She says remarkably little has changed in the store. вЂњThey rented it but accidentally left it there and went to the supermarket, so he followed them in and from the other side of the aisle shouted, вЂHey! You forgot Balls to the Wall!вЂ™вЂќ вЂњOne time he recommended my parents Balls to the Wall,вЂќ Casey-Waters says. She was adopted by his motherвЂ™s best friend but remained close to the family. De Vreught grew up in Gisborne, Victoria, his sister in Ballarat.

It was here that De VreughtвЂ™s father met his mother, who died giving birth to his younger sister.

He subsequently fought for the Dutch in the brutal struggle against Indonesian independence forces before making it to Australia. His father was a Dutch soldier who was imprisoned by the Germans in the second world war before eventually escaping to Scandinavia. Though he speaks about it nonchalantly, his family has a remarkable past. вЂњYou just like movies.вЂќ вЂLike a little mazeвЂ™Д«efore devoting his life to Picture Search, De Vreught did a range of odd jobs, as a postie and later a bank clerk. вЂњI suppose with alt-cinema, you donвЂ™t know youвЂ™re into it when you are,вЂќ he says. He describes the store as it was then as вЂњalt-cinemaвЂќ and then pauses, as if displeased with that description. So he made the snap decision to buy every VHS in the shop, roughly for their on-sale price, and began renting the premises of Picture Search, which now holds more than 35,000 DVDs.

вЂњYou canвЂ™t do that,вЂќ De Vreught decided, вЂњyou canвЂ™t close. Swan Street has been subject to dramatic gentrification since De Vreught saw a sign in the window of a video store in 2000, reading вЂњall VHS $5вЂќ. Photograph: Christopher Hopkins/The Guardian Picture Search DVD and Record store, the last of its kind still operating in Melbourne.

At t store close to me