What happened to Melbourne’s lost drive-ins?
The humble drive-in was once a Melbourne staple, with more than 20 big screens across the city. Now just a handful remain. So what happened to this once-popular pastime?
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The humble drive-in was once at the heart of Melbourne’s culture, back in a time when the car was king, land was cheap and a Friday night double-header was the highlight of the week.
It was the 1950s and ’60s, an era of the bench-seat family car, the six o’clock swill, and a more relaxed attitude towards driving with a few long necks under the belt.
Drive-ins were at their peak, with about 20 scattered across the suburbs of Melbourne, more than 60 in the state and hundreds across the country.
From Altona and Broadmeadows in the west, Reservoir and Coburg in the north, Burwood and Wantirna in the east and Frankston and Moorabbin down south, the drive-in was the place to be.
David Kilderry was a fan of drive-ins from a young age.
It helped that from his Reservoir bedroom he could see the giant screen at the Coburg drive-in.
“I was fascinated with everything about drive-ins and cinemas anyway and that just sealed it,’’ he said.
David – whose first film at the drive-in was Walt Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks – gathered photos and bits of information in the ’80s and ’90s and eventually set up the website drive-insdownunder.com.au which lists all the drive-ins in the country.
He then fulfilled his dream.
With brother Matthew, he leased the Dandenong drive-in in 2002, 18 years after it closed.
Now known as the Lunar Drive-in, David says business has grown 10 per cent each year for the past eight years.
But why did the drive-in effectively become a memory? Why are most drive-in sites now taken up with housing?
In the 1980s, the VCR certainly ripped away a large percentage of the audience, David said.
“By the ’80s, a lot of the drive-ins were 30 years old and hadn’t had a lot of money spent on them; some of them had updated to radio sound but most still had the speaker on the window which wasn’t good-quality sound,’’ David said.
And it wasn’t much better at the kiosk.
“The food had deteriorated and, with all due respect, it was the same old ladies cooking the same old burgers for 30 years and let’s just say a little enthusiasm was lost,’’ David said.
But that wasn’t all – it turns out our appetite for titillation played a big part.
“It was pre-VCR, so unless you had a Super 8 movie projector at home you couldn’t watch sex films, the only place to go was the drive-in,’’ he said.
“Drive-ins were running sex films wall to wall.”
Basically, the family-friendly drive-in became little more than a sleaze pit of sub-par Aussie sex films – and we’ve never won an Oscar with them.
So the drive-ins suffered from what happens when supply and demand reverses.
“Hoyts and Village made the decision, ‘right, these places are not going to come back, we may as well close them and sell them for the land value’,’’ David says.
Some struggled on valiantly but most lost their lure.
Coburg closed in 1984, before surprisingly reopening in 1987, where your then pyjama-clad correspondent, aged 8, watched that Aussie classic Les Patterson Saves the World.
As the Kilderry brothers continue a resurgence with their drive-in, David offers a simple recipe for success.
“If it’s a bit of quality, an art house film, a drive-in audience doesn’t respond. We ran La La Land and hardly anyone came, so we took it off and put xXx: Return of Xander Cage on and of course we packed the place,’’ he said.
“Action, comedy and family – three simple things – that’s as complicated as the recipe gets.’’
Add in the old-fashioned asphalt ramp, the big steel screen, coupled with modern technology and good grub – nostalgia dressed up in 21st century technology, as David describes it – and you have yourself a resurgence.
But there is one other tradition that hasn’t completely died out.
Despite a special deal where $30 gets you entry with as many friends as you can fit in the car, David’s staff still occasionally catch people trying to score a freebie in the boot.
THE NICEST DRIVE-IN?
AUSTRALIA is regarded as one of the top three countries for the drive-in.
For David Kilderry, the reasons why are simple.
“You have lots of land that’s cheap, high car ownership and decent climate,’’ he said
“There were drive-ins all over the world. A country like Germany, at its peak, had 20 to 30, but we had hundreds.
“They were never in New Zealand … the cinemas banded together to put pressure on the Government to make that type of theatre illegal,’ he said.
What’s his favourite?
“When I got my licence, I went to all the other drive-ins, like Burwood and Wantirna,” he said.
“They had beautiful gardens and trees. Burwood, the first drive-in in the southern hemisphere, is probably the prettiest. It had a lake with a steak house, illuminated children’s playground. If I had to say a favourite it would be Burwood.’’
Where can you still go to the drive-in in Melbourne?
Lunar Drive-in
115 South Gippsland Highway, Dandenong
Phone: 9706 9988
The largest drive-in theatre in Australia, the complex houses four screens and is open every night of the year except Christmas. Cost is $30 a carload, and $25 Monday-Wednesday, or individual tickets are $13. The Lunar Cafe is open every night, serving real Aussie-style hamburgers and more.
Dromana 3 Drive-in
133 Nepean Highway, Dromana
Phone: 5987 2492 between 8-11pm, 5931 0022 weekdays 10am-4pm
This three-screen drive-in still features the original 1961 screen, the earliest remaining in Victoria. Shel’s Diner is modelled on the authentic 50s-style American diner and is inspired by Mel’s Diner at Universal Studios in California, complete with booths and black and white tiles up the walls.
Visit dromanadrivein.com.au for opening and session times and prices.
Village Cinemas Coburg Drive-in
155 Newlands Road, Coburg North
Phone: 1300 555 400
Shut down in 1984, this popular drive-in was re-opened in 1987 with two screens, and a third was added in 1995. Grab a bite to eat in the retro-style diner or order from your car via the Coburg Drive In app. Kids 11 and under are free.
www.villagecinemas.com.au/cinemas/coburg-drive-in
The Backlot Rooftop Drive-in
90 Waterfront Way, Docklands
Phone: 0497 061 769 between 6pm and 12am
A drive-in with a twist — this recently opened twin-screen drive-in, located within the Harbour Town complex and the only one of its kind in Australia, is set against a 360-degree view of the Melbourne skyline. Open nightly from 8pm, cost is $40 a car, $20 on Tuesdays, or $10 for walk-up patrons to access the seated area.
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