Melbourne Drive-ins

Melbourne has always been the drive-in theatre capital of Australia. While Sydney, Adelaide and Perth only have one survivor, and Brisbane has two, Melbourne has three still going. And all three of them are triple screens.

Melbourne also once had 23 operating drive-ins, more than any other city in Australia, and nearly twice as many as Sydney (only 14 here). The three that are left are:

* Coburg - still exists as the Village Triple. Opened as a single screen in 1965, closed in 1984. Reopened as a twin in 1987. A third screen was added in 1995. Decorated in 1950s rock n roll style, with a car on the roof of the entrance booth. One of Melbourne's best kept secrets. Its website is http://villagecinemas.com.au/Cinemas/Coburg-Drive-In.htm

* Dandenong - still exists as the Lunar Triple. Opened in 1956 as the single-screen Panoramic. Closed in 1984. Used as a Trash n Treasure market for many years. Reopened as the Lunar Twin in 2002, with two new screens. A third screen was added in 2003. Today it is Australia's largest drive-in theatre (950 cars). http://www.lunardrive-in.com.au/

* Dromana - opened in 1961 as the Peninsula. A second screen, from the closed drive-in at Altona, was added in 1984. A third, smaller screen, was added in 1991. The drive-in is classified by the National Trust. http://www.drivein.net.au/

Have you taken your VW to these drive-ins? Are you planning on it during the school holidays?

have been to Coburg drive in a few times with our new beetle.
also went to Dromana as part of the mass get together of vdubs when the herbie movie was screened.

they are great in summer.

I haven't been to Coburg for decades but keep meaning to get there to compare

Lunar in Dandenong is the closest but Dromana is a lot nicer with it's retro diner and great drive to get there

These school holidays would be a bit cool, as in cold, being Melbourne, brrrrrr

A hot summer nigh,t nothing better 👍

Herbie was a very good night at Dromana, definitely 👍

Mmmmm that seems soooo long ago now

I've been to all of them on vw events 🙂
Don't recommend going in the rain and cold with 3 people in a beetle... the windscreen becomes impossible to see through!

Yes drive-ins are fabulous in summer. Only three countries really embraced drive-ins - the USA of course (they once had more than 4,000 of them, and today there are around 300); Canada, and Australia. I would think that, in general, Australia would have the best climate of the three. There were a small number of drive-ins built in Spain, France and South Africa. The UK never got a single one.

One thing that really killed them off - apart from rising real estate prices, and colour TV, and the VHS, and DVD - was Daylight Saving. In the old days movies started at a reasonable hour, even in summer, and many drive-ins could get two movie sessions through in a night. That made money. Nowadays, though, it doesn't get dark until 8:30 or 9:00pm and that's too late for two sessions (although a midnight horror movie is kind of cool).

Did anyone go to any of the other 20 Melbourne drive-ins that are now closed?

would've been to the one that was in laverton as a very young kid with my parents... too young to remember it though... now its a weekend market site.

This is the story for the 18 closed Melbourne drive-ins that no longer exist:

* Altona Hoyts - closed 1982. Now an industrial estate on Doherty's Rd, opposite the cemetary. The foundations of the former snack bar building can still be seen in a small vacant section in the middle of the industrial estate.

* Broadmeadows Skyline - closed 1972. The first Melbourne drive-in to close (maybe the first in Australia to close?). Now factories and industrial complexes along Sydney Rd. No sign of it all today.

* Burwood Skyline - Australia's first-ever drive-in, opened in February 1954 (nearly three years before Sydney's first drive-in at Frenchs Forest). Closed in 1983. Now the Alinta electrical supplies dept. The arc-shape of the drive-in can still be seen from the air. The original entrance ticket booth still exists on site and is used as a storage shed. The screen was originally on the other side of the creek, on a hillside. An historical plaque has been placed there in the park by the local council to mark the site of the first drive-in.

* Clayton MGM Metro Twin - was Australia's largest-ever drive-in, holding 1,474 cars in two fields. It was the Melbourne equivalent of Sydney's Chullora Metro Twin, which was also owned by MGM (Chullora held 1,350 cars). Unlike most drive-ins, these two had screens that were slightly curved rather than dead flat. The restaurant block was in the centre, with the kids play areas, with screens at opposite ends of the site. Clayton closed in 1984. It was used for a while as a carpark for the Monash University across the road, but today it is the site of the Australian Syncrotron. The old drive-in north entrance road and gates are still there, off Blackburn Rd.

* Croydon Village - closed 1990. Now houses on Nursery Rd. A McDonalds was built at the entrance to the drive-in when it was still operating, which was popular with people going to the drive-in but it cut into the drive-in's own snack bar sales. The Maccas is still there today, of course.

* Essendon (Tullamarine Village) - closed 1984. Now houses off Melrose Drive. There are streets called Paramount Ct, Forum Pl and Columbia Close on the old drive-in site, paying homage to the movie companies, which is a nice touch.

* Frankston Starlight Village - opened in 1958, became a twin drive-in in 1982, and closed in 1989. Now houses off Skye Rd, opposite the golf course. Bokissa Drive loops through the old drive-in site.

* Laverton (Brooklyn) Village - a very large 1,100 car single-screen drive-in that did better business than the Hoyts Altona only 4 km away. It had an ornamental lake on site, which is still there. Now used as a Trash n Treasure market, as blutopless2 has said. The drive-in's original snack bar building is still there and is used as the market's kiosk. The original entrance road off Leakes Rd is still there, and so is the original ticket booth. Also still there is the large 'VILLAGE' sign at the entrance gate.

* Maribyrnong Hoyts Sunset - Opened in 1955, twinned in 1982 and closed 1990. A tram line used to run right behind where the original screen was, which apparently made viewing interesting. The tram line is still there, but the screen is long gone. Today the site is the large homemaker centre on Rosamond Rd, opposite the Highpoint shopping centre.

* Moorabbin Village - Closed in 1980. Now the Coca Cola distribution centre on Roberna St. The original entrance and exit roads are still there, together with the gates, used by trucks to get in and out. The arc-shaped grass area where the screen once was is still there, as is a small section of the original asphalt ramps, used to store pallets now.

* Northland Preston Olympic Twin - closed 1987. This was another large drive-in. Now the large homemaker centre and McDonalds on Murray Rd, opposite the Northland shopping centre.

* Oakley Hoyts Skyline - opened in 1955, closed 1990. Was built on a long, thin block beside the motorway reservation, and included a leafy park near the entrance. Today it's all high-density housing and a retirement village. The motorway still hasn't been built.

* Preston Hoyts Skyline - closed in 1984. Now a retirement village off Seston St, adjoining the football grounds beside the river. The former quarry and rubbish tip next to the drive-in is now houses as well.

* Rowville (Dandenong North) Village - closed in 1983. Only a tall line of trees remains to show where the drive-in boundary once was. The rest is all houses. There is a Village St next to where the drive-in once was.

* Sandringham - an independently-owned drive-in that never joined the Village-Hoyts chain. Opened in the 1950s and was originally a large 990-car single screen layout, but in the early 1980s the owners decided to sell off three quarters of the drive-in's land to industrial property developers. A much smaller drive-in continued on the segment of original land, but the remaining ramps no longer pointed straight at the new, smaller screen! This was not going to work and the drive-in closed for good in 1984. Today the whole site is factories. The Tulip St Business Park was built on the last segment.

* Sunshine Village - closed 1982. The site was bought by the Croatian community, who built soccer fields on the site. Today it is the home of the Melbourne Knights Stadium and practice grounds. The old drive-in snack bar building is still there and used as part of the sporting facilities.

* Thomastown (Reservoir) Village - closed 1982. This one was not redeveloped for housing or factories, but instead was demolished to build the M80 Northern Ring Road and Dalton Rd interchange. A small section of the drive-in land still exists as a grassy field to the south of the M80, and bits of the asphalt entrance road can still be seen through the grass.

* Toorak - closed 1983. Was originally independent, but it joined the Hoyts chain in the late 1960s. Today the futuristic-looking Coles-Meyer headquarters, sometimes called the 'Battlestar Galactica', occupies the whole site.

Does anyone remember going to any of these?

Phil74Camper wrote:It had an ornamental lake on site, which is still there.

hahaha... think you mean the swamp...