February 2nd, 2025How Clochemerle came to Daylesford

Who are the people behind the redevelopment of Phoenix Cinema at The Rex?  

For Jules McDonald this all began when she was a small child. She saw Bambi  with her parents in their hometown, Meeniyan, near Fish Creek in South Gippsland.  

“It was very exciting going to see a movie,” she remembers. “There was a huge  screen and the kids sat down the front. As I was quite little, I had to have a sleep in  the afternoon before going.”  

Then there was boarding school where films were the Saturday night  entertainment, everyone looked forward to. Classics such as The Importance of Being  Earnest, helped form her enthusiasm which was furthered by frequenting Carlton’s  storied ‘Bughouse’ cinema and the Australian Film Festival at the Longford cinema in  South Yarra.

Since moving to Daylesford 35 years ago, Jules looks forward to trips to  Melbourne which usually include a movie at Westgarth or Nova cinemas.  

More for young people  

While working as a social worker with Child and Family Services Daylesford  she became aware of the lack of social and cultural opportunities for young people  in town.

Then as a youth development officer with the Hepburn Shire Council  around 2003, Jules gathered some young people together and they spent a weekend  imagining what they would like Daylesford to be for young people.

 “The young people wanted to transform The Rex from being a bargain basement  shop back to being a cinema with associated activities.

They envisaged a bowling alley,  shops and a restaurant that would also offer hospitality training. There were also to be  spaces available to lease as shops.  

“The owner of the building was interested and wanted to make a sizeable  donation.” During school holidays 10 students went to see cinemas around Victoria  and New South Wales, returning inspired.  

New designs  

Student Michael Huggard drew up a plan for the cinema building, bowling alley, hospitality hub and shops. Richard Spence, a local businessman, helped the group  develop a business plan.  

Council support was needed for the plan as funding was to be sought for the education and training opportunities envisaged. But the council did not provide this  support, which was a devastating blow to the group and the plans could not go ahead.  

The skatepark that was envisaged and designed by young people went ahead together  with several successful “Small Day Out” youth festivals.  The cinema development plan came to life again in 2015 when Loretta Little, a  local community activist, decided to get a group together and raise money to kick it  off.

Linda Carroll became the first president of the community-run cinema and later Gina Lyons took over. Gina, described by Jules as a “powerhouse,” did a fantastic job of running the  cinema helped by a wonderful committee and great group of volunteers, from 2015  to 2018. While paying a commercial rent the cinema was able to make a respectable  profit.  

Down the drain  

All went well until the fateful council decision to buy the property for its offices  and a public lavatory (readers may know of Clochemerle, the satirical French novel about the furore when a mayor wants to put a public urinal in the middle of town, next to the church).

In Daylesford 1000 people signed a petition calling for the return  of the cinema.  The council realised its mistake and committed to building a new cinema upstairs  in The Rex.

The council demolished the old cinema and built the shell of a new  cinema upstairs. But this work stopped when costs blew out and the council then  decided to sell the building.  

As the cinema had no home in the foreseeable future, the committee sold  equipment that was likely to be outdated and kept what could be safely stored at  no cost.

The seats were sold because storage would have been expensive. Because  many seats had been bought by community members their name plaques have been  retained so that they can go on new seats when the cinema reopens. Money from sale  of property went to the cinema bank account.  

The future  

That was then. Now, heading the Daylesford Cinema Group, Jules is energetically  leading the campaign to bring back the much-loved cinema in The Rex.

A public  meeting led to community consultation and the formation of a new committee to  restore cinema to Daylesford. The committee explored potential sites for the cinema but concluded that  the only appropriate site and the natural home for the cinema is The Rex.

The Comelli and Bromley families, as new owners of the building, are open to a cinema  development using the cinema shell built upstairs by the council. The committee  encouraged several commercial cinema developers to submit expressions of interest,  but the size of the population meant that this was not commercially viable.  

Chris Jones, a Ballarat cinema enthusiast who has developed several commercial  cinemas, encouraged the committee to pursue the project on a community-run basis  and has provided generous help and support.

Following a successful negotiation with the new owners of the building, a  campaign began, seeking volunteers and funding. “There has been a great response  from a wide range of highly skilled people, with different teams now hard at it.”  

This is the first in a contributed series on people behind the campaign to bring back The Rex.