Gray’s Bay, Queensland. Image: Tourism & Events Queensland

The locations chosen for some of our best-known movies stretch from remote Australia to country towns and cities — consider this a compendium of homegrown movies that double as a highlight reel of our country in its purest form.

THIRSTY WORK

Late last year, Jane Harper’s debut bestseller The Dry jumped off the pages and onto the screen in a gripping thriller starring Eric Bana. The filmmakers were committed to capturing the essence of life in the bush, setting the movie around Minyip, Murtoa, Warracknabeal, Beulah and Hopetoun in Victoria’s Wimmera region.

Minyip’s well-preserved main streets attracted location scouts, much as it had done years earlier for the successful 1980s TV drama series The Flying Doctors. And the harsh countryside where Wimmera farmers toil away through droughts and flooding on an annual basis formed the backdrop for much of the movie. It’s also fascinating country to tour through, being home of the Silo Art Trail, plus attractions like the Murtoa Stick Shed, and the Pink Lake in Dimboola (the setting for another famous Australian film). On a more practical side, there are plenty of free or cheap campsites, such as along the banks of Lake Lascelles in Hopetoun.

MINE CRAFT

In 2020, when most of Australia was in lockdown, visiting Hollywood stars seemed to be able to run amok, often being spotted in and around Byron Bay. One of those stars was Zac Efron, who flew into the country to film the Stan original Gold, which was released in February. Gold depicts a dystopian future where two strangers stumble across an eponymous, half-buried nugget in the middle of nowhere. In their efforts to protect their find, they battle wild dogs and sandstorms that were said to be real rather than staged. The movie was filmed in outback South Australia, near Leigh Creek and the Flinders Ranges — both far more appealing tourism destinations than the grim plot infers.

Belmore Falls, NSW. Image: Kramer Photography

SNAPPY TITLE

The success of Crocodile Dundee prompted a flood of foreign and domestic visitors to the Top End when it topped global box office lists in 1986. Most of the Australian scenes were filmed in Kakadu, our largest national park, yet us Aussies had barely heard of it before then. That changed soon enough.

Images of its star Paul Hogan emerging from Gunlom’s plunge pool with a juicy barramundi on the end of his spear, or standing atop Ubirr while gazing out over the Never-Never Country, made us wonder why we’d neglected this part of our country.

Early in the film, Hogan’s Mick Dundee wrestles a bogus crocodile in his local watering hole, the Walkabout Creek Hotel. The scene was filmed in what was known at the time as the Federal Hotel (it’s since been rebranded to match its silver screen name) in the central Queensland town of McKinlay, south of Cloncurry.

The film lured tourists to the hotel’s barstools and its proprietors at the time grabbed the opportunity to cash in, selling the business for $290,000 not long after its release. When the new owner put it back on the market in 2010, the asking price was a whopping $1.25 million, despite minimal alterations. Very few country pubs would be able to book that sort of a profit these days.

Most scenes in Crocodile Dundee were filmed in Kakadu National Park, NT. Image: Mark Daffey

PIG TALES

If the sleeper hit Babe demonstrated anything, it’s that there’s more to Australia than just the outback. When it was revealed to have been shot on location in and around sleepy Robertson — and not England, as expected — the standard response was: “Where?”

Robertson is a transition point between the Southern Highlands and the coastal Illawarra region in New South Wales. Should you happen to pass through here you’ll notice a spherical concrete structure paying homage to the town’s robust potato growing industry on its outskirts. It’s arguable that a big pig might be more appropriate these days.

Australia doubtlessly lured tourists to the Kimberley region. Image: Mark Daffey

SCENE STEALER

It was hoped that Baz Luhrmann’s Australia might boost international arrivals in the manner of Crocodile Dundee two decades earlier. Sure, the film might have managed to lure a few extra visitors to the Kimberley region that primarily formed the cinematic backdrop, but one can’t help imagining those tourist numbers might have skyrocketed had the film been better.

In my mind, Australia was an over-stylised bore. Even the title was grandiose, considering it was set only in the Kimberley and Darwin regions. But all was not as it seemed. Courtesy of some generous funding from the Queensland state government, any scenes set in Darwin were actually filmed in Bowen — an agricultural town in Queensland known for its tomatoes and a bloated mango that was erroneously installed upside down.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert featured Broken Hill, NSW extensively. Image: Destination NSW

DRAG RACE

In The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the titular character was the name of a bus that three Abba-inspired drag queens piloted from Sydney’s inner east to Central Australia to stage a cabaret gig at Lasseter’s Casino.

The majority of scenes were shot in Broken Hill — even some of those depicting Sydney plotlines. Mitzi, Felicia, and Bernadette go shopping on Broken Hill’s main drag (pun intended) before they check into Mario’s Palace (now the Palace Hotel), whose hyperbolic aesthetics mirror those of its sequined and feather boa-wrapped guests.

Along the way they stop in Coober Pedy before continuing up the Stuart Highway to the Red Centre, where filming was supposed to take place on top of Uluru. However, the producers were forced to relocate to King’s Canyon after cultural misgivings were expressed by the local Indigenous community.

Crocodile Harry’s. Image: South Australian Tourism Commission

MAD FOR MORE

Coober Pedy and Broken Hill again feature in the Mad Max franchise, where the film’s creator George Miller depicted a post-apocalyptic world almost totally bereft of vegetation. It may be surprising to learn that the high-speed chases in the first instalment were filmed on dead-straight Victorian roads near the You Yangs, north-west of Geelong, or around Clunes, in the Central Highlands Goldfields region.

The lunar landscape of the Mundi Mundi Plains near Broken Hill were the setting for most of the action the second time round and Miller was hoping to return there for the most recent chapter, Fury Road. Excessive rainfall and the resultant burst of colour from blooming desert wildflowers tainted the look he was hoping to create and the entire set was consequently moved to the dusty environs of the Namibian desert.

In Beyond the Thunderdome, Jebediah’s cave was set inside the Coober Pedy home of an eccentric known as Crocodile Harry. Harry organised tours of his dugout (town residents live underground to combat the heat) in the wake of the film’s success and despite him passing away some years ago, you can still pop in for a look around. Think endless graffiti and mermaid sculptures.

Lake Eildon, Victoria. Image: Mark Daffey

HEAPS OF SERENITY

It’s now 25 years since The Castle catapulted Bonnie Doon into the poolroom of memorable Australian holiday destinations. The Bonnie Doon adored by the Kerrigan family is one of buzzing speedboats and pyretic mosquito zappers, with an imagined tranquillity that’s unmatched anywhere.

For quite a few years following the release of The Castle, El Niño wrapped its paws around south-east Australia and wrung it dry. All but a few drops of the man-made Lake Eildon on which Bonnie Doon dips its toes evaporated. All’s well now though, and those throaty speedboats are once again augmenting the serenity that oozes from the hollows of the Great Dividing Range.

Dead Calm was filmed in the Whitsundays. Image: Tourism Whitsundays

KILLING TIME

One of Australia’s best-known natural attractions is the Great Barrier Reef, and it was here where filming was done for Nicole Kidman’s catapult to Hollywood stardom, Dead Calm.

The statuesque redhead caught future husband Tom Cruise’s attention almost as much as the movie’s aquamarine backdrop. That backdrop looked like it might have been miles from land in every direction. But it wasn’t. Filming was largely undertaken in and around the Whitsundays, particularly Hamilton Island.

Director Philip Noyce (The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games) and Oscar-winning cameraman Dean Semmler (Dances With Wolves) did well to hide the holiday resorts and charter yachts and make it appear like Kidman and Sam Neill’s yacht was stranded in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Oh, and their yacht…it was the plaything of Hamilton Island’s then-owner, Keith Williams.

Category: Destinations
Written: Fri 01 Apr 2022
Printed: April, 2022
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