Final curtains for 63-year-old Kununurra Picture Gardens unless $200,000 is raised for new projector

Folks down south can have their multiplex cinemas with their plush red carpets and extortionately-priced choc tops.

In Kununurra, backing your ute up at the Kununurra Picture Gardens and scoring the prize patch of grass, front and centre of the big screen is what locals call gold class.

For generations the people of Kununurra have taken their bean bags, camping chairs, swags, even their barbecues to watch the latest flicks at the open-air Picture Gardens.

For many residents the Picture Gardens on Coolibah Drive is like a second lounge room where a family couch on the back of a ute or even strapped to a car’s roof rack doesn’t look out of place.

Where people feel so at home that they kick off their thongs and then leave them behind only for their lost pluggers to be posted on the Kununurra Picture Gardens Facebook page the following week.

But now the iconic community hub is at-risk of calling curtains for good unless it can raise more than $200,000 for a new projector.

Kununurra Picture Gardens vice-president Cheryl Durrans said for the last year, “just band aids” have been holding the projector together for the weekly screenings.

“The last 12 months, our projector has been having technical issues, it’s very costly for us to repair, and our kitty is just going down and down,” she said.

“It’s really evident that our projector is nearing the end of its life. They’ve given us a quote for a new projector and it’s a lot of money.”

The volunteer organisation has got together a subcommittee to start applying for grants to help them pay for the new equipment.

However, that is not expected to cover the full cost, so a GoFundMe page has also been set up, which at the time of publication had raised $2350 towards a goal of $100,000.

For Ms Durrans the Kununurra Picture Gardens is more than just a cheap family night out ($40 for a family of four). It’s Kununurra’s cultural heart — and she wants it to keep on beating.

“You’re under the stars, you’re in the fresh air, you’ve got your friends with you. You’re sitting in a nice, comfy chair, you’ve got the popcorn, ice cream, you’ve got the kids running around having fun. It’s more about the experience, and that’s what we try to provide, is experience,” she said.

The locally heritage-listed cinema was first set up in 1961 by the Ord River Diversion Dam contractors to entertain workers at their camp site.

It was taken over by the Kununurra Progress Association in 1963 and for the next two decades was the place to be in town. TV didn’t arrive in Kununurra until the mid-1970s and even then there was only one channel.

The introductions of video cassettes in the 80s, DVDs in the 90s and now streaming services has not diminished the Picture Gardens’ appeal. It can easily draw crowds of more than 500 people for a popular movie.

The venue has been run by a succession of devoted volunteers that have done the heavy lifting to keep it going, including former president Sharon McLaughlin, who for a while was the only one on the committee.

She would single-handedly order the movie reels, splice them together and stock the kiosk each week.

It has also seen a few movie premieres over the years, the most famous of which was Baz Luhrmann’s Australia.

Kununurra residents fought hard to have the movie — which heavily features the East Kimberley — premiered in their town on the same night it was simultaneously screened in Sydney and the other film locations of Bowen, Queensland and Darwin.

Apparently Twentieth Century Fox Film Distributors had resisted screening it in Kununurra because they thought it would not be practical to show a movie in an open-air cinema during the wet season.

Little did they know some of the more memorable cinematic experiences in Kununurra have been when it has rained during a screening.

Ms Durrans said when Australia was screened to the public in Kununurra (after the premiere) viewers watched with delight as distant lightning crackled across the night sky.

Meanwhile on screen, Nicole Kidman and a group of drovers struggled to move a herd of cattle along a dangerous cliffside as a thunderstorm suddenly rolled in.

“So on the screen, you had lightning and thunder, and then around at the back of it you had lightning and thunder, it was just like, ‘oooh my God, this is just so real’,” Ms Durrans said.

Life imitating art.

Kununurra resident and social worker Jo Warren said one of her favourite memories of the open-air cinema involved sitting in a puddle during Aquaman — an appropriate movie for a soggy night.

“It was a stormy night and at the crescendo of the movie where Aquaman is fighting all the bad guys, and they’re fighting in the water and there’s thunder and lightning on the movie as well as actual thunder and lightning in the sky,” she said.

“It started raining, drizzly enough that you got wet, but not enough that you would stop the movie. So it was like a full immersive experience.”

Ms Warren said she would be, “absolutely devastated”, if the old projector is not replaced and the Kununurra Picture Gardens has to make its final bow.

“I love everything about the Picture Gardens. I think it’s one of the best venues that we’ve got to offer in Kununurra,” she said.

“I work in mental health. I’m a social worker and as a community venue, there are very few places here that are affordable for families from all walks of life.

“This is the one place we can go and have a shared experience.”