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Theatre Orange c 1931. Renamed the Coronet in 1955

The Metro 5 surfing movie, Blue Crush. Stadium style Western Drive-in
seating capacities vary between 122 and 260
In April 2002, planning was well underway for across the five cinemas. In 1969, Western Cinemas opened their
a new, five-screen cinema to be constructed at Western Drive-in in Forest Road, Orange,
43 William Street by the MetroFive Company, “Strong” projection equipment came from the followed by drive-ins at Bathurst (1972) and
under the ownership of Mike Wardrope and United States and the screens were imported Parkes (1975). The opening of the Western
John O’Neill. from Italy. 8-channel Dolby EX sound was Drive-in in Forest Road further damaged the
installed in all theatres. operations of the hardtops. Its opening film
Preliminary earthworks started in May 2002 was Airport.
before the local Council had given full The Metro 5 closed on 1 December 2008, and
building approval. Work continued at a re-opened one year later in December 2009 as In the 1970s, Orange’s Western Drive-in was
frenetic pace, allowing the new Metro Cinema the Odeon 5, to coincide with the closure of leased to Melbourne based Village Theatres,
to open on Saturday 23 November 2002 at a the Australia. The cinema is still operational who renamed it the Village Drive-in.
final cost of $5.5 million. One of the opening today. However, the downturn in drive-in patronage
films was the Australian premiere of the teen saw the closure of all three drive-ins in c. 1984.

By 1985, all three were on the market. On
5 August 1987, the three drive-ins were put
up for auction in Sydney. The advertising for
the Orange drive-in boasted “kitchen and
toilet amenities and about 200 power outlets
which were used to supply heaters for cars”.
�

Credits:

Leader Newspaper 1916 (Trove).
Images:
CATHS Archive.
Gerry Kennedy Collection.
Mike Trickett.

Odeon 5 (2013). Image: Mike Trickett. (The theatre was formerly the Metro 5 until 2008)

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