Tags
8mm projector, Community Centre, NanKivell Park, Saunders Beach, Saunders Beach Progress Association, Volunteers
The beautiful tropical evenings we enjoy at Saunders Beach provided a perfect backdrop for Cinema Under the Stars.
Full moon rising over Maggie at Saunders Beach
Saunders Beach Progress Association (forerunner of today’s Community Centre) always had a keen eye on including fun events – the kids were never forgotten. In the early eighties a group of volunteers found a novel way to give the young people of Saunders Beach something to do on a Friday night. They showed General Exhibition movies on a big screen in NanKivell Park. https://saundersbeachhistoryproject.com/2015/06/02/pioneers-2/ The big screen was double bed sheet strung between two trees. One of the volunteers had connections which enabled her to borrow movies and an 8mm projector. A household near the park provided free electricity. https://www.google.com.au/search?q=8mm+movie+projector&biw=1366&bih=673&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=zzWPVYrUHM7e8AW15qaYBA&sqi=2&ved=0CGYQsAQ&dpr=1 Admission was fifty cents and the volunteers sold chips and drinks out of eskys. All takings went to aid the Saunders Beach Progress Association.
NanKivell Park has always been grassy and well tended, making it an ideal site for movies under the stars. A white double bed sheet strung between the trees served as a big screen.
A version of this post featured in the spring 2014 edition of the Beach Banter. The Beach Banter is the newsletter of the Saunders Beach Community Centre Inc.
Saunders Beach, Queensland, Australia 
I hope to go to the Sun Theatre while I’m in Broome and enjoy movies under the stars. Deck chairs are provided here though unlike when I was a kid camping at Balnarring Beach in Vic with my family when you took your own chair and blanket.
Thank you for your comment. I didn’t live in Saunders Beach to see the movies under the stars – I would have liked to have gone (even though I wasn’t in the correct age group). ‘Sun Theatre’ is a great name for the outdoor cinema in Broome. I’ll look forward to your post from there.