Film

Australia has a healthy filmmaking history, with the world’s earliest known feature-length narrative film an Australian production called The Story of the Kelly Gang, which was made in 1906.

The 70s and 80s were heralded as the golden era of Australian film making, with films such as Peter Weira’s Picnic at Hanging Rock and Ken Hannam’s Sunday Too Far Away making an international impact. However it was the production of Mad Max, The Adventure of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Strictly Ballroom and Crocodile Dundee, which saw Australia thrust into the international limelight.

However, the Australian film industry, as with many European countries, is relatively small in relation to the American market, which dominates the box office. Since 2000 there have been a handful of hits, including Saw, Rabbit-Proof Fence, The Dish, Muriel’s Wedding, Whale Rider and Wolf Creek.

Baz Luhrman is one of Australia’s most famous film directors and has produced four internally acclaimed films; Romeo and Juliet, Strictly Ballroom, Moulin Rouge and his newest work, Australia which opened in the UK on Boxing Day 2008 to popular accolades. Australia is touted as an outback epic, which is set during World War Two and features Nicola Kidman and Hugh Jackman. View the Australia trailer

To find out more about Aussie cinema visit Wikipedia: Cinema of Australia.

Film locations

The wetlands, waterfalls and rainforest of World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park featured in the hit movie Crocodile Dundee and the 2007 horror film Rogue.

Ten Canoes and Yolngu Boy were filmed in Aboriginal-owned Arnhem Land, 91,000 square kilometres of unspoiled wilderness to the east of Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory.

Director Phillip Noyce shot his thriller Dead Calm in Hamilton Island and the Great Barrier Reef, with stars Nicole Kidman, Billy Zane and Sam Neill. The animated cast of Finding Nemo also began their colourful cinematic journey amongst these World Heritage-listed corals.

Director Terrence Malick’s fictional World War II story The Thin Red Line was shot largely in the Daintree Rainforest in Queensland’s far north. Scooby-Doo, Lost World, Ghost Ship and Peter Pan were all filmed at Warner Bros. Movie World on the Gold Coast in Queensland.

Mission Impossible 2 and George Miller’s three Mad Max films capitalised on the surreal, dusty landscapes around Broken Hill and Silverton in outback New South Wales. For Babe, Miller chose the lush green pasturelands of Robertson and Exeter in the state’s Southern Highlands.

Sydney was the location for some of the heart-stopping stunts in Mission Impossible 2. It was also a location in The Matrix, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Muriel’s Wedding, Two Hands, Babe: Pig in the City, Lantana, Dirty Deeds and Superman Returns.

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert follows the journey of three drag queens from glitzy Sydney to South Australia’s opal mining town of Coober Pedy and Kings Canyon in the Northern Territory.

Melbourne in Victoria was the location for The Story of the Kelly Gang, On the Beach, Chopper, Kenny, Ghost Rider and Romper Stomper.

The Man from Snowy River and Ned Kelly were filmed in Victoria’s High Country, where horse and walking trails intersect with snow gums, mountain views and bushranger history.

South Australia’s rugged Flinders Ranges was the setting for The Tracker and the award-winning Rabbit Proof Fence.

Japanese Story, starring Toni Collette as a geologist, was filmed around Perth and the Pilbara region.

* FIlm Locations Courtesy of Tourism Australia

Some of Australia’s most famous actors:

• Guy Pearce
• Errol Flynn
• Mel Gibson
• Russell Crowe
• Nicole Kidman
• Cate Blanchett
• Naomi Watts
• Geoffrey Rush
• Hugh Jackman
• Heath Ledger
• Paul Hogan
• Guy Pearce
• Toni Collette
• Sam Neill
• Olivia Newton-John
• Emily Browning
• Eric Bana