Seaton Park Drive In

[baytram366]

I don't know if anyone would know or even remember this drive in but I believe there used to be a drive in just off Tapleys Hill Road at Seaton. I am not sure when it was built, closed and demolished but by looking at the current buildings on site, I don't think the drive in lasted much into the 80's. The only remenants I can find so far (have not had a decent walk around though) is an old faded carpark sign on Tapleys Hill Road hidden behind another current sign. I believe the location would have been just off Tapleys and down on Meakin Terrace. I am going to try to look back at some old street maps but does anyone know or remember this drive in?
Any info / photos would be most interesting...

[baytram366]

Sorry to bump an old thread but still req. some info on this topic?
I am begining to put an article together for the Henley and Grange Historical Society and need anything anyone can offer about the Seaton Shandon Drive In and Hotel / Motel on Tapleys Hill Road?
Anyone know an approx. closure date as well? I know it must have happened sometime between 1979 - 1989 but want to narrow it down more...
Also, looking for details about the West Beach drive - in aswell. Help please

[ac83]

West Beach drive-in 28th December 1954. Demolished sometime around 97/98. Need clarification though. This website gives some more info on the West Beach and Seaton drive ins. http://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=1292

Looks like the Seaton drive in was right on Tapleys Hill Rd in Shandon (Possible old suburb name?) I'll see if I can get some more info on it for you.

Actually, I've just rang my old man. He used to go to the Seaton and West Beach all the time in his hay day. Apparently you used to enter from Tapleys just North of the Links hotel (used to be called the Shandon) and South of the BWS. Meakin Tce, Wilford Ave used to border it. Got knocked down mid 80's he seems to think. The screen was perpendicular to Meakin Tce and faced roughly South West

[baytram366]

Thanks for that snippet of info. Looking at photos and street directories, I have narrowed down that it closed and was demolished between 1986 - 1988... and the Shandon Hotel later became the Links Hotel which still stands on Tapleys Hill Road today. Shandon was the name of the drive-in chain, not the suburb. The suburb was always referred to as Seaton Park or just Seaton.
I should hopefully have enough info now to go ahead with my article. Would be good though if I could find an exact closure date for the drive-in and also a date of name change for the Shandon to Links Hotel

[Tonsley213]

Sooty to bing up such an old thread and go slightly off topic with it.

Did there use to be a drive in theatre where the housing development on Oaklands road is(next to bus depot)?


http://m.google.com/u/m/_fPFdN

[Nathan]

Did there use to be a drive in theatre where the housing development on Oaklands road is(next to bus depot)?

Yes, there was.

[claybro]

Baytram, yes I remember this drive in, having grown up in the Western burbs back in the 70's. The location is where you describe but I dont know when it closed, I do know the West Beach drive-in was still operating in the early 80's but not much after that.I remember some local residents up in arms after some questionable movies where shown there-soft porn- and the screen was visable from the street! Also noticed your previous post re the Shandon Hotel. I remember seeing bands there in the early-mid 80's along with the Findon. Not sure if you ever got any info on this, but the hotel still exists, just changed it's name from the shandon to the Links and became popular as a smorgasboard set up kind of like the Charlies Diners.. Not usre what it is called now, have not been there in years.

[claybro]

Sorry, just read the thread more carefully, looks like the info already covered. Glad to see these places are still in peoples thoughts if not still there in fact.

[SCF]

Did there use to be a drive in theatre where the housing development on Oaklands road is(next to bus depot)?

Yes there did, I remember it very well. It was known as the Metro Twin - twin because there was actually two screens that would show different movies. The entrance was in the SW corner off Oaklands Rd and you had to get in the right line depending on which movie you wanted to see. So there were two "lots", one was in the northern area of that space and the other in the southern. The screens were on the Western side, facing east (IIRC, the Southern screen might have faced a bit more NE). You couldn't drive between the two lots but you could walk between them. There was one cafeteria which was in the northern lot and interval would be timed differently between the two movies to avoid a massive rush. You could generally see both screens from anywhere, but of course would only have the sound for one.

I do also remember going to the Seaton Park Drive In a few times, as well as Panarama. I recall visiting a house that had a view of that screen and they somehow had speaker so they could watch any movie for free from their house (I was led to believe it was completely above board). I also have a vague recollection of Parkline on Marion Rd. I grew up in West Beach and went to the Blueline many times and I also spent quite a few nights sitting in what we called "scabs" across the road watching the movie for free, but of course without sound.

[Maximus]

I would guess that the Oaklands Rd 'twin' closed in the late 90s. I remember seeing 'Broken Arrow' there in 1996 and I reckon it was still open for a few years after that.

[SCF]

I would guess that the Oaklands Rd 'twin' closed in the late 90s. I remember seeing 'Broken Arrow' there in 1996 and I reckon it was still open for a few years after that.

Yes, it would around that time. I lived OS from '93 to 2000 and it definitely closed in that time. Same goes for Blueline at West Beach. I'm not real sure about the others though but I think most went in that era, with a few just before.

[neoballmon]

I remember going to the one on Majors Road at O'Halloran Hill when I was a child. That drive in also had 2 screens that you could walk between. I remember going to see 'Jingle all the way', and while waiting for it to start, walked over to the other screen and saw the Muppets movie on at the same time. So it would have been the late 90's when that one closed as well.

[rhino]

I also grew up in the western burbs back in the 70s, used to go to the Findon and the Shandon (but mostly the Lockleys) in the 80s. I remember seeing several movies with sound at the old Blueline (West Beach) by driving in the exit gate with my lights off after the first movie had finished (I wasn't a student, but was renting and thus was constantly broke). Later I rented a house at Seaton with friends, but I think the Seaton Park drive-in had closed by then. I remember the Wallis drive-ins all had 'line' at the end of their names (Blue-line, Harbour-Line, Hi-Line, Main-Line, Valley-Line, and Bonney-line (at Barmera) - I'm sure there were more too. They seemed to close down as home videos found their way into every house.

[Aidan]

I remember going to the one on Majors Road at O'Halloran Hill when I was a child. That drive in also had 2 screens that you could walk between. I remember going to see 'Jingle all the way', and while waiting for it to start, walked over to the other screen and saw the Muppets movie on at the same time. So it would have been the late 90's when that one closed as well.

I think you must be confusing it with Metro Twin (which by then had been renamed Marion Twin). That was one of only four to survive into the late ’90s (the others being Blueline West Beach, Valleyline St Agnes, and of course Mainline).

I first arrived here in '88, and if the Starline on Majors Road had still been open I'm sure I'd've remembered, so I expect it closed around 1987.

[neoballmon]

Oh fair enough. I didn't even know there was one in/around Marion. Where abouts was this? Or is it just the one that was on the corner of Oaklands and Morphett Roads, where the bus depot is now located?