The map of Red Dog's travels shows that he visited Broome, which is corroborated by local legend and the de Bernieres novel.

Dampier was designed and constructed in 1965 by Hamersley Iron as a port-town for the transportation of iron ore. By 1968, however, the population had outgrown the town's capacity and Karratha was established twenty kilometres to the south-east.

The Burrup Peninsula and the Dampier Archipelago, fourteen kilometres north-east of Dampier, contains the largest collection of rock art in the world. The petroglyphs are estimated to number between 500,000 and one million, with numerous works depicting the now extinct Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger). It is a significant site for Aboriginal country groups of the Pilbara and beyond. The Ngayarda language groups call the location Murujuga, meaning "hip bone sticking out".

Red dog steals meat at a beach BBQ and saves his mate from death by suicide or shark.

Dampier Beach, located on The Esplanade, has an ocean pool, barbecue facilities, and a boating and sailing club.

Dampier Caravan park, WA, was recreated as it was in the 1970s at Middle Beach Caravan Park in South Australia

Address: 5 Recreation Reserve, Middle Beach, SA. From Adelaide, turn left off the A1 Hwy onto Middle Beach Rd, just past Two Wells, about an hour out of Adelaide.

The cemetery shown in Red Dog appears to be in Dampier but it has no known geographic equivalent within the Dampier area. Coordinates given are for Dampier. The scenes were likely shot in South Australia.

John comes off his motorbike and dies on the Dampier Highway.

Nancy rallies the community to allow Red Dog to stay in the caravan park.

The map of Red Dog's travels and the voice over narrating his search for John indicates that he hitch hiked as far North as Darwin.  Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory.

Red Dog is taken to the Karratha Veterinary Clinic. The clinic is still on site and operational. The "real" vet who treated Red Dog has a cameo in the film.

Karratha was designed and constructed as a mining town in 1968-9 in a joint initiative by the State Government and Hamersley Iron after Dampier's operations and population outgrew its capacity. Karratha takes its name from the pastoral station which operated in the area during the late-nineteenth century and is an Aboriginal word meaning "good country" or "soft earth".

The town now services much of the Pilbara area, with many administrative centres and Government departments being housed there.

The Dampier Mermaid Hotel is still in operation at this site.

The map of Red Dog's travels shown in the film when he is searching for John indicates that he visited the mining town of Newman.

John and Nancy have a date at Parker Point, south-west of Dampier.

The map of Red Dog's travels shown in the film when he is searching for John indicates that he visited Perth.

The Pilbara salt flats are located on the coastal road connecting Dampier to Karratha.

The Red Dog statue shown in the film exists on the way into Dampier, on Central Avenue. There is also an information bay.

The story of Red Dog is also tightly connected to mining. Hamersley Iron, the employer of the mine workers in Red Dog, is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto. Previously, in 1952 mining magnate Lang Hancock was flying over the Hamersley Ranges just north of Paraburdoo, where Red Dog was born and where the Tom Price mine would later be built. Hancock said he noticed that the rust-coloured walls of a gorge looked like “oxidised iron.” Confirming that the area had rich iron ore deposits, Hancock founded Hamersley Iron in 1964. By 1973 when Red Dog came to live in the Hamersley Iron shipping port of Dampier, the company had become one of the world’s leading iron ore producers. In 2011 Rio Tinto sponsored the production of Red Dog and allowed filming on site in Dampier.

The Pilbara provides an overwhelming majority of Western Australia’s three biggest exports: petroleum, natural gas and iron ore. It has especially large deposits of iron ore, which is used for making steel. Australia is the world’s largest iron ore exporter, and the second largest producer next to China. Australia produces about a sixth of the word’s iron ore. Iron ore is a finite natural resource. Scientists estimate that even though it has a bountiful supply, the Pilbara region will run out of iron ore within about 50 years or so.

 Legend has it that during his search for John, Red Dog stowed away on an iron ore ship that traveled to Sagonoseki, Japan.

From coastal ports including Dampier and Port Hedland, the iron ore is transported by ship. Iron ore ships, like the one on which Red Dog is rumoured to have hitched a ride to Japan, can introduce pests that are attached to their hulls or carried in their ballast water. For example, in Port Hedland, three types of invasive marine species exist: barnacles, moss animals known as bryozoans, and jellyfish-like hydrozoids. Once introduced, these marine animals are very difficult to manage and they can threaten biodiversity and the health of the ecosystem in the area. One animal that is vulnerable to introduced species from shipping is the dugong. The dugong is a large marine animal that has been described as underwater cow, even though it is more closely related to elephants. Dugongs can live for more than 70 years and eat more than 40kg of seagrass daily. The Asian bag or date mussel is an invasive marine species that damages the seagrass beds that the dugongs rely on.

The map of Red Dog's travels shown in the film when he is searching for John indicates that he visited Tom Price.