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consisted of simple wooden benches, while As the seats of the theatre were removable (the However, on the night of Sunday
back stalls had armchair style seating. floor was one the best dance floors in Hobart), 5 January 1975, a ship (the Lake Illawarra) ran
Admission prices started at sixpence after the screenings the caretaker would take into the Tasman Bridge, bringing several spans
(five cents). Compared to Hobart’s theatres, it the seats to the storage area, while his dog crashing down into the river, along with a
was pretty basic; one patron described going to would race around catching any rats that might number of occupied cars. Once again, the
the Regent as like seeing a film in a barn! be lurking inside. eastside was cut off from Hobart on the west,
except for hastily arranged ferries, some of
Maybe to stop people rushing out at the end of which even came down from Sydney. In
the screenings, the national anthem was always response to a request from the Clarence
played at the Regent at the start of the session. Council (which had taken in Bellerive),
Tasmanian Drive-in Theatres (a part of the
In 1935, Regent manager, Alex Eccles, held a Village Theatres group), hired the old Town
movie ball with the enticement that a film Hall Theatre, installed 300 seats (from the Star
would be made of the event. With the Theatre in Burnie) and renamed it the Civic
possibility of appearing in a talking picture, Theatre to cater for the locals who were cut
300 people attended, with the Hobart Mercury off from Hobart cinemas once again. The
reporting the next day that it was one of the venture was short lived though, and a lack of
most successful and brightest balls held in patronage saw the Civic close in early 1976.
Bellerive. Once again the Clarence Council stepped in
and convinced Tasmanian Drive-in Theatres to
The Regent could only get second run films re-open the theatre. That took place in April
(films that had been previously shown in 1976 but, by February the following year, the
Hobart theatres). Manager Alex Eccles would Civic was closed again, this time for good.
collect the canisters of films from the ferry
terminal, load them onto his specially built The old Town Hall building, which had been
tricycle and cycle them to the theatre. the home of the Regent and then the Civic
theatres, was sold off by the Council in 1980
Vivien Richards, who had a hire car and drove and later demolished. The site is now occupied
people from Lindisfarne to the Regent on a Despite the opening of the Hobart Bridge by the “Quay” building. Ironically, the
Saturday night, decided to have a go at theatre (a pontoon floating bridge) connecting east Bellerive Social Institute, which was replaced
management and took over the lease of the and west across the Derwent in 1943, locals by the Town Hall in 1928, still stands! �
Regent when Alex Eccles left for the mainland continued to support the Regent.
in 1940. He remained there until 1952, when
the lease was taken over by Mr. F.C. McIvor. Unfortunately, with the opening of the Credits:
Eastside Drive-in at Warrane in the early
Older Bellerive residents recall Saturday 1960s, along with the introduction of Bellerive Historical Society's 'Bellerive Heritage
nights when it seemed like the whole of television in Tasmania and the building of the Vol.4'
Bellerive was at the Regent. Others remember new Tasman Bridge in 1964, cinema patronage
when the movie was stopped on a Saturday at the Regent fell off to the point where it was Images:
night in February 1952 to announce the death forced to close. On the other hand, the Town
of King George VI. Hall remained open for dances, balls, etc. Bellerive Historical Society

CINEMARECORD # 96 35