In 1937 Les Meurer Senior was 47 years old and running the General Store and Post Office across the road at North Ryde with his wife Elsie and daughter Olive. An opportunity arose when a group of five including Les decided to apply for a motion picture theatre license. This was granted and in January 1938 the Khartoum Theatre opened for business.
The construction was basic and that suited the locals and even travelers from suburbs further afield. Partly open-air seating, corrugated iron on timber posts, and basic timber bench seating. The area was heated in winter by burning 44-gallon drums filled with paper, wood, coke, and coal.
Entertainment during intermission was often a wood chopping contest.
The family remembers the Shack very fondly. They say it was a wonderful experience and many friendships were made during the 28 years that it operated.
The theatre was built on Khartoum Road, hence the theatre’s name. Khartoum Road was named after the significant battles in that town in Egypt (now Sudan) in 1884 and 1889.
Les, Elsie, and Olive Meurer moved to a 6-acre property on Foxall Road Kellyville about 1964. In 1966 the remaining partners decided to close The Shack due to dwindling numbers attending the theatre and for the Meurer’s part, the travel required between Kellyville and North Ryde, at this time Les was 76 years old. Les Meurer Senior passed away in 1969 at the age of 79.
On a side note, I can remember an old shed at my father Les Meurer Jnr’s Barry Road Kellyville property that was filled with old remnants of The Shack. As a kid they were playthings but some of it would be worth good money now as collectibles. There was a steel drawer set with lots of old movie posters, rolls of entry tickets, old projectors, reel re-winders, film reels, a motor-driven arc light, projection room wall fan, and glue, big blocks of a brown jelly-like glue that was used for gluing the movie posters to the billboards. It is a shame they were bit by bit thrown away in the 70s.
Only a few relics remain of the Shack, there is the old clock, and a small table that Olive Meurer sold here tickets from. And that’s about it.
The following article was written by Willam Gray for the Australian Theatre Historical Society magazine KINO, in 1995. It was produced following a detailed interview with Leslie Meurer Jr.
