Coober Pedy drive-in: Huge upgrade, film museum mooted Outback destination
Adelaide’s last drive-in cinema may have bitten the dust but a remote SA town is betting big dollars that the city’s loss can be the iconic outback destination’s gain.
SA News
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The state’s only regional drive-in could be in line for a $260,000 upgrade – and a new outback film museum – if the local council gets its way.
Coober Pedy will host South Australia’s last drive-in come February, when Wallis closes its Gepps Cross venue, and the council hopes a bid to revamp the Outback site would encourage people to stay in the area for longer.
Steve Staines, Coober Pedy Council’s general manager of corporate and community services, said the town’s drive-in was popular with locals and tourists before the pandemic – particularly Europeans who did not have similar attractions at home.
“They’ve been beside themselves to have their first drive-in experience in the Outback,” he said.
“It was very much an Australia, US and Canada thing.”
The council expects to receive $258,000 in federal government funding under an economic stimulus program – and now plans to request that the money be spent on the drive-in, which was established in 1965.
Works would be determined by a masterplan, but would likely include a refurbishment to the drive-in building, recreating the atmosphere of a “bygone era”.
Mr Staines said the council also wanted to display historical projection equipment at the “much-loved” venue.
“There’s so many generations of Coober Pedians that have grown up there and have treasured memories of the drive-in,” he said.
The town has provided the backdrop for scenes in a string of major films, including Mortal Kombat, Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome, Red Planet and Pitch Black.
Coober Pedy administrator Tim Jackson said the council would also launch an expression of interest process for work on a feasibility study delving into creating a film museum in the Far North town.
“It would be a national outback film museum and celebrate films made in the Australian Outback – not just Coober Pedy,” he said.
“If it had legs it would be a fantastic tourism boost for the town.”
It would also help encourage people to stay in the opal mining town for longer, Mr Jackson said, with most tourists using it as an overnight stop.
Daniel O'Connor, the drive-in’s projectionist, said up to 60 cars were now turning up on its busiest evenings, but recently, on slow nights, there might only be 6-8 cars.
“There’s just no tourists in town with Covid – this last six months has been a battle,” he said.
Mr O’Connor said diversifying the drive-in’s offerings would help its management committee generate more revenue in an age when streaming services were cutting the number of people attending screenings.
That could include things such as private screenings and exhibitions, he said.
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