Astor Theatre, Surat

Astor Theatre is a heritage-listed cinema at 77 Burrowes Street, Surat, Maranoa Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1925 to 1960s. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 27 September 2002.HistoryThe Astor Picture Theatre was built in 1925 as an open-air picture theatre in Surat, which is situated on the Balonne River 80 kilometres south of Roma and was the administrative centre of the Warroo Shire until its amalgamation into the Maranoa Region in 2008.The Surveyor-General of New South Wales, Thomas Mitchell, mapped the area in 1846 and the District of Maranoa was proclaimed in November 1848. The new Commissioner of Lands arrived with several police in 1849 and set up camp on Yambougal station, moving slightly up river a few months later. This was the site selected in 1849 by surveyor James Burrowes for a service township on the Balonne River. He called the township Surat, after his former home in Madras, India. The main street, on which the theatre is situated, carries this surveyor's name.A Court of Petty Sessions at Surat was gazetted in 1850 and a police building was erected. The Lands and Post Offices were soon represented and in 1859 a hotel was built. By the time that the town site was surveyed for land sales in 1863, a number of buildings had already been erected. Although Surat was superseded by St George as an administrative centre for the district in 1865, it continued to serve the surrounding area, which became Warroo Shire. Surat gained a school in 1874 and its first church in the late 1870s. In 1879 Cobb and Co set up a coach service from St George to Surat and on to Yuleba, constructing a staging post and store at Surat. This service was run until 1924, when it was the last coach route to be run in Australia.