YESTERYEAR is alive and well at Winton’s Royal Theatre, an open air theatre built in 1938 on the site of the first Royal which was constructed in 1918 when silent movies were all the rage. Every Wednesday night (and often other nights as well) from April to September, people can see a picture show that brings back all the memories of times gone by. It’s a show full of nostalgia, starting with the old pre-show slide advertisements and screening everything from comedy shorts to historic Winton footage.

The night starts with a talk on the history of the Royal, and finishes with a supper of tea and biscuits.

The theatre also features a push-button “talkie” - a digital sound machine that tells the history of the picture theatre for people who visit during the day. Also see what is surely the biggest deck chair in the world. It’s 7m long and 5m wide!

See the picture theatre and its little museum of old picture bills and slides by taking the Opal Walk at Wookatook Gift and Gem. The Opal Walk is a passageway that features a display on western Queensland opal fields and leads right into the theatre.

The Opal Walk is popular with people who don’t have time to see the opal fields as well as with those who want to try their luck at the Opalton mining reserve.

If the only way you like to see an opal is as a beautiful finished product, you don’t need to go any further than Wookatook Gift and Gem Centre, which specialises in boulder opals, both rough and cut. There’s even an opal barrel of roughs where you can “fossick” in air-conditioned comfort.

Graham and Louise Dean, both well known in Winton through the Bronze Swagman Bush Poetry Awards, have expanded the gift section and have also added a little art gallery. Their own poetry books are available from the store, too.

The complex is open from 8.00am to 5.00pm seven days from April to September. From October to March it is open from 8.30am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday and from 8.30am to 1.00pm Saturday.

Just a last note. You might like to ask Graham exactly what Wookatook means ...

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