In the mid 1950s the old weatherboard Athenaeum Hall in Corryong was to be demolished, to make way for the new Memorial Hall.

Bill Newman owned the projection equipment and showed movies in the old hall on a weekly basis. During the rebuilding, Bill moved the projection equipment to the Uniting Church Hall.

The projection room was built on top of the porch at the front of the hall. Because of the low ceiling, the stand was removed from each projector and it was set very close to the floor. A false floor was built in the hall to raise the back few rows of seats.

Local business owner Jack Hobbs and Dr Harbison along with the community were instrumental in the construction of the new Memorial Hall.

A purpose built projection room and ‘film winding’ rooms were included, remaining to this day. On completion of the hall, the committee decided to purchase their own projection equipment and show pictures to help pay for the hall. Two 1933 Bauer 35mm projectors (pictured) were purchased from a theatre in Melbourne. The equipment consisted of the movie projectors, a slide projector and an amplifier. The rewind room was also set up with necessary equipment to wind and splice film.

Some of the projectionists were Wally Bailes, Garry Sheather and Darryl Conway.

Bill Newman was then looking for a hall to show pictures in Corryong. The Tregilgas family funded and built the Donaldson Street cinema and Bill moved his equipment in there and showed pictures for a number of years.

Corryong then had two theatres working in opposition!

John Wayne at one theatre, Doris Day at the other – two theatres showing movies three nights a week and you often had to book your seat. These were the days of the construction of the Snowy Mountains Scheme.

Movies were shown three nights per week with the inclusion of a kiosk selling a range of goodies including Jaffas, liquorice sticks, Dixie and wafer ice creams, Crumble bars, jelly beans and coke in real glass bottles.

The old treasurer’s book reveals kiosk takings averaged $32 per night. Memories of Nell Sangster with her torch searching for Jaffa throwing culprits readily come to mind.

Sadly, pictures ceased at the Memorial Hall in 1974. To replace kiosk income Friday night ‘chook raffles’ at a local hotel began.

In 2006 Garry Sheather visited the Greater Union Theatre in Melbourne and was completely surprised to see, on display in the foyer, the actual projector used at the Memorial Hall. Attached was a plaque verifying same, however it was now owned by Brian Davis.

After considerable effort contact was made with Brian. As a collector he still owns the Corryong equipment. It is stored away in his shed along with other collected equipment. The purchase was made ‘sometime’ during 1974/75 for ‘about’ $2000′.

The Bauer 35ml Standard 5 model projector was built in Germany in 1935 and converted for cinema use. The light in the projector came from a carbon arc, similar to an electric welder. Two carbon electrodes end to end, were brought together until they touched and arced and then kept about 5-6 millimetres apart with a small drive motor. The electrodes had to be replaced every two or three spools of film.

Thanks go to Garry Sheather for his time and effort in researching an interesting time in the history of the Memorial Hall.

Appreciation must also go to all the community members here and gone, over the long history of the hall for their wisdom, foresight, time and effort in the construction and maintenance of such a magnificent ‘city’ hall in a small country town.

If any parts of this article are incorrect, can be added to or a memory emerges please contact 0428 226 874 or a member of the hall committee.

This article appeared in Corryong Courier, 19 June 2025.