Morowa Town Hall and Gardens

The Shire Offices were on the south-west corner of the intersection with Dreghorn Street, when a new Morawa Town Hall was built in 1930, slightly further west, with some vacant land between the two buildings. The new 450-seat hall was designed for film screenings: the built-in bio-box extended past the wall so that the same projector/s could be used for the gardens. The 450-seat open air venue was then built with an entrance in Prater Street between the two buildings, and the seating behind the Shire Offices, along Dreghorn Street. Part of the walls of the gardens were provided by the two buildings and the rest was a high galvanised iron fence. It was known locally as the Gardens Theatre, but there was no planting and the deckchairs stood on a simple gravel floor.

It is not clear who were the first to screen there, but it may have been George Tilley at first, or Nulson’s West Touring Talkies from the beginning. West’s was bought by Ray Dean in 1940 and this Hall and Gardens was on Ray Dean’s circuit in the 1940’s and 1950’s, when he travelled in his Ford V8 36 truck, around a wide circuit. The Morawa Hall and Gardens was later managed by Ray Dean Jnr. and closed only when the drive-in opened.

The Town Hall has now been extended, covering part of the site of the gardens. It is still an imposing building, with the older section still visible and the new front section rendered and painted cream. The bio-box has become a storeroom for the Shire, so is no longer used when films are shown there. In 1997, monthly screenings were organised by the Anglican Church – charging for a ´sumptuous supper’ instead of an entrance fee. The 16mm? projector and the screen are placed on the floor of the hall for these screenings, but they were very popular as no other film screenings were by then available in the town.

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