Hollywood Down Under: Australia's Best Film Sets

Before there was Hugh and Nicole, there was Mad Max, Priscilla and Mick Dundee. And with Australia the Country now distilled into Australia the Movie, George Dunfordcharts the history of our Big Country on the Big Screen.

Long before Hugh Jackman cracked a stockwhip over the country or Tourism Australia got Baz Luhrmann to cut their ads, the backdrops were landing starring roles in Aussiewood. Where would Mick Dundee be without somewhere to wrestle crocodiles? Or the Man from Snowy River without flint stones to send flying? And where would Priscilla and her desert queens have gone without King’s Canyon to live out the dream of a cock, in a frock, on a rock?

Craig’s Hut, of Man From Snowy River fame. Image by Tourism Vic.

Whether it’s winsomely crying “Miranda!" or revving up an Interceptor on a desert highway, everyone’s got their own moment of classic Aussie cinema that put a place on the map or a name up in lights.

All over Australia

In case you missed Moulin Rouge, Baz Luhrmann likes a big canvas. While scouting locations for Australia, almost the entire landscape got a casting call – in particular the Kimberley region. Sure, he could have shot the whole shebang at Sydney’s Fox Studios and tricked in backgrounds with CGI, but that’s not how Baz paints.

Baz and Nicole review a scene together. Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

To create Faraway Downs, the mythical property Nicole Kidman’s British aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley inherits, a massive working cattle station was built near Kununurra. The two stations and resorts now synonymous with the project are El Questro and Home Valley Station. Shooting was plagued by torrential rains and equine flu, but a small army camped out under the stars to get the perfect shots. For a crucial mustering scene, the crew had to hold back more than 1000 head of cattle until dusk when Luhrmann’s “magic time" saw the country drenched in the ideal orange-red by the retreating sun. While there’s little of the set remaining, stars left their mark at the Celebrity Tree Park – with Jackman even planting a quirky boab.

The film’s dramatic climax is set in Darwin, but as the city no longer suits the 1940s period of Luhrmann’s film they had to build somewhere “more Darwin". The tiny Queensland town of Bowen swiped the title from the NT capital with another massive set construction to take it back in time. Locals were drafted in as extras and when filming wrapped many got to see “Mr Kidman" Keith Urban play a three-hour set at the wrap party. Now the town that was famous for the Big Mango is taking on the name Bowenwood.

Our Nic’ flees the bombs in Darwin (aka Bowen). Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

Sydney gets a look in as a location, with Vaucluse’s Strickland House doubling for Lady Sarah’s posh manor. Steamier sex scenes between Kidman and Jackman were shot behind closed doors on the lot at Fox Studios, and to recapture a missing scene the studio had to double as Kununurra, which meant importing tonnes of dirt of the exact deserty colour. While in town, Jackman also filmed crucial scenes from his upcoming Wolverine movie. The highlight was on Cockatoo Island where a buffed-up Jackman was seen running naked through the night for an escape scene. Although he was actually wearing a body stocking to avoid freezing, it’s a scene Sydneysiders were glad to catch a preview of.

Pubs

Silverton Hotel, NSW:

Easily the most filmed pub in Australia, this sleepy spot in Silverton has changed names 15 times to appear in everything from feature films to beer ads. You might know it from such films as Mad Max 2, Wake in Fright, A Town Like Alice and the Ozploitation schlocker Razorback. In real life the Silverton Hotel is a shy star, hiding out in a ghost town.

Mel’s Interceptor retains pride of place outside the Silverton Hotel. Image by Stuart Hamilton.

Owner Ines McLeod remembers when they started filming MM2. “I looked out the window and all these weird looking blokes in leather were hanging around and I wondered what we were in for," she says. “They used to come in dressed up in their outfits to have lunch in the beer garden."

The pub walls are papered with evidence of its glittering silver screen career. Amid corny jokes and a bust of Menzies (labelled Ming the Merciless) are cheeky snaps of Bryan Brown on the set of Dirty Deeds and Mel in the famous Interceptor. Nothing seems to ruffle Ines, who’s helped out on the biggest productions. “Sometimes they need a snake or want someone that can stand on their head and crack a whip," she says. “We always seem to be able to find what they want."

Walkabout Hotel, Qld:

Ever wondered where Mick Dundee (Paul Hogan) first wrestled a stuffed croc to impress a US journo and create a worldwide smash? After dodging roadtrains for 104km southeast of Cloncurry, you’ll find the small town of McKinlay and its Walkabout Creek Hotel, renamed to match the film’s boozer. It’s decorated with candid photos of Hoges mugging for the cameras, but even more of Linda Kozlowski in that thong swimsuit that had Hoges swapping wives. After Crocodile Dundee’s success, the pub sold for nearly $300,000 – an investment recouped by the sale of the popular Walkabout Creek Hotel T-shirts.

Beaches

Gallipoli Beach, SA:

On Anzac Day many Australians will remember, not a beach in Turkey, but a secluded chunk of SA’s Eyre Peninsula made famous by Peter Weir’s Gallipoli. On these expansive beaches, a young Mel faced off against blokes recruited from the footy teams of nearby Port Lincoln, drafted to play Turkish soldiers. The beach is still called Gallipoli Beach (further confusing it with its international namesake), lest we forget the great Aussie film. You can still run into extras from the Aussie war epic in the streets of Port Lincoln, but these days they’re Ute-driving millionaires, not from the box office but from tuna sales.

The Coorong, SA:

Skip the glammed-up Sydney beaches or sandy shoals of the Great Ocean Road. The heart-warming children’s film Storm Boy showed us a moody overcast beach on which a boy and his pelican, Mr Percival, played. Fingerbone Bill (David Gulpilil) watches over the two as they play in the dunes and saltpans of the Coorong National Park. The park remains a major breeding ground for waterbirds, particularly pelicans, so local Aboriginals called it Kranangk (“long neck"). While shooting the film three local long necks played the part of Mr Percival and even got the star treatment in a swimming pool out the back of Adelaide’s SA Film Corporation.

You can find the long stretches of coast just 88km drive south of Adelaide and re-live the Storm Boy’s chase after pelicans on the beach. You mightn’t find Fingerbone Bill, but Aboriginals still offer tours of the area, like the mob at Camp Coorong (www.ngarrindjeri.com) and the Coorong Wilderness Lodge (www.australiantraveller.com/coorong), who do guided trips through the Coorong pointing out bush tucker and telling yarns.

Outback

Coober Pedy, SA:

When Ava Gardner was making On the Beach in Melbourne, she cattily wrote the city off as “a great place to make a film about the end of the world." She obviously hadn’t seen Coober Pedy, which has been given the apocalyptic guernsey in films like Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome. The Breakaways, freakish outcrops of multi-hued rock, hogged the screen in MM3, but were equally popular as other planets in sci-fi flicks like Red Planet and Pitch Black. The area was once an inland sea that dried up, leaving sediment levels coloured from rich ochre to stark white.

The spot certainly left its mark on Hollywood hunk Vin Diesel, who for his role in Pitch Black wore contacts so thick he called them hubcaps. The intense heat caused an eyewear malfunction that virtually glued the hubcaps into his eye sockets and an optometrist had to be flown in from Adelaide so filming could continue.

A rare image of Mel Gibson on set of Beyond Thunderdome in Coober Pedy, from Ken Duncanï¿½s book Life’s an Adventure, The First Twenty-Five Years. Image by Ken Duncan.

Pitch Black also left its mark on the town, with several props still around, including the spacecraft left outside a hostel (in case of backpacking Martians). It’s a compulsory cliché if you’re visiting to take a sticky beak into an underground home – Tina Turner certainly did while filming MM3. A pair of her undies are nailed to the roof among a sea of other fans’ knickers in Crocodile Harry’s infamous subterranean abode. Harry himself could be the subject of a film as he reckons he’s a Latvian baron who became a crocodile shooter, a possible inspiration for Paul Hogan’s Mick Dundee.

The Pilbara, WA:

In Japanese Story, filmmaker Sue Brooks always believed there were three main characters: the geologist, the Japanese businessman and the Pilbara. While the geologist (Toni Collete) and the Japanese businessman (Gotaro Tsunashima) gradually fall for each other, the surrounding desert forms the lonely third part of the love triangle, captured in bleak long shots. Just getting access to the film locations meant long negotiations with traditional landowners, and then there was the red dust that seemed hell-bent on clogging all the equipment. Without trespassing, the best chance to see the Pilbara is in Karijini National Park, in particular, Kalamina Falls, which could have been the setting for the movie’s tragic turning point.

McDonald Ranges, WA:

Never heard of The Overlanders? Baz Luhrmann definitely has, as Australia shares its crucial cattle-driving plot with this 1946 classic. If you catch it now you can compare our Hugh with the legendary Chips Rafferty’s performance as a toughened drover. But the Outback Oscar should have gone to the rugged country, which positively leaps to life even in black and white. The film follows the Murranji Track, a stretch of almost 2500km from WA to Qld taking in some of Australia’s rawest desert and lushest bush. Most of the film was shot in the McDonald Ranges that’s been a must-see since this first “Australian western" hit the cinemas.

The house that Baz built. Chief production designer for Australia and two-time Academy Award-winner Catherine Mrs Baz Martin is seen here on location near Kununnura in far northwest WA. A walkthrough section of Faraway Downs is being exhibited at the ACMI in Fed Square from Dec 08

High country

Merrijig, VIC:

When Australians think of stockmen, the icon is still a bloke who rounded up the colt from Old Regret while winning Sigrid Thornton’s heart. When it came time to make the movie of Banjo Patterson’s poem, the Snowy Mountains were re-located to the Victorian High Country. The twilight scenes of Jessica (Sigrid Thornton) and Jim (Tom Burlinson) romancing in silhouette were actually not filmed around Kosciuszko way, but not far from the Victorian town of Merrijig.

The snow gums and ravines that made for white-knuckle horse wrangling in The Man From Snowy River are easily accessible today, with some of the set left behind for tourists and the possibility of another sequel. On Mt Stirling, the shell of a cottage custom-built for the film called Craig’s Hut overlooked the valley – until it was burned to the ground in bushfires in 2006/07. It has now been restored to its former glory, and if you listen out over the valley you might hear the rumble of hooves as the Man canters home . . . or is that just a 4WD tour?

Hanging Rock, VIC:

When Peter Weir wrapped on his kooky The Cars That Ate Paris in the tiny NSW town of Sofala, he wanted to make the Australian bush as sinister as the small town besieged by cars in his first feature. He found Joan Lindsay’s novel Picnic at Hanging Rock and got a spine-tingling location into the bargain. Set on Valentine’s Day 1901, the film traces the disappearance of three schoolgirls, including teen queen Miranda, during an excursion that veers towards the occult.

More than just dreamy shots of the rock or an eerie warning for bush-wandering kids of the ’70s, the film took off overseas, scoring best cinematography at the BAFTAs. Amid rumours that filming was plagued by supernatural quirks like watches stopping (as they did in the film right before the girls disappeared), people flocked to the Macedon Ranges to forlornly cry “Miranda!" as they climbed Australia’s second most famous rock. The film is still screened at Hanging Rock every Valentine’s Day and, despite its spooky reputation, the movie monolith remains a popular spot for picnickers.

Big cities

Sydney:

Although heralded as Australia’s own Gotham City, Sydney is yet to play host to any of the Batman films. But it has formed the backdrop to well over 200 others, ranging from four-hour Bollywood epics (the last half of the inexplicable 2001 Hindi love story Dil Chahta Hai features some of the most stunning and sweeping views of Sydney ever committed to the silver screen) to Star Wars I and II, Two Hands (Bondi Beach, China Town and Kings Cross) and the famous Matrix trilogy. Neo and his pals stalked in front of a variety of CBD landmarks, as did Brandon Routh as the man of steel in Superman Returns, choosing to hang out mostly near Wynyard Station (aka the offices of The Daily Planet).

When Tom Cruise came to Sydney for Mission Impossible II, he took audiences on a whirlwind tour, from The Rocks to Ashton Park near Taronga Zoo, La Perouse, Elizabeth Bay, Governor Phillip Tower, Royal Randwick – even Broken Hill. Of endless entertainment to viewers of this film are the collection of mostly geographical errors it contains.

Like the tracking device that places our heroine in Sydney, backed by a laptop map with a blinking marker midway between Cairns and Darwin. Or our heroine being dropped off by car in the middle of the pedestrian-only Darling Harbour. Or the IMF team preparing to storm Governor Phillip (aka Biocyte) Tower with a street map of London. But hey! It’s the movies!

Melbourne:

Widely recognised as the world’s first feature length film, many of the scenes from The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906) were shot in Melbourne suburbs, including St Kilda, Eltham and Mitcham. Since then, more than ten feature films have been made about Australia’s most infamous bushranger – the most recent being Ned Kelly (2003), starring the recently departed Heath Ledger, which was largely shot in Ballarat. (At least it was shot in Victoria; the 1970 Ned Kelly starring Mick Jagger was controversially filmed in NSW, drawing protest from living Kelly descendants and many others.)

Jamie Lee Curtis in Road Games. Image by NFSA.

Melbourne has hosted a swathe of other big and small name movies over the years, including: Ghost Rider with Nicolas Cage (Docklands, Flinders St Station, even Telstra Dome); the incomparable Kenny, Australia’s most famous waste management artisan (Chapel St, Flemington raceway and other spots); Eric Bana as the compelling Chopper (Pentridge Prison); The Castle, which elevated outlying Bonnie Doon to iconic status; the original Mad Max (Melbourne Uni’s car park as Mel’s HQ); Rusty Crowe as a head-butting skinhead in Romper Stomper (Footscray and Richmond); and not forgetting Road Games (1981), a frankly appalling movie starring Jamie Lee Curtis, which was filmed in Diggers Rest near Melbourne airport, as well as locations ranging from Port Melbourne to Eucla to the Great Australian Bite.

Its tagline – “The truck driver plays games. The hitchhiker plays games. And the killer is playing the deadliest game of all! – should tell you everything you need to know about that classic piece of Ozploitation cinema.

Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated.

Just 15 years ago, Federal Mills was a very different place. Once among the most significant industrial sites in Victoria, the historic woollen mill was one of a dozen that operated in Geelong at the industry’s peak in the mid-20th century, helping the city earn its title as ‘wool centre of the world’. But by the 1960s global competition and the rise of synthetic fabrics led to the slow decline of the industry, and Federal Mills finally shuttered its doors in 2001. Within a few years, the abandoned North Geelong grounds had become makeshift pastoral land, with cows and goats grazing among the overgrown grass between the empty red-brick warehouses. It was a forgotten pocket of the city, all but two klicks from the bustle of the CBD.

Geelong cellar door wine bar — Geelong has shed its industrial identity to become an innovative urban hub with reimagined heritage spaces. (Image: Ash Hughes)

Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct

Today, the century-old complex stands reborn. The distinctive sawtooth-roof buildings have been sensitively restored. An old silo is splashed with a bright floral mural, landscapers have transformed the grounds, and the precinct is once again alive with activity. More than 1000 people work across 50-plus businesses here. It’s so busy, in fact, that on a sunny Thursday morning in the thick of winter, it’s hard to find a car park. The high ceilings, open-plan design, and large multi-paned windows – revolutionary features for factories of their time – have again become a drawcard.

Paddock Bakery andPatisserie — Paddock Bakery and Patisserie is housed within the historic wool factory. (Image: Gallant Lee)

At Paddock , one of the precinct’s newer tenants, weaving looms and dye vats have been replaced by a wood-fired brick oven and heavy-duty mixers. Open since April 2024, the bakery looks right at home here; the building’s industrial shell is softened by ivy climbing its steel frames, and sunlight streams through the tall windows. Outside, among the white cedar trees, families at picnic benches linger over dippy eggs and bagels, while white-collar workers pass in and out, single-origin coffee and crème brûlée doughnuts in hand.

Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design

Paddock Bakery can be found at Federal Mills. (Image: Gallant Lee)

“A lot of people are now seeing the merit of investing in Geelong,” says Paul Traynor, the head of Hamilton Hospitality Group, which redeveloped Federal Mills. A city once shunned as Sleepy Hollow, and spurned for its industrial, working-class roots and ‘rust belt’ image, Geelong has long since reclaimed its ‘Pivot City’ title, having reinvented itself as an affordable, lifestyle-driven satellite city, and a post-COVID migration hotspot.

And the numbers stand testament to the change. In March 2025, and for the first time in its history, Greater Geelong became Australia’s most popular regional town for internal migration, overtaking Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Current forecasts suggest Geelong will continue to outpace many other Australian cities and towns, with jobs growing at double the rate of the population.

Tourism is booming, too. The 2023-24 financial year was Geelong and The Bellarine region’s busiest on record, with 6.4 million visitors making it one of the fastest-growing destinations in the country. It’s not hard to see why: beyond the city’s prime positioning at the doorstep of the Great Ocean Road, Geelong’s tenacity and cultural ambition stands out.

As Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design, Geelong is swiftly shaking off its industrial past to become a model for urban renewal, innovation, sustainability and creative communities. The signs are everywhere, from the revitalisation of the city’s waterfront, and the landmark design of the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre and Geelong Arts Centre, to the growing network of local designers, architects and artists, and the burgeoning roster of festivals and events. That’s not even mentioning the adaptive reuse of storied old industrial buildings – from Federal Mills, to Little Creatures’ brewery ‘village’ housed within a 1920s textile mill – or the city’s flourishing food and wine scene.

The rise of a food and wine destination

Restaurant 1915 is housed within a restored former boiler house. (Image: Harry Pope/Two Palms)

Traynor credits now-closed local restaurant Igni, which opened in 2016, as the turning point for Geelong’s hospo industry. “[Aaron Turner, Igni’s chef-patron] was probably the first guy, with all due respect, to raise the bar food-wise for Geelong,” he says. “People now treat it really seriously, and there’s clearly a market for it.” While Igni is gone, Turner now helms a string of other notable Geelong venues, including The Hot Chicken Project and Tacos y Liquor, all within the buzzy, street art-speckled laneways of the CBD’s Little Malop Street Precinct. Many others have also popped up in Igni’s wake, including Federal Mills’ own restaurant, 1915 . Housed within the cavernous boiler house, 1915’s interior is dramatic: soaring, vaulted ceilings with timber beams, exposed brick, a huge arched window. The share plates echo the space’s bold character, playing with contrast and texture, with dishes such as a compressed watermelon tataki, the sweet, juicy squares tempered by salty strands of fried leeks, and charred, smoky snow peas dusted with saganaki on a nutty bed of romesco.

The Woolstore , one of The Hamilton Group’s most recent hospo projects, opened in February. It occupies a century-old riverside warehouse and exudes a more sultry, fine dining ambience. Much like Federal Mills, the blueprint was to preserve the original brickwork, tallowwood flooring and nods to the building’s former life. That same careful consideration extends to the well-versed, affable waitstaff as well as the kitchen. Head chef Eli Grubb is turning out an eclectic mix of ambitious and indulgent mod Oz dishes that deliver: strikingly tender skewers of chicken tsukune, infused with hints of smoke from the parrilla grill, and glazed with a moreish, sweet gochujang ‘jam’; nduja arancini fragrant with hints of aniseed and the earthy lick of sunny saffron aioli; and golden squares of potato pavé, adorned with tiny turrets of crème fraîche, crisp-fried saltbush leaves, and Avruga caviar, to name but a few stand-out dishes.

Woolstore menu — Woolstore’s menu is designed for sharing.

Breathing new life into historic spaces

On the city’s fringe, hidden down a winding side road with little fanfare, lies a long-dormant site that’s being gently revived. Built from locally quarried bluestone and brick, and dating back to the 1870s, the complex of original tin-roofed mill buildings is lush with greenery and backs onto the Barwon River and Buckley Falls; the audible rush of water provides a soothing soundtrack. Fyansford Paper Mill is one of few complexes of its time to survive intact. It feels steeped in history and spellbindingly rustic.

“We were looking for an old industrial place that had some charm and romance to it,” explains Sam Vogel, the owner, director and winemaker at Provenance Wines which moved here in 2018. When he first viewed the building with his former co-owner, it was in such a state of disrepair that the tradie tenant occupying the space had built a shed within it to escape the leaking roof and freezing winter temperatures. “To say it was run down would be an understatement,” he notes. “There was ivy growing through the place; the windows were all smashed. It was a classic Grand Designs project.”

Provenance Wines moved to Fyansford Paper Mill in 2018. (Image: Cameron Murray Photography)

The team has since invested more than a million dollars into their new home. Where paper processing machinery once sat, wine barrels are now stacked. Vaulted cathedral ceilings are strung with festoon lights, and hidden in plain sight lies a shadowy mural by local street artist de rigueur Rone – one of only three permanent works by the artist.

While the award-winning, cool-climate pinot noir, riesling and chardonnay naturally remain a key draw at Provenance, the winery’s restaurant is a destination in itself. Impressed already by whipsmart service, I devour one of the most cleverly curated and faultlessly executed degustations I’ve had in some time. It’s all prepared in a kitchen that is proudly zero-waste, and committed to providing seasonal, ethical and locally sourced meat and produce under head chef Nate McIver. Think free-range venison served rare with a syrupy red wine jus and a half-moon of neon-orange kosho, shokupan with a deeply savoury duck fat jus (a modern Japanese take on bread and drippings), and a golden potato cake adorned with a colourful confetti of dehydrated nasturtiums and tomato powder, and planted atop a sea urchin emulsion.

handcrafted pieces — Bell’s handcrafted functional pieces on display.

The complex is home to a coterie of independent businesses, including a gallery, a jeweller, and its latest tenant, ceramicist Elizabeth Bell, drawn here by the building’s “soul”. “There’s so much potential for these buildings to have new life breathed into them,” says Bell, whose studio is housed within the old pump room. “Even people in Geelong don’t know we’re here,” she says. “It’s definitely a destination, but I like that. It has a really calming atmosphere.”

A Melbourne transplant, Bell now feels at home in Geelong, which offers something Melbourne didn’t. “If this business was in Melbourne I don’t think it would’ve been as successful,” she notes. “It’s very collaborative in Geelong, and I don’t think you get that as much in Melbourne; you’re a bit more in it for yourself. Here it’s about community over competition.”

Hollywood down under: Australia’s best film sets