Roxy Theatre and Peters Greek Cafe Complex

About

Roxy Theatre and Peters Greek Cafe Complex is a heritage-listed theatre and cafe at 74 Maitland Street, Bingara, Gwydir Shire, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Mark Woodforde with construction (including significant changes to the design) supervised by George Psaltis of the Greek partnership Peters and Co. in 1935-1936 (Prineas, 2006). It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 25 August 2017.

Aboriginal pre-contact and contact history

The land where the small northern NSW town of Bingara is now located is at about the north western extent of the traditional country of the Kamilaroi Aboriginal people. The western side of the Gwydir River was the traditional country of the Weraerai Aboriginal people. Kamilaroi hunted the abundant stock of small marsupials. They aided their hunting efforts by using fire to ensure the underbrush did not become too dense, thereby creating an open forest environment.

The first documented European exploration of the area was by botanist and explorer Allan Cunningham during his exploratory trip to the Darling Downs. Cunningham passed through the area, camping at Halls Creek where the town of Bingara is today in 1827.

By the mid-1830s the area was known as Stodderts Valley and was adequately watered by the Gwydir River and its tributaries such as Halls Creek near Bingara. Its good soils and abundant water had attracted a number of squatters who claimed runs in the nearby area. The valley land was taken up by the Hall family who already had considerable claims on land in the Hunter Valley and in the Hawkesbury.

As the squatters became more numerous and the resources of the land and cattle was contested between the Aboriginal people and the Europeans, numerous attacks occurred by both Europeans and Aboriginals. These escalated during the 1830s and culminated in one of the most renowned of the attacks, the Myall Creek massacre of 18 December 1838. A group of armed men headed by John Flemming of Mungie Bungie Station near Moree rode out to Myall Creek Station where they found and killed a group of about 30 men, women and children of the Weraerai and Kamilaroi peoples. The perpetrators were tried and eventually 7 of the 12 men involved were hanged. This was the first time the killers of Aboriginal people were executed by the Colonial Government of New South Wales.

In 1851, Gold was discovered in the Bingara area on Keera Station and a few months later at Cobidah Creek on the Bingara Run. As usual a rush of fortune seekers made their way to the area and further gold discoveries were made in 1852 leading to the proclamation of the Bingara goldfield in 1853.

To support the population of gold seekers the town of Bingera was surveyed and set out. By 1853, William Hall of the Bingera Run had set up the first hotel, the Bingera Inn, in Bingera. In that same year the first general store was opened. By 1862 Bingera and its population of ninety was serviced by a Post Office and law and a Watch House and Lock up was established in the town. In that year Bingera Public School was also established.

The real boom period for the town of Bingera occurred after the discovery of copper and diamonds in the area in 1872–3. During the 1880s Bingara became the largest producer of diamonds in Australia and remains one of the most successful diamond mines in Australia.

During the 1870s and 1880s the civic amenity of the town continued to grow with the establishment of a courthouse, Royal Mail Booking Office and several churches, Catholic, Church of England and Presbyterian. In addition to mining, the town supported the timber and wheat industries as well as the ongoing pastoral and agricultural industries. In 1889 Bingera was made a municipality and its name changed to Bingara. By 1891 Bingara's population was 738 and in 1911, over 1600 residents were located in the town.

Despite the impacts of the Great Depression throughout New South Wales, the 1930s proved to be a time of expansion and improvement for Bingara with Bingara Council receiving many requests to construct residences, shops, and businesses.

The list included ten applications for new dwellings, ten for additions to buildings, twelve for shops or additions to business premises, three for garages for motor sheds and on each for a picture show, a petrol depot, a bulk store, a guest house, a stable By July 1935 many new shops were being erected in Bingara, the Imperial Hotel was entirely remodelled, a new picture shoe was opened and another was in the course of construction. (Wilson, 2006.)

Wilson notes that the arrival of a number of Greek businessmen in the town, coupled with the plans to develop the Copeton Dam situated a few 55 kilometres east of Bingara may have contributed to the small boom experienced in Bingara at this time.

The influence of the Greeks on the spread and popularity of cinema in NSW

Among the "Greek businessmen" Wilson mentions were three men from the Greek island of Kythera, who were central to the story of the Roxy Cinema, Emanuel Aroney, Peter Feros (nicknamed 'Katsehamos') and George Psaltis. These men, like many Greeks at the time left their homeland to escape the difficult economic, social and political conditions in Greece in the early 20th century. However, Greeks had been coming to Australia for a century or more before this. Hugh Gichrist in his three volume history 'Australians and Greeks' (Gilchrist: 1992) notes that seven Greeks convicted of piracy by a British naval court in Malta were transported to Sydney in 1829 and two of them settled here for the rest of their lives. Peter Prineas in his book 'Wild Colonial Greeks' (Prineas: 2020) has provided evidence of a sailor from Corfu named George Manuel (or Emanuel) who arrived even earlier, in 1823, on the British brig 'Courier'. These Greeks were followed during the gold rush by a large number of their fellow countrymen and by the 1890s Greeks had established communities in all the Australian colonies. By 1899 they had built the first Greek Orthodox Church in Australia at Surry Hills in Sydney. Greeks from the island of Kythera were prominent among the early Greeks settlers in NSW and by the late 19th century they were active in the oyster industry, and then in oyster saloons and refreshment rooms, later to be known as cafes (Gilchrist: 1992). With the development of cinema, Greeks operating cafes were quick to see the importance of cinema crowds and those who could afford to do so sought to invest in and control their local cinema.

Kevin Cork in his thesis notes that around 66 Greek businessmen and women were involved in establishing and managing cinemas in NSW from 1917, when Angleo Coronis established himself as a film exhibitor in Sydney, right through to 1984 when Chris James finally retired after 38 years in the business. Some of those Greek exhibitors ran multiple theatres in several towns either simultaneously or as serial operations. Sir Nicholas Laurantus bought and built cinemas in Narrandera, Junee, Tumut, Lockhart, Cowra Hillston and Gundagai, often installing family members to run them. In fact Laurantas brother-in-law Peter Stathis and his sons ran the Montreal Theatre in Tumut from 1930 to 1965. Similarly the Hatsatouris family ran a chain of cinemas in Port Macquarie, Taree, Walcha and Laurieton. Others families such as the Notaras initially operated only one theatre, the Saraton Theatre in Grafton. They then leased out the theatre until the 1960s. Recently the Notaras family have reopened the theatre.

A survey of cinemas in NSW undertaken in 1962 indicated there were 351 enclosed cinemas in 289 NSW rural towns. Of these, between 1915 and 1960, 116 theatres in NSW were at some time operated by Greek exhibitors in 57 towns. 34 new theatres were built by Greek businessmen in those 57 towns. These figures demonstrate that the contribution of these Greek migrants to the social and cultural life of NSW was significant.

- Where Greek immigrants had picture theatres they controlled their towns principal entertainment at a time when the overall population attended between 20-30 times a year. (R Thorne. 2003. Nomination to list Athenium, Junee Cinema on the State Heritage Register

- They had direct input into the moral and social values of the communities in which they operated. They brought national and international events to the rural areas in the form of feature films, newsreels and documentaries. (K. Cork 1998)

Generally speaking, the decades from the 1930s to the mid-1960s were the boom time for cinemas and cinema going. From the early travelling cinema exhibitors enterprising business people chose to market cinema going as a glamorous and exciting social activity and built virtual pleasure palaces in which to screen the best of Hollywood films. Even in rural NSW towns a rash of attractive and glittering picture palaces were built in the architectural styles popular at the time from Interwar Stripped Classical and Interwar Spanish Mission to high Art Deco. The elaborate and modern architecture style of these buildings gave theatre going a sense of occasion and glamour.