A movie experience ‘like no other’ is drawing visitors to Dubbo as it peps up the city’s entertainment offering and economy, its leading proponent says.
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Dubbo Westview Drive-In operator Jason Yelverton reports the revived cinema is attracting a number of patrons from out of town.
Among those to motor through the gates have been people spending time at the city’s tourist attractions.
“There was a lady who went to the zoo, and she was from the Central Coast and she went online and found out what was on in Dubbo, so she turned up out here,” Mr Yelverton said.
“But we’ve been getting a lot of visitors, I think the November one, I think we had, out of 2500, 675 were from outside Dubbo.
“So it’s great for the Dubbo economy and great for our community.”
This summer, drive-in fans have multiple chances to soak up the experience, starting on Friday with a screening of Bohemian Rhapsody.
On the Australia Day weekend the gates will open for three nights of films.
“We’ve picked all Australian movies, we’ve got one for all the different genres,” Mr Yelverton said.
“We’ve got a kids movie which is Finding Nemo, the original Mad Max movie, and the Australian classic, The Castle, and that will be over the Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then you’ll have the long weekend Monday to recover.”
Mr Yelverton reports the drive-in receives no government or council funding and his team has started “from scratch” to give the site new life after a three-decade gap.
The sky’s the limit, as long as people keep supporting it.
- Drive-in operator Jason Yelverton
“We’ve got a lot of work to do to in trying to revive the site, so we really need people’s support so that we can get things,” he said.
“Like we’ve just run town water here, which probably hasn’t run here for many many moons, and hopefully we’ll be able to get the old toilets up and running and stuff like that.”
He has plans to one day open the old canteen “so people can come in and buy the food like they used to in the old days”.
“The sky’s the limit, as long as people keep supporting it,” he said.
John Herron is one of the band of volunteers.
After “50-odd years with cinema”, he’s happy to lend his skills to the project.
“Hopefully everybody enjoys themselves, it’s great to see the families come out here and sit down and have a whole picnic and enjoy a movie,” he said.