Astrojet Cinema

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BrianMc writes - on March 31, 2011 at 9:52 pm - The Astrojet was one of the great independent cinemas in Melbourne from it’s opening with Tullamarine International Airport in July 1970 as part of the Astrojet Space Centre.

The cinema seated around 300 and was open Wednesdays-Sunday nights, showing double features at 7.45pm, and matinees Saturday and Sunday afternoons. The movie programming was careful not to clash with the nearby Village Essendon drive-in. The Saturday afternoon matinees at 1.45pm were huge successes as were school holiday screenings.

The Space Centre was destroyed by a huge rainstorm in 1974, leaving the cinema to continue to operate as per normal. When the Airport doubled the theatre’s rental rates, it was forced to close in mid 1978, not because of lack of movie patrons.(Years later this manager went on to run the Lumiere Cinemas in Lonsdale St)

It was used for years as a training facility for Ansett Airlines until their bankruptcy in 2002. Various customs brokers and local traders continued to have offices in the centre to this day.

In my opinion, this little theatre would be THE perfect venue as a home for Australian movies — arthouse, genre, classics etc — as well as continuing it’s original second-run double features as in the 1970s.

Such programming would not clash with nearby Airport West and Broadmeadows multiplexes and would be of great interest to visitors to the airport as well as those staying at hotels already at the airport (this theatre is surrounded by hotels already, including a Hilton!)

Contributed by Greg Lynch -