Temporal setting: 1939-1942
Location notes:
The "Never Never" depicted in Australia is fictional, with no specific geographic correlate. The geographic landscape between the location for Faraway Downs and Darwin does not contain desert. Instead, the "Never Never" is an imaginative amalgamation of northern Australian landscapes. The "Kuraman Desert", however, would be located between the Faraway Downs property and Darwin. Geographic coordinates given are an estimate.
Quotes
Drover: "We'd have to cross the Kuraman. That's Never-Never land. No-one has droved the Never-Never. You get caught out there, you're going to lose more than your cattle."
Shooting Locations
Wyndham mud flats, Kimberley, Western Australia
The scenes driving cattle through the Never-Never, known in the film as the Kuraman Desert, were shot on the mud flats south of Wyndham along the King River Road near Digger's Rest Station. The salt plains and mud flats create the illusion of a desert, though nearby wetlands are alive with bird life.
Pentecost River, Kimberley, Western Australia
The river crossing scenes, where Lady Sarah Ashley droves cattle across a river, were shot where the Gibb River Road crosses the Pentecost River, with the Cockburn Ranges in the background.
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Temporal setting: 1936-1942
Location notes:
'The Administrator's House' on the Darwin Esplanade represents Government House, the Office of the Administrator of the Northern Territory.
Shooting Locations
Strickland House, Sydney region, New South Wales
The Administrator's House/Government House in Darwin was filmed at Strickland House in Vauclause, New South Wales. Strickland House was originally known as "Carrara", the residence of Sydney's first major, John Hosking. It was designed by John Hilly in 1850s and built close to harbour, with extensive ocean views.
The grounds and gardens of Strickland House are open to the public during daylight hours.
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Temporal setting: 1930s
Location notes:
Lord and Lady Ashley’s residence, 'Ashlight House' is set in the United Kingdom, though filming was done at 'Camelot' in Camden, New South Wales. We have given an approximate location for Ashlight House in the UK.
Shooting Locations
'Camelot', Kirkham, Sydney region, New South Wales
Camelot in Kirkham was the shooting location for Lord and Lady Ashley's residence in the United Kingdom. "Camelot" stands on the site of explorer John Oxley's Kirkham Mill and was designed in the late 1880s by John Horbury Hunt for James White of Cranebrook. It is located at Camelot Kirkham Lane, Kirkham in the Camden Council of New South Wales and is currently not open to the public.
Temporal setting: 1942
Location notes:
Darwin is a narrative setting for Australia, featured most prominently during the recreation of the 1942 bombing of Darwin.
Shooting Locations
Bowen, Whitsundays, Queensland
The set for war era Darwin was constructed, and destroyed, on the Bowen foreshore, Queensland.
Stokes Hill Wharf, Darwin region, Northern Territory
Stokes Hill Wharf, Darwin is where footage of the lower parts of the wharf scenes were shot. These shots were composited with or edited into footage shot in Bowen atop the wharf, and scenes shot in Fox Studios, Sydney.
Gallery
Temporal setting: 1939-42
Location notes:
Faraway Downs is a fictional narrative setting within Australia and has no fixed geographic correlate, though various maps shown throughout the film position the property near the Northern Territory/Western Australia border, a little further south than Wyndham.
Quotes
Lady Sarah Ashley (when she first visits Faraway Downs in the dry season): "I can't understand what my husband would have seen out here."
Fletcher: "This land has a strange power."
Shooting Locations
Carlton Hill Station, Kimberley, Western Australia
The set for Faraway Downs was built on Carlton Hill Station. Carlton Hill was originally settled by the Durack family and is still a productive cattle station. The station buildings were not used in the film production.
House Roof Hill, Pilbara, Western Australia
The set for Faraway Downs was constructed at the base of House Roof Hill, Carlton Hill Station. David Gulpilil’s character, King George, is frequently filmed standing sentry atop House Roof Hill.
Fox Studios, Sydney, Sydney region, New South Wales
Many of the interiors, dialogue scenes, and Chroma Key scenes in Australia were filmed at the Fox Studios Site in Moore Park, New South Wales.
Gallery
Temporal setting: 1939-1942
Location notes:
Goolime Marsh is not named as a narrative location in the film but it is an important shooting location for billabong and boab scenes.
Shooting Locations
Goolime Marsh, Wyndham, Kimberley, Western Australia
The scene in which Lady Ashley and the Drover dance by a boab tree and the final scene whenKing George and Nullah go walkabout together and leave Lady Ashley by the boab are shot in the vicinity of Goolime Marsh near Digger's Rest Station, Wyndham.
Gallery
Temporal setting: 1939-1942
Location notes:
Scenes crossing the river referred to as the Marmount River in the film Australia are filmed at the Pentecost River. The location where the Gibb River Rd crosses the Pentecost River is now known to locals as "Kidman's Crossing" in honour of the scene when Lade Ashley helps drove cattle over the river.
Shooting Locations
Pentecost River, Kimberley, Western Australia
Gallery
Temporal setting: 1942
Location notes:
The Melville Islands north of Darwin did have mission schools for Aboriginal children but 'Mission Island' itself is fictional and the Mission Island scenes were reportedly filmed in the Whitsundays.
On February 19, 1942, the Catholic mission on Bathurst Island was targeted when Japanese bombers strafed Nguiu on their way to bomb Darwin. The priest radioed to notify Darwin of the incoming warplanes but his message was ignored.
Shooting Locations
Temporal setting: 1939-1942
Location notes:
The droving scene where Kipling Flynn is killed occurs when the characters are moving north-east from Faraway Downs towards Darwin. The scenes, however, were shot west of here in Western Australia.
Quotes
Nullah (approaching the Bungle Bungles): "When Mrs Boss first came to this land, she looked but she not see. Now she got her eyes open for the first time."
Shooting Locations
Bungle Bungles, Purnululu National Park, Kimberley, Western Australia
The cattle stampede when Kipling Flynn is killed and Nullah nearly tumbles over the edge of the precipice was filmed in the Bungle Bungles in Purnululu National Park. The landscape shown in the film for these scenes were cultivated with a great deal of computer-generated imagery.
Cockburn Ranges, Kimberley, Western Australia
The Cockburn Ranges in Durack, Western Australia, are where much of the landscape, boab, and droving footage in Australia was shot.
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