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Clockwise from top, left.
1: The jumble of commerce that was the south bank of the Yarra c.1910. On the far left is the Olympia, now Spencer’s Pictures.
The supports for the water slide can be seen behind it. West’s Palace, recognizable by the sliding roof section, is behind the paper
factory facing St. Kilda Road. Snowden’s Pictures is on its right behind the Snowden Gardens.
2: The original entrance to Wirth’s Olympia, which is later used by three film exhibitors.
3: The Great Canadian Water Chute was not a ride for the faint hearted.
4: Spencer’s Pictures take over the Olympia after West builds his own cinema. The main sign reads Spencer’s Theatrescope Co.

5: The Olympia becomes the Green Mill dance hall.
6: The YMCA building, which replaced West’s Palace, fully utilised the ‘arrow-head’ prominence of the site.
7: An almost cleared Princes Park c.1960, with the Olympia still prominent.
8: The Arts Centre in 1990.The spire rises over an opera house and two theatres; to its left is the National Gallery of Victoria.
The circular building is the concert venue Hamer Hall, built over the Snowden Gardens.
Image credits (numbered clockwise from top left): 1 National Library of Australia; 2,3,5,6,7 Stages, Magazine of the Victorian
Arts Centre, Nov. 1992. 4 Australian Cinema Eric Reade. 8 Frank Van Straten Collection.

10 2006 CINEMARECORD