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A MEMBER WANDERING by Brian Miller

Interstate Touring News Conducted coach tours are not ond fire saw the building of the Silver City in 1966/67. Jt
designed for CATHS-V members who want to investigate seats over 800 although only the balcony was bei11g used, is
cinemas in country towns. The use of fifty seat coaches fully air-conditioned and has an ultra stereo sound system.
and by-pass highways means the road houses are as close J saw a few minutes of"The Horse Whisperer" and it looked
as you get to many settlements. spectacular on a large CinemaScope screen with a fully
curtained stage. Mr. Wren also informed me the modern
A tour to South Australia in September 1998 did produce a Broken Hill Entertainment Centre is built on the site of the
few points of interest here and there. A lunch stop in Bendigo earlier Ozone Theatre.
allowed enough time for a sandwich and a visit to the fonner
Plaza Theatre. The upstairs is used as a Sports Centre but Broken Hill is an interesting old town and I asked for de-
the original Spanish-style plaster ceiling and part of the tails of the Theatre Royal Hotel. which has a very old hall
prosceniwn have been carefully painted i11 attractive colours. next door. This dates from an era when hotels sometimes
Mike Purden's "CinemaRecord" articles detailing the Plaza's had a music hall attached for vaudeville sl1ows. snooker,
history have been enlarged and mounted permanently on boxjng. etc. Current use seemed to be as a bar and for func-
boards for interested visitors. J was also assured the tions.
downstairs foyer ceiling remains intact although hidden by
a false ceiling in a retail store. The South Australian tOWll of Peterborough was once an
important railway junction. one of the few in the world where
three different gauges met. Present population is around 2300
and the 1926 Town Hall is in good, near original condition.
Portable seating downstairs and fixed seating in the balcony.
The projection p01tholes were still there but films were to
be shown at the local football social club.

The Jamestown Pl.ayers were to present the musical
"Brigadoon" in a forthcoming live show at the Town Hall.
Further down the main street. the imposing 1920's facade
of the Capitol Theatre featw·es leadlight windows with a
CT logo on them. The Capitol was fim1ly locked up, appar-
ently facing an uncertain future.

Plaza Bendigo Two nights were spent at Hawker. gateway to the Flinders
Ranges. The Hawke1r lnstitutc Hall was then 105 years old
Proceeding via the Calder Highway, only passing glimpses and two ladies from the local auxiliary were busily prepar-
of the Charlton Cinema and the Wycheproof TOWll Hall ing for the 17th annual Hawker Art Show. This two-week
before a late arrival in Mildura. No chance to see the Deakin event attracts about 650 entries from throughout the State
Twin Cinemas as we approached our motel. and profits go to maintain the Hall. Anew supper room and
kitchen were added in recent years. Used as a cinema be-
fore television, a projection room and irs access stairs had
to be constructed within the hall, with vertical steel poles to
support it. Audiences enter the main door and walk under
the bio-box.

Charlton Cinema

An eru·lier arrival next day in Broken Hill, where Mr. John
Wren, Associate Director of the Silver City Cinema said
tl1is is the third theatre to occupy it's site at 41 Oxide Street.
The first was Johnson's Theatre and after a fiTe it was re-
placed by the Century, a Snider and Dean property. A sec- Wests- Hindley Street 1993