Geography Lesson

I feel that to understand a lot of Australian Cinema, or really anything you need to understand the geography of the place. By this, I mean political boundaries rather than the simple understanding of their diverset biospheres.


This map should give you a pretty good understanding of the place - especially in how most of the continent is uninhabited. As you may know, the five largest cities are the mainland state capitols. A complete list of cities by population is here. Note the great distances between each major city, particularly Perth which sits thousands of miles from the main population crescent.

As far as the film industry is concerned, most of it is based in Sydney and Melbourne, after those two Gold Coast, the sixth largest city, located in Southern Queensland near the border of New South Wales and quite near Brisbane is the largest city for film. Locations are listed on IMDB, but I will save you the trouble and break them down in general for you. Most of the films we have viewed have been shot and set in Victoria such as The Devil's Playground, Proof, Romper Stomper, and surprisingly, due to its rural setting, Mad Max, although its sequel Road Warrior was in fact shot in the outback of both New South Wales and Western Australia. Although Picnic at Hanging Rock seems to be set in Victoria, it was in fact shot entirely in the much less developed South Australia. South Australia doubles for another state as well in Gallipoli where despite the dramatic open expanse it captures, it was not shot at all within the Broders of Western Australia in which it is set. Despite the constant references to Adelaide, the urban sections of Walkabout are in fact shot in Sydney while the outback adventure is shot in almost every mainland area of the country, primarily Northern Territory and South Australia. Oddly enough, we have only viewed one and a half films set and filmed in Sydney - Sweetie and Muriel's Wedding. The other pasrts of Muriel's Wedding are in the Gold Coast.

Unfortunately, Tasmania has not been represented in any of these films. However, the films we have viewed do portray each state quite accurately with temperate Sydney and Melbourne as the sprawling Western Metropoli with outer agricultural areas reminiscent of America's midwest. Though shot elsewhere, Gallipoli captures Western Australia's isolation and almost separate identity from the rest of the country. Walkabout portrays Adeliade as it rests on the very edge of civilization to the Outback, and Muriel's Wedding's fictional Porpoise Spit captures the warm beach lifestyle of Gold Coast and much of Coastal Queensland.

Either way, all I am saying is when you see an Australian film you need to ask yourself "where are we?" as it matters just as much as it does here.