Road Board Picture Garden (Sites) 1914-1966
Aeronautical Museum (Site) 1967-2017
The Road Board Picture Gardens fronted Vincent Street with a high wall and central entry with the projection box above. The site was stepped down in terraces with canvas deck chairs on each side of a central path towards the screen. Pencil pines were around the perimeter.
Moving pictures played an important social and entertainment role in the town of Beverley. After the Mechanic’s Hall movies and summer garden (King’s Picture Company 1905-1914), Star Picture Gardens established by Percy Lambert, seating 250 people with modern technology, electric lighting and two fountains to cool the building and by 1912 he opened the town’s second skating rink, also used for dancing. At one time in 1920’s opposition also set-up the “New Summer Gardens” at the rear of the Railway Hotel (Hotel Beverley) in Queen Street.
The Road Board Picture Garden 1914-1940s, a movie theatre and picture garden were established in the Town Hall. By the end of 1940’s the dilapidated Road Board Picture Garden was hardly used and a new Road Board Picture Garden opened in February 1954 with Ford & Fairhead as lessees.
A major event for country pictures occurred in January 1959 at the Road Board Picture Garden when the award-winning Bridge on the River Kwai was screened over four nights – the longest run outside the city. The local scout troop honoured the occasion by building a bamboo replica of the River Kwai Bridge over the entrance as a school holiday project.
Attendance at Picture Gardens diminished and it closed in the 1960’s after the introduction of television and the new Drive-In Theatre.
Aeronautical Museum (SITE)
In 1966 the Aeronautical Museum with a salvaged Vampire Jet at the front, was erected as a town memorial to Selby Ford who had died in a motor accident in 1963. It was officially opened on 13 October 1967 by the Hon. Charles Court.
Selby Ford was the designer and builder of the Silver Centenary biplane, one of the first privately built aircraft in the State. The Silver Centenary Biplane was housed in the Aeronautical Museum until its removal in 2006.
In addition to the Vampire Jet, the landing gear of an Australian National Airways Douglas DC-4 (‘Amana’), was displayed as a memorial to the 1950 Amana crash that claimed 5 crew and 24 passengers.
The Aeronautical Museum was demolished in 2017 in preparation for the erection of the Cornerstone Multipurpose Community Centre completed in 2018.
Moving pictures played an important social and entertainment role in the town of Beverley. After the Mechanic’s Hall movies and summer garden (King’s Picture Company 1905-1914), Star Picture Gardens established by Percy Lambert, seating 250 people with modern technology, electric lighting and two fountains to cool the building and by 1912 he opened the town’s second skating rink, also used for dancing. At one time in 1920’s opposition also set-up the “New Summer Gardens” at the rear of the Railway Hotel (Hotel Beverley) in Queen Street.
The Road Board Picture Garden 1914-1940s, a movie theatre and picture garden were established in the Town Hall. By the end of 1940’s the dilapidated Road Board Picture Garden was hardly used and a new Road Board Picture Garden opened in February 1954 with Ford & Fairhead as lessees.
A major event for country pictures occurred in January 1959 at the Road Board Picture Garden when the award-winning Bridge on the River Kwai was screened over four nights – the longest run outside the city. The local scout troop honoured the occasion by building a bamboo replica of the River Kwai Bridge over the entrance as a school holiday project.
Attendance at Picture Gardens diminished and it closed in the 1960’s after the introduction of television and the new Drive-In Theatre.
Aeronautical Museum (SITE)
In 1966 the Aeronautical Museum with a salvaged Vampire Jet at the front, was erected as a town memorial to Selby Ford who had died in a motor accident in 1963. It was officially opened on 13 October 1967 by the Hon. Charles Court.
Selby Ford was the designer and builder of the Silver Centenary biplane, one of the first privately built aircraft in the State. The Silver Centenary Biplane was housed in the Aeronautical Museum until its removal in 2006.
In addition to the Vampire Jet, the landing gear of an Australian National Airways Douglas DC-4 (‘Amana’), was displayed as a memorial to the 1950 Amana crash that claimed 5 crew and 24 passengers.
The Aeronautical Museum was demolished in 2017 in preparation for the erection of the Cornerstone Multipurpose Community Centre completed in 2018.