Port Hedland Picture Gardens

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Uploaded on: November 24, 2019

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Port Hedland Picture Gardens 6 Wedge Street, Port Hedland, WA – 1981 - Facade photo Bill Turner

In a nutshell #

The picture gardens were built by Charles Bayman in 1936. Charlie Bayman operated the picture gardens for children, who from the beginning saw the shows for free, whilst adults paid 30 shillings. The movies were operated at first by the motor mechanics from Len Taplin’s garage on a timber and flat iron screen, with Mr Bayman repairing the screen and the perimeter fence regularly due to cyclones, until 1942, when the Australian Army took over the operation of the picture gardens. Silver coin donations covered expenses, but during this period the perimeter fence was not re-erected,and movies were screened on a painted wall of the adjacent courthouse.

From about 1946 Fred Hull took over the management of the picture gardens for Charles Bayman, and in the early 1960s the business was sold to Jack and Joyce Glass. During the iron ore boom of the 1960s, the 350 capacity gardens became inadequate, so the twice-weekly movies were screened nightly, with three movie changes. For many years after World War Two, annual Christmas parties were also held at the picture gardens for the local children – Contributed by Greg Lynch –