The Scottish Drive-in on Noosa Road, Gympie was opened on Wednesday 21 February, 1968 by Mayor Ron Witham.
The Scottish Drive-in came about after a film license to operate a drive-in was granted by the Films Commission to Venardos Holdings in 1967. Works were carried out by local contractors.
WBQ 8 was there to film the opening – click here to view the video.
Originally a news broadcast on Wide Bay Television.
This film was originally produced by WBQ 8 and was reproduced as 7 Extract from the Archives project. The project was supported by an innovation grant from the Library Board of Queensland.
© 2020 Seven Network and Gympie Regional Libraries
The drive-in was planned and developed by Venardos Holdings, and built by the Gympie Building Company during 1967. Mr Mick Venardos (previous Cooloola Shire 1976-1988/Gympie City 1997-2008 Mayor) spoke to us about the Drive-in. He tells us there were 8 ramps at 200 metres long, over 10 miles of cables to the 308 speakers, each post had 2 speakers and 2 cables. Each of the speakers cost $10 each and the Drive-in would inevitably lose some, either by accident or misadventure. They would advertise on the screen that car registration plates were taken down and if the speakers were not returned police would be contacted. Sometimes they would lose up to 10 speakers each night, but most were returned the next day.
The screen itself was built with old railway line – 40 pounds of it. It was 45 foot long, 30 foot high and projected 250 feet.
The Drive-in was named after the Scottish goldmine also at Monkland.
On opening night the capacity crowd watched the feature film – “Walk don’t run” with Gary Grant and Samantha Eggars.
All profits from the opening night were donated to local charity and the video shows Mayor Ron Witham handing out cheques. Dr David Nimmo from Meals on Wheels and Mrs Edna Carvasso from Red Cross can be seen. Father Gregory (from Brisbane) made a blessing on the night.
Originally a news broadcast on Wide Bay Television.
This film was originally produced by WBQ 8 and was reproduced as 7 Extract from the Archives project. The project was supported by an innovation grant from the Library Board of Queensland.
© 2020 Seven Network and Gympie Regional Libraries
From left: Mrs Mavis Venardos, Mayor Ron Witham, (unknown but could be a 4GY announcer), Mr Angelo Venardos,
Mr Mick Venardos, Mr Peter Venardos, Poppa Bill Venardos
Father Gregory can be seen on the far right
Have a look at a few of the films that were shown at the Drive-in.
The Drive-in had several owners over the years, and in 2017 the Gympie Times interviewed Mr Venardos.
The Scottish Drive-in closed in the 1990s.
Gympie Regional Memories 