CAARP
Cinema and Audience Research Project

"In the first half of the century, Walkaway was a thriving farming town, producing mainly wool and wheat.

The Corricks visited there in October 1909, Jos. Connolly was registered as an exhibitor in 1931-1933/4, and Ray Dean's circuit screened there weekly for a short while in the fifties. All these screenings took place in the community hall, originally built in 1901, and with a new porch added as a war memorial in 1920. It is a stone building, the ceiling lined with Swedish pine brought out on wool clippers as ballast. It has a beautiful sprung timber floor, and in earlier times had a stage built out into the hall, though there was never a built-in bio-box. The town's first electricity supply came from a privately-owned generator, belonging to the family next door to the hall. The hall was used for all community activities, including both Anglican and Catholic church services, meetings of local organisations such as the CWA or Junior Farmers, dances and film screenings. Ray Dean remembers screening there occasionally in the early fifties

It has been repaired in recent years for community use again - as a youth club, and occasionally for dances and other activities, but films have not been screened there for many years. " (Bertrand 2001)

References
Cinemaweb: http://www.ammpt.asn.au/CinemaWEB/SITE/view.php?rec_id=0000000050