Outback cinema keeps projectors rolling with not-for-profit model
As a little girl growing up in her father’s open-air theatre in outback Queensland, Geraldine Coughlan learned early on it takes resilience to make sure the show can go on.
“My father took over in 1965 after my grandfather passed away and I was a 66 baby, so I’ve grown up literally my whole life with the theatre at our back door,” she said.
One of 10 siblings, the children operated projectors, corralled crowds and kept the candy bar immaculately stocked during the Royal Theatre Winton’s heyday.
Over the years, Ms Coughlan’s family watched the cinema be destroyed by fire, rebuilt, used as a rollerskating rink, then cafe, and become largely unused as the cinema business became commercially unviable.
Up until just three years ago, it was only used sporadically for tourist events and an annual film festival.
“It was literally just empty for a fair while there, the first time I’d actually seen out the back here was when I started volunteering,” 19-year-old Winton local John Durack said.
A loyal clan of volunteers — many with family links to the cinema — are working to refurbish the theatre to its former glory as a not-for-profit.
“I came up for one week from the Gold Coast for the restoration in February … my family knew that once I got here, I’d probably stay,” Ms Coughlan said.
The not-for-profit cinema runs classic films and ‘nostalgia nights’ with old newsreels alongside new releases to keep costs low.
“John Wayne films can get up to 100 people, certain films are out of copyright so when we play that it only costs about $12 for the film,” Ms Coughlan said.
“It is a unique theatre and sitting back on the canvas seats under the night’s sky with the galahs coming across doesn’t happen everywhere … it’s nostalgic and really nice to have something else to do.”
Volunteers in Winton want to make the century-old cinema a major tourist attraction for the town, but the not-for-profit model can also keep small picture houses servicing their local communities running.
In the town of Barcaldine, three hours’ drive southwest of Winton, the historic picture house was reopened by volunteers in 1995.
Trevor Howie said the council owned the building but relied on a team of more than 20 volunteers to organise content and run the two-night-a-week program.
“You have to have that core team who have that impetus and drive to keep it going,” he said.
“Even when they’re not on, volunteers tend to come in and watch a movie and if it’s busy they’ll jump in and help,” Raylene Osmond said.
Winton’s cinema closes for the summer this weekend, before its planned reopening in March.
But the sweltering outback summer won’t be a break for Geraldine, who has a long list of restorations and upgrades she wants to complete during the break.
“We’re all motivated with one vision and that is to set this facility up for the next 50 years and hand it to the next generation,” Ms Coughlan said.