Opened: 1970’s
Location: Forest road, Orange
Capacity: 350 Cars?
Screens: One
Operator: Village, Independant
Closed: late 1980’s
By the late 1960’s most other Australian states had drive-in theatres in almost every substantial rural town, but not NSW. Drive-ins continued to be built right through the 1970’s in NSW towns. It was the state government requirement of asphalt ramps (as opposed to gravel) and fire hose reels among for every 150 cars that added to construction costs that left NSW behind in the “slap ’em up” boom of the 1950’s and 1960’s.
Orange was one of the very few drive-ins in Australia that used in-car heaters. They were also used in Goulburn and Canberra. Some of the speaker posts had small electric fan heaters that you sat by your feet in order to warm up. A clever idea that worked well and was used extensively by US and Canadian drive-ins.
