on as
          attractive a bushland scene as could be
          imagined.
            The drive-in nestles comfortably in
          a shallow fold of undulating field.
          Around it rises hills and mountains
          covered with trees and dotted here and
          there by neat patches of ploughed land.
            If you suffer from claustrophobia at
          your local cinema, this is the place for  Above: Bob, Joe, Jack and Dick Finn, rugged up for the big night in July 1956
          you.”
                                               The article also mentioned that the  as more and more homes were
                                            Rowville Drive-In would be the first to  equipped with colour TVs and video
                                            have an espresso bar which was     players.
                                            expected to be “a huge success with   The land’s zoning was converted to
                                            Melbourne people who have taken to  residential and is now occupied by
                                            espresso coffee in a big way.”     housing along Streeton Court, Heyson
                                               Stewart Finn managed the Drive-In  Close and the northern section of
                                            during its first six years until he went to  Sunshine Street.
                                            Echuca to take up a teaching career.  The only reminder of the Drive-In
                                               As anticipated by the directors the  Theatre at Rowville is a single poplar
                                            Drive-In did survive the early television  tree to the south of the Baton Rouge
                                            era but eventually succumbed in 1983  Motel. A row of these tall trees once
                                                                               flanked the back of the giant screen.









































          12  2010 CINEMARECORD
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