Favor to ask

["Peter Berrett" <pberrett@optushome.com.au>]

Hi all

This is not a rail related post but I ask your tolerance for reasons that
will become apparent.

I have an interest in Drive-in Theatres and in particular Victorian drive-in
theatres. As you gunzellers travel all across the countryside spotting
trains it seems likely that you have visited many country towns and seen or
have even visited various drive-in theatres in years gone by. In this
respect your gunzelling experience is highly relevant to my question.

Here is a list of known Victorian Drive-in Theatres (most now closed)

Victoria

Altona
Bairnsdale
Ballarat Skyline
Ballarat Village
Benalla
Bendigo
Birchip
Broadmeadows
Brooklyn
Bulleen
Burwood
Clayton
Casterton
Cobram
Coburg
Colac
Croydon
Dandenong
Dromana
Essendon
Echuca
Frankston
Geelong Village
Geelong Star
Grantville
Hamilton
Horsham
Inverloch
Kerang
Leongatha
Maribyrnong
Maryborough
Mildura Crossroads
Mildura Sixteenth St
Moe
Moorabbin
Morwell
Oakleigh
Portland
Preston Hoyts
Preston Northland
Reservoir
Robinvale
Rowville
Sale
Sandringham
Seymour
Shepparton
Stawell
Sunshine
Swan Hill
Terang
Toorak
Traralgon
Wangaratta
Wantirna
Warragul
Warrnambool
Wodonga
Yarrawonga

The list is taken from the following page (which I highly recommend for
those so interested).

http://www.drive-insdownunder.com.au/australian/vic1.htm

Are you aware of any drive-in theatres that are missing from this list? If
so I would be grateful if you could post a reply. My reason for asking is
that when one looks at a Victorian map one see large areas of the state (eg
around Warracknabeal, Mansfield, Orbost, St Arnaud) which don't appear to
have had a drive-in. I feel sure that one or two have been missed. It would
help the author of the page and myself no end to find one that we have not
yet heard about.

By way of making some sort of tentative link with railways for this post I
am inclined to add that I have noticed that there is some similarity in
one's interest in closed railways to one's interest in closed drive-ins.
Since a very young age I have always had a fascination with major services
(eg railways) that once performed a valuable service for the community but
due to changes in society have outlived their usefulness and have
disappeared but have left their mark on the landscape, I can't drive past an
abandoned railway without getting curious about when it ran, where it went
to and when it was closed. Ditto for drive-in theatres.

Finally it is interesting that the idea of trains and films were never
combined (to my knowledge) to create a train drive-in theatre ie a train
would take you a screen where you could watch the film from the train window
or alternatively hop out and watch from some seats near the screen. Could be
a unique idea for a train historical society to try as a way of
differentiating their service from other historical societies. The Train-In
Theatre!

cheers Peter