Paragon Theatre, cinema in Queenstown, Tasmania, Australia

The Paragon Theatre is a reinforced-concrete Art Deco cinema on Queenstown's main street, built in 1933 by Carter & Peace for the Paragon Picture Co. Its auditorium originally held 1,150 patrons, 750 in the stalls and 400 in the dress circle. The Stevensons' five-year renovation created a 60-seat cinema, function venue and café, with a hand-painted floor.

The Paragon Picture Co Pty Ltd commissioned the theatre, built entirely in reinforced concrete by Carter & Peace for over £A5,000. It opened on 28 October 1933 with She Done Him Wrong and Tiger Shark, and in 1935 became the first cinema in Tasmania to install Western Electric's Wide Range sound system. After closure in 1985 it served as an indoor cricket court, and since 2017 it has hosted events and screenings.

The Paragon has hosted The Unconformity, a biennial three-day arts, music and food festival, since 2012; the 2021 edition was cancelled due to COVID-19. Since reopening in 2017 it has shown bygone films at dinnertime screenings. Jeff Lang and Mark Seymour & The Undertow played here within months of the 2018 floor repairs.

The Paragon operates as an event venue and cinema with dinnertime screenings of older films rather than daily sessions, so check what is on before travelling to Queenstown. It is a key venue of The Unconformity festival, held over three days every two years. The 136 holes drilled in 2018 underpin the concrete floor laid in 1985.

The entire floor uses hand-painted patterns designed to mimic marble rather than actual stone, a clever and economical decorative solution from that era. This painted technique creates a surprisingly convincing illusion of luxury flooring throughout the cinema.