Rowville Village Drive-In

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Gwen Hayes (nee Gill) wrote the following account of her time working at the Drive In during its first year of operation.

From the opening night in July 1956 until at least twelve months later I worked at the Drive In. On week nights I started work there around 6.00 pm as I was working at the SEC office in Dandenong during the day, but on Saturdays I’d be there between 2 and 3 o’clock to help prepare the stock in the cafeteria. The gates opened at about 5.30 pm because we served meals – fantastic they were too – and people ate them while the nips played in the playground. There was a chef employed to oversee the meals: steaks, grills, fish and chips plus salads. All the hot food was prepared outside in a big barbecue area built off the main dining room. My cousin, Graeme McIntyre, and another local, Bob Anderson, did all the cooking. Inside we served the salads, hot and cold drinks, ice creams (which we used to make up), confectionery and cigarettes. The indoor crew included my cousins, Margaret and Dorothy McIntyre, Bob Anderson’s wife, Lou the chef and his wife Joy plus Jack Wilkinson, the cafeteria manager. Stewart Finn, the Drive In manager, looked after all of the outdoor staff and sometimes when things were hectic in the cafeteria he would come in and help. Stewart’s wife Dot worked in the ticket box.

The Projectionists The projectionists were Keith Harwood and Paul Hayes, my future husband, whom I met at the Drive In. Paul lived in Balwyn at the time and had been a projectionist for a number of years but he thought that it would be better working out at a Drive In rather than inside a theatre. Keith and Paul had to do a “ramp-tramp” after each show, that is, go around to check that all of the speakers had been switched off. While doing this they would sometimes find articles of clothing left on the ramps. Many a time people drove off after the show with the speaker still hooked to their window and Keith or Paul would have to retrieve the speakers and rewire them back in. Sometimes a speaker would give out during the show so one of them had to replace it there and then - by Gwen Hayes

First published in the September 2005 edition of the Rowville-Lysterfield Community News – Contributed by Greg Lynch –