Rowville Village Drive-In

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Uploaded on: October 20, 2019

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Newspaper image & article, published in THE ARGUS NEWSPAPER running up to the opening of the Rowville Drive In Theatre which opened on 12th July 1956.

Comment – Village Rowville was originally known as one of two Dandenong drive-ins, the other being the Panoramic / Lunar Drive-in, Dandenong on South Gippsland Hwy. It opened only 18 months after the first Village drive-in at Croydon. Although a little closer to the city, it was still in an isolated position in 1956 … When Rowville opened it advertised: – 4 miles from Dandenong, 5 miles from Ferntree Gully, 6 miles from Bayswater and 8 miles from Oakleigh – (by David Kilderry 1999)

EXTRACT from The Argus Newspaper article #

The new drive-in is the Village Drive-in Theatre, Dandenong, (later known as Rowville) located approx 20 miles from Melbourne. The huge white screen overlooks 17½ acres of what, only a few months ago, was lush, green grazing land for a herd of cows and calves. Located at the junction of Stud and Wellington Rds, Rowville—four miles on the city side of Dandenong — The theatre is surrounded only by a few farmhouses, sheep, cattle, and a stud farm. From the top of the 80ft tall screen tower you can look down on as attractive a bushland scene as could be imagined.

The drive-in nestles comfortably in a shallow fold of undulating field. Around it rises hills and mountains, covered with trees and dotted here and there by neat patches of ploughed land. If you suffer from claustrophobia at your local cinema, this is the place for you.

The Dandenong Drive-in is the third Village Drive in to be completed. Its directors also claim it as the best – Contributed by Greg Lynch –