Temporal setting: 2000s
Location notes:
Tasmanian tigers were hunted extensively on the Central Plateau. For more information, see: <http://www.naturalworlds.org/thylacine/history/bushmen/bushmen_2.htm>
The main events of the film take place in the glaciated highland wilderness of Tasmania's Central Plateau with its spectacular tarns and ancient pencil pines. The The Central Plateau is a conservation area for flora and fauna that is 1,000 metres above sea level in the Central Highlands. It is dotted with numerous lakes and its waterways are important sources of Tasmania's hydroelectric power. The plateau is bounded by the dolerite cliffs of Walls of Jerusalem National Park and the beautiful Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. The area is virtually unpopulated other than the town of Bothwell and isolated trout fishing lodges. Great Lake is the largest permanent natural freshwater lake in Australia and the string of lakes known as Solomon's Jewels is named on the map and in Bike's drawing as a location where Martin searches for the thylacine.
Quotes
In the novel, as Martin David hikes up to the Central Plateau with his guide Jack, he notes, “The track they are on was cut by old trappers. In his study
of the area he’d read that a hundred years ago the same ground would have been
regularly used by men carrying up to seventy pounds of wallaby and possum pelts
across their shoulders. Tiger pelts, too, or carcasses: once upon a time. Up on
the plateau more tigers were caught than anywhere else on the island.” [page 15]
Shooting Locations
Deloraine, Launceston, Tamar and the North, Tasmania
The Armstrong house scenes were filmed on a hill outside Deloraine, half an hour west of Launceston against the backdrop of the Western Tiers.
King William Plains , South West Wilderness, Tasmania
Shots of buttongrass plains, paperbark and eucalypt forest, and the Mount King William scenes were shot near Derwent Bridge and are part of a montage that represents the highlands at the top of the Central Plateau.
Mount Wellington, Hobart, Hobart and the South, Tasmania
Views and mountain scenery with shards of dolerite rock are filmed on Mt Wellington, as is the blizzard scene near the end of the film when Martin tracks down the Tiger.
Devil's Gullett, Launceston, Tamar and the North, Tasmania
Views from the top of the Central Plateau were filmed on the Devil's Gullet lookout track
Projection Bluff near Meander, Launceston, Tamar and the North, Tasmania
Projection Bluff is just south of Meander and is the probable shooting location for scenes in which Martin David hikes up the hill to the plateau
Mole Creek Karst National Park, Launceston, Tamar and the North, Tasmania
Location used for shots of wilderness scenery.
Something Wild Sanctuary, South West Wilderness, Tasmania
Something Wild is a sanctuary for injured wild animals.Footage of the Tasmanian Devils eating the wallaby and the spotted quoll that Martin finds in one of his traps as well as the wildlife filmed by the infrared camera set up in the wilderness were sourced here.
Gallery
Temporal setting: 2000s
Location notes:
Views of the Derwent Bridge buttongrass plains and Mount King William, located in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park are seen in The Hunter.
Shooting Locations
Mount Rufus, Rufus Canal Road near Derwent Bridge, South West Wilderness, Tasmania
Mount Rufus is a shooting location for views of the Derwent Bridge buttongrass plains and Mount King William seen in The Hunter.
Gallery
Temporal setting: 2000s
Location notes:
Since the fictional hotel is located in France, coordinates are given for the shooting location in Hobart.
Shooting Locations
Lenna of Hobart Hotel, Hobart and the South, Tasmania
Hobart's Lenna Hotel is the setting for Martin's lonely hotel room in Paris.
Grand Chancellor Hotel, Hobart, Hobart and the South, Tasmania
The foyer of the Grand Chancellor Hotel in Hobart is the setting for the Paris airport scene where Martin David meets his boss and discusses the mission for the biotech company, Red Leaf.
Temporal setting: 2000s
Location notes:
Loggers Pub at National Park in the Derwent Valley .
Shooting Locations
National Park Hotel, South West Wilderness, Tasmania
The shooting location for the loggers' pub was National Park Hotel, 2366 Gordon River Road, National Park, 7140.
Temporal setting: 2000s
Location notes:
The small logging towns of Maydena and National Park provide settings for the pub, general store, and forest walks on the way up to the Central Plateau.
Shooting Locations
Maydena, South West Wilderness, Tasmania
Gallery
Temporal setting: 2000s
Location notes:
Martin hikes through mountain streams in the Meander Valley and passes by a waterfall during his search for the thylacine.
Shooting Locations
Gallery
Temporal setting: 2000s
Location notes:
Pine Lake is seen in aerial photography as well as in misty scenes at dusk and dawn.
Shooting Locations
Pine Lake, Central Plateau, Launceston, Tamar and the North, Tasmania
Temporal setting: 2000s
Location notes:
The Tarkine wilderness is in Tasmania’s far north-west between the Southern Ocean to the West, the Arthur River to the north, the Pieman River to the south, and the Murchison Highway to the east.
The Tarkine Wilderness is identified as a narrative setting on a poster inside the Armstrong house where Martin stays, although the film itself is shot well to the east of this region. The Tarkine region is named for the Tarkiner Aboriginal group who formerly inhabited the area, leaving a rich history of archeological sites. The Tarkine was also home to a large population of Tasmanian Tigers.
Quotes
The Tarkine region is significant for its temperate rainforest, anti-logging conservationists, and Aboriginal heritage as an archaeological site. In the novel, Leigh writes: “One day his attention is caught by a ring of blackened stones and he imagines they might have been laid by the local Aboriginal people, in the years before they, the full-bloods, were almost driven to extinction”; Leigh then goes on to draw implicit parallels with the “death of the last thylacine in captivity”—see p.57.
Shooting Locations
Temporal setting: 2000s
Location notes:
The logging protesters camp out with signs saying "Save the Upper Florentine" in scenes shot at an actual forest blockade. The Upper Florentine is at Junction Hill near Lake Gordon and Maydena. The Florentine River runs past Florentine Peak and Tiger Range, northeast of Maydena, and flows into Lake Catagunya on its way to joining the River Derwent.
In The Hunter and in real life environmentalists and loggers clash over land clearing's environmental cost and economic benefits. Land clearing is controversial because it:
1) Destroys native vegetation and forests with centuries-old
trees—such as myrtle, sassafras, leatherwood and celery-top pine.
2) Destroys habitat for native birds and wildlife that die
from exposure, starvation, and stress.
3) Causes water that was once used by plants to rise through
the soil bringing salt deposits with it. The salt water makes the soil less
productive for farming, and taints river and water supplies. Damage from salt
water also has the potential to affect foundations, parks, gardens, roads, and
buildings in towns and cities.
4) Emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere through bulldozing,
and rotting and burning bush. See: http://www.bushheritage.org.au/natural_world/natural_world_land_clearing
Shooting Locations
Upper Florentine River, South West Wilderness, Tasmania
Gallery
Temporal setting: 2000s
Location notes:
Martin makes phone calls on the pay phone outside the Westerway Store, where he purchases cleaning products to scour the filthy tub at the Armstrong house. He converses with an environmental activist called Free about steel traps while he buys petrol at the Westerway Roadhouse.
Shooting Locations
Westerway Petrol and General Store, Gordon River Rd, Westerway, South West Wilderness, Tasmania