Abandoned Australia: Old cinema still has seats, popcorn and film
An abandoned cinema complex in NSW is like a theatre lost in time.
It’s the abandoned NSW cinema lost in time, attracting TikTok content creators from far and wide who break in to explore the remnants of a once-loved theatre left to rot.
Red velvet chairs gathering dust, movie screens in tatters, rotting popcorn still covering the ground, strips of film littering projection rooms and old movie posters lining the walls – welcome to the movie theatre that time forgot.
TikTokers urbexsydney, jeremys_cameraroll and urbex_uptopia_unlimited have all paid a visit to the abandoned complex in recent years, with each account creator specialising in finding abandoned places across Australia.
The three accounts have a combined 15,000 followers interested in ‘urbex’ or urban exploration.
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Is that mouldy popcorn left on a seat in one of the theatres?
old film strips have been left scattered everywhere.
One of the cinema screens is in tatters in the darkened complex.
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While the creators never give up location details about the abandoned places they explore, many viewers who watched the videos of the NSW cinema speculated it was an old Greater Union complex in Sydney’s Macarthur Square shopping centre at Campbelltown.
“Is this Macarthur,” one viewer asked.
“Mac Square,” another said.
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Back in the day … The old cinema complex at Macarthur Square.
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Closed around 2005, the nine-theatre Greater Union complex at Campbelltown moved across the road to take up a new home as part of a $160 million expansion of Macarthur Square.
The redevelopment just after the turn of the century tripled the centre’s floor space from 29,000sq m to 90,000sq m and was a timely move for the cinema because it came at the same time as many Greater Union sites rebranded to Event Cinemas.
An abandoned cinema complex in NSW is like a theatre lost in time.
An old film poster for The Rock is seen on a wall.
The abandoned box office still has empty cash tills sitting on the desks.
Broken Christmas decorations can be seen on the floor of the foyer.
A promotional poster for Charlize Theron’s 2005 film Aeon Flux is on the wall next to the box office counter.
Despite continuing to grow through a second $240 million expansion in 2017, Macarthur Square has never found a retailer to take over the old Greater Union site.
The old cinema, situated on the corner of Kellicar Rd and Bolger St, has remained boarded up for more than 20 years and is now largely used to store the shopping centre’s Christmas decorations.
Macarthur Square declined a proposal for a guided tour of the Greater Union complex when approached by this publication.
Chairs have been removed from one of the theatres, with only frame posts remaining anchored to the floor.
One of the old offices has been trashed.
