A Part of Buderim's History

Picture Show at Buderim Hall

 By Maurie and Edna Richards

We (Maurie and Edna Richards) bought the Picture Theatre at the Buderim Memorial Hall on 23 July 1955 and ran it until March 1962.  It was bought from C.A. Paroz for £1,000.

The equipment consisted of  two Gaumont British (GB) 35mm Projectors with AC Arc Lamps, optical sound, two Sound Amps, Speakers, Screen, Glass Slide Projector with Arc Lamp, turn Table, Rewind and film joining equipment.  Fire proof film storage steel box, etc.

The Hall belonged to the Buderim War Memorial Community Centre and we paid rent for the use of the Hall for each Saturday night.  This theatre had been running for many years before, but because of ill health of Mr Paroz, was decided to close down or sell.  As I was a trustee of the Hall and also a HHajjjjjmember of the BWMCC, we decided to take over the show rather than see it closed.

Edna and I bought the show in July 1955 and ran it until 1962.  By this time TV was in, and most farms around the area had been sold with the ground cut up for development.  As the local population changed so the local picture show lost many patrons who were regulars each Saturday night. 

Also the Hall Library opened each Saturday night.  This was the local meeting place for most of the locals.

Some alternations were made after we took over the show – new sound system, new stage curtains (ex Regent Theatre, Brisbane), new projection screen and lighting were purchased. 

The screen was mounted on a roller track, as the screen was on the stage and the stage would be needed for other functions during the week.  The screen would be run back to the back wall and covered, then run forward to near the front of the stage for screening films.  The new screen was almost the full width of the stage, as we now had altered the projectors to show Cinescope, VistaVision and all wide screen films.

After closing the show in 1962, the projectors were donated to Hans Wensel Movie Museum to be stored in the Canberra Historical Museum.

To assist with the maintenance of the Hall and grounds, we ran two benefit shows each year, with all door takings donated to the Hall Committee, as well as our rent for the Hall.

Films for a night’s showing were – God Save the Queen, cartoon, newsreels, trailers for coming films, a support film until interval then the main film.  The films were supplied from various film companies in Brisbane, such as Warners, Universal, MGM, Paramount, Columbia, BEF, Fox, etc.  The film company provided a contract for 13 full nights’ programs at a time.  The rental fee was based on the quality of the programs.  Some more popular films required a percentage of the door takings.

The films arrived by road transport two days before.  All spools of the film had to be checked and often rewound.  A night’s program would have up to 15 spools of film, each spool containing about 2000 feet of film each.  The films returned to Brisbane the next day by road transport.

Advertising was by paper posters displayed in various places around the town and supplied by the film companies for a fee.  Advertising on the screen was by film or glass slides projected by a large slide projector using glass slides about 3 inches square.  Most slides were in colour and clear slides were used to hand write on with Indian ink.

The Picture Show returned very little profit, but provided a benefit to the town.  Many people gave their time and assisted in running the show.  Names that come to mind are:  Col Zerner, Ron Bryers, Heather Weakley, Shirley Peters, Bill and Peg Ecuyer, Ollie Ashby, Dick Healy, Harry Adamson, just to name a few.

The Picture Show was on a Saturday night, and with the Library open, this provided a meeting place for many of the locals.  Trying to start the night’s showing and getting the people to stop talking and take their seats often meant running “God Save The Queen” at full volume to get their attention.

Our thanks go to many people over the years for helping to provide a service to the Buderim township, with many memories, good fellowship and a lot of friends.

In these early days Buderim was mainly a farming area and to lots of families, going to the pictures on a Saturday night, changing some library books and having a yarn, made their week.

Thank goodness for the good old days.

A Part of Buderim's History

THE WILLSON'S OF BUDERIM

By Brian Willson

My great grandmother Mary Hamilton who was a cousin of William Pettigrew married Henry Willson in 1862 and in 1866 Henry was employed by Pettigrew as a storekeeper on Pettigrew's land at the mouth of the Mooloolah River ( Heap 1966). Although Heap does not mention the name of this storekeeper, family records show that Henry was this storekeeper. The diaries of William Pettigrew make many mentions of  Willson.

The Willson's third child Margaret, was born in 1867, and was the first white girl to be born in the area on the coast.

 In 1875, a Mr Ballinger of Mooloolah Plains wrote to the Board of Education to try and have a school built in the area. His letter dated May 3rd, 1875 read in part “there are nineteen children in the Mooloolah district and there is no school for them”. He also added that “it was possible to guarantee the attendance of only 12 of these children”. The Board replied that “an average attendance of 15 children was required before a school could be built”. Later that month a Mr Dixon advised the Board “that 15 children could be guaranteed” and added “that a weatherboard building 20ft by 12ft with a desk and seating would be built”. The Board replied “that if a building and furniture were provided they would pay a teacher 70 Pound a year and would supply books and school requirements”.

A committee consisting of farmers, C Ballinger, D Cogill, J Lindsay and C Chalmers, a timber-getter G Traill, a sugar manufacturer, J Dixon and storekeeper, H Willson was formed, and they recommended to the Board that Mr. Robert Grant, 35, single, educated in Old Aberdeen and with teaching experience in Missouri, U.S.A, be appointed teacher.

The Buderim Mountain Provisional School as it was known  was opened on July 5th 1875 with an enrolment of 12 children with Mr Grant as teacher. It is amazing that a school could be built and opened only 2 months after the first approach to the Board. The school attendance register for 1875 gives the following names:-

1. MacDonald, Ernest

2. Cogill, John

3. Ridley, George

4. Traill, Alfred

5. Traill, Arthur

6. Traill, Anna Bella

7. Traill, Anne Jemi

8. Ridley, Lily

9. Cogill, Elizabeth

10. Ballinger, George Fred

11. Ballinger, Henry

12. Ballinger, Charles

13. Willson, Mary

14. Willson, Sarah

15. Willson, Margaret

16. Burgess, Sam John

17. Chambers, Mary Anne

18. Chambers Catherina

The three eldest Willson children commenced school in September 1875. A son Henry Hugh Willson started in late 1876.

The school on Mt Buderim was  a long walk from their home on the coast and Margaret was to later recall this daily trek to school in her poem “Memories” the last line of which reads “As we trudged that league to school”. Presumably they used horseback for this trip.

Henry Willson was voted Chairman of the first elected school committee on July25th, 1876

In 1878 after the collapse of the timber industry, Henry applied to the Department of Lands for a lease over 160 acres of land on the banks of the Mooloolah River on which he erected a humpy dwelling 9ft. square. Almost immediately the site proved useless, as it was covered in water following a fresh in the river, and was abandoned.

The family then decided to move to Brisbane and the children left the Buderim school in late September 1878, thus ending their connection with Buderim.

References

Heap 1966 “In the Wake of the Raftsmen” Part11

Buderim School correspondence in Qld State Archives