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Red Dog

Director: Stenders, Kriv
Year: 2011
Type: Film
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Synopsis

The film Red Dog tells the life story of a Red Cloud Kelpie dog who was born around 1971 in Paraburdoo, south east of Dampier in the Hamersley Ranges of the Pilbara and owned by a man named Colin Cummings, who named him “Tally Ho.” By 1973, the Cummings family had been transferred to the Hamersley Iron shipping port of Dampier, which had been declared a town the year before. In Dampier Red Dog met and bonded with John Stazzonelli, a Hamersley Iron bus driver.  While hitchhiking and travelling the mining routes, Red Dog made friends with people all over the region and became known as the “Pilbara Wanderer” and  the “Dog of the Northwest.”



Adaptation of: Red Dog (Bernieres, Louis de, 2001)
Daniel Taplitz wrote the screenplay for the 2011 film, Red Dog, adapted from Louis de Bernières novel of the same name.

Narrative Locations

Broome, Kimberley, Western Australia  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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

Shooting Locations


Dampier, Pilbara, Western Australia  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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".

Quotes

As the character Vanno (Arthur Angel), a homesick Italian miner, says, “From all the countries they come, for the money, for the work. From Poland, New Zealand, Ireland, Greece, Latvia, America, even Melbourne.” Here the city of Melbourne in eastern Australia figures as a foreign country in relation to the Pilbara.


Shooting Locations

Middle Beach Caravan Park, Pilbara, Western Australia

The scene inside the canteen when Vanno introduces mine workers from exotic locations all over the world (even Melbourne) is set at a mess hall in Dampier but filmed in the Middle Beach dining room, which is most often used for school camps. Vanno talks about the reasons people work in the Pilbara, despite the scorching sun. 

Gallery


Dampier Beach, Pilbara, Western Australia  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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.

Shooting Locations

Cleaverville, Pilbara, Western Australia

The morning after John and Nancy's date, the first shot we see out over the water from a red hillock was filmed at Cleaverville, Western Australia.

Gallery


Dampier Caravan Park, Adelaide, South Australia  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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.

Quotes

 The showdown between Red Dog and Red Cat is a turf war over a dusty caravan park in the town of Dampier. The park’s caretakers, the villainous Cribbages, own Red Cat. They try to impose rules on the caravan park and its occupants with a view to excluding unsavoury visitors such as dogs and men they refer to as “dirty, drunken miners.” Vanno describes the epic fight between Red Dog and Red Cat as a battle between “civilisation and chaos; good and evil."


Shooting Locations

Middle Beach Caravan Park, Adelaide, South Australia

The scene in which red dog fights red cat near Nancy's caravan were filmed at Middle Beach caravan park on the outskirts of Adelaide. Vintage caravans were brought to the Middle Beach location and truckloads of red sand were brought in to make the site resemble the Pilbara.

Gallery


Dampier Cemetery, Pilbara, Western Australia  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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.

Shooting Locations

Gallery


Dampier Highway, Pilbara, Western Australia  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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

Shooting Locations


Dampier Shopping Mall, Pilbara, Western Australia  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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

Shooting Locations

Dampier Shopping Mall, Pilbara, Western Australia

Shot on location at Dampier Shopping Mall.


Darwin, Darwin region, Northern Territory  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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.

Shooting Locations

Gallery


Karratha Vet Clinic, Pilbara, Western Australia  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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.

Shooting Locations


Mermaid Hotel, Pilbara, Western Australia  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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

Shooting Locations

Clipsal, Adelaide, South Australia

The old Mermaid Hotel was reconstructed from photos in the West Australian Museum/library and built in the Clipsal industrial warehouse in the Adelaide suburb of Bowden.


Newman, Pilbara, Western Australia  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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.

Shooting Locations


Parker Point, Pilbara, Western Australia  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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

Shooting Locations


Perth, Perth region, Western Australia  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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

Shooting Locations


Pilbara salt flats, Pilbara, Western Australia  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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

Shooting Locations

Pilbara Salt Flats, Pilbara, Western Australia

Red Dog hitches a ride across the salt flats and many locals work at Dampier Salt

Gallery


Red Dog Memorial Statue, Pilbara, Western Australia  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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

Quotes

In Red Dog the mining community discusses the values that define the Pilbara, rejecting the colonial heritage of the region by refusing to erect a statue of the white explorer William Dampier, for whom the town of Dampier was named. Instead they vote for a statue to commemorate Red Dog, arguing that he represents:

Someone that lives and breathes this vastness and desolation; someone that’s got red dust stuck up their nose; [someone] that understands the meaning of independence and the importance of a generous heart; mates who are loyal by nature… somebody that represents the Pilbara in all of us.


Shooting Locations

Red Dog Memorial Statue, Pilbara, Western Australia

Thomas the truck driver first visits the Pilbara to deliver a statue of William Dampier, which the locals do not want. A year later he returns with a statue of Red Dog, which still stands in Dampier today. The scene in which the Red Dog memorial is unveiled is shot on location in Dampier.

Gallery


Rio Tinto Port Operations Site, Parker Point, Pilbara, Western Australia  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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.

Shooting Locations

Rio Tinto Port Operations Site, Parker Point, Pilbara, Western Australia

Scenes of the men working for Hamersley Iron are shot at the port operations site and the Rio Tinto Transport Yard with 777 trucks.

Gallery


Saganoseki, Japan, , Other  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

 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.

Shooting Locations

Port Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia

The Japan scenes were shot at Port Adelaide in South Australia.


Tom Price, Pilbara, Western Australia  

Temporal setting: 1970s

Location notes:

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

Shooting Locations




Content


Synopsis
Narrative Locations
Map

Related Texts


Australia is a Film About a Red Dog (Thomson, Campbell, 2012)
Red Dog (Gillespie, Nancy, 1983)
Red Dog: The Pilbara Wanderer (Duckett, Beverley, 1993)
Red Dog (Bernieres, Louis de, 2001)

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