Australia: News and Views

Australia is about to feature in the new Australia movie . Well not all of Australia but a special corner of North Western Australia called the Kimberleys and the main town of the region: Kununurra , on the banks of the Ord River. And Hollywood and Kununurra are a very strange duo.

The locals are still talking about the weeks that Hollywood came to sleepy little Kununurra, but what you might not know is that this town is very new. It was built in the 1950’s and 1960’s to support the huge Ord River irrigation system. The local newspaper has been highlighting the stories of some of the men, yes they were all men, who came to work on the Ord Scheme, and ended up staying on and opening businesses in the area.

The local premier of Australia Movie will be shown at the Kununurra Picture Gardens which date from the early 1960’s. This is an open-air cinema or drive-in, the only sensible option in a time before air-con became common. David Ammon was posted to Kununurra in 1964 and was responsible for the upkeep of the Picture Gardens. He remembers:
“During the Wet if the skies opened up most of the patrons stayed seated, because they were already drowned. The movie would continue until the projectionist couldn’t see the screen and then we’d re-run it the next night at no charge”

It may well be that nothing has changed originally 20th Century Fox left Kununurra off the November 18 premier list - because the open-air cinema is still the only one in town, and it is the Wet season. But after local protests Kununurra join Darwin, Bowen and Sydney in the simultaneous release of the Australia movie.

Just hope it doesn’t rain!

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