Hugh Jackman tastes great. Big Baz Lurhmann takes a bit to swallow, but hey, just open your mouth a little wider.
Don’t believe me? Just head to Queensland’s little town of Bowen, where apart from juicy mangoes, they make Hunky Hugh pies and Baz Baguettes. Delicious. But I missed out on a Nicole Kidman Mango Cheesecake; too popular.
In case you haven’t heard, Bowen is where part of the new Australia movie was filmed. After experiencing this town (fondly known as “Bowenwood”) on the luscious Whitsunday Coast and the other major outdoor film location, the Eastern Kimberley on the other side of the continent, I am only surprised that this country has not been made into a multi-million dollar epic before.
Read a few editions of this magazine and you will understand that Oz is pure blockbuster material: awesome scenery, quirky characters, rustic settings and exciting wildlife.
While Crocodile Dundee gave the world a glimpse of the Australian Outback, Australia director Baz Luhrmann (he of Moulin Rouge! fame) is about to show all non-believers that this continent rocks.
Back to eating movie stars in just a mo’. Right now I gotta tell you, folks, head west to theKimberley for a pure magical holiday. Get yourself lost and find yourself (like Nicole Kidman’s character) in an ancient landscape echoing with the music and spirit of Aboriginal tribes, layered with soaring mountain ranges, cut by towering gorges and blanketed by wooded plains.
Three Kimberley cattle stations were used for the Australia shoot and two are available for you and I to follow in the aristocratic-heeled steps of Nicole Kidman’s character, Lady Ashley, and the firm manly tread of Hugh Jackman’s dusty Drover.
Here in the Outback wilderness men are men and women are… slightly
less dusty. West of Kununurra and off the Gibb River Road is Home Valley Station.
An overwhelming merger of three giant cattle stations creating a 3.5 million acre “playground” (pop London in there and lose it forever), you can camp, swim, fish, ride and hike the spectacular Three Kimberley bush, as well as follow their Australia Movie Mud Map.
First stop: Luhrmann’s Lookout and there I stand, like the great man, finally understanding why Baz found inspiration to film here. Vast green, red and yellow floodplains sweep towards the strangely compelling 1.9 billion-year-old Cockburn Range.
Far off to the right are more mountains, to the left winds the mighty Pentecost River while upwards the giant blue sky pushes horizons seemingly continents apart. It’s all so wild, rugged and ancient,
I can’t help feeling a profound sense of timeless grandeur. Eagles soar on the thermals and as the unfettered wind whispers of uncivilised lands and half-wild cowboys, I revel in a primal sense of freedom and feel a little of my own wildness rise with the spirit of place.
In the Outback silence, you can almost hear the thud of society’s shackles dropping off and hitting the dust. A startlingly suitable landscape then, for Nicole Kidman’s character to shake off her old life, for any traveller’s reality would be completely tilted and transformed in this place.
Another movie location is Kidman’s Crossing. Here, where the Gibb River Road runs through the Pentecost River, Nicole, Hugh and Jack Thompson crossed in a WWII truck and vintage Chevrolet (how cool).
The scene is pure cinema: blue rocky river, red mountains and green vegetation on dirt the colour of rust and all under that enormous sky dome.
At the bush camp, you can throw a fishing line into the river, then slap freshly-caught Barramundi on the barbecue, open a tinnie and watch the sunset turn the Cockburn Range a fiery orange and yellow. Does it get any better than this?
Yes, visit the cool waterholes enclosed by rearing cliffs, but be warned, Nicole and six other film members became pregnant during such dips, causing her to nickname the region’s waterholes “fertility waters”.
Or it could be from starring opposite Hugh Jackman who, quite frankly, is capable of stirring any woman’s ovaries. While watching crocodiles sunning themselves along river banks, during an exploration using Home Valley’s free canoes, you will see masses of birdlife and fish.
Little creeks wander off into the “beyond”, beckoning… beckoning…
Get back to the Dusty Bar and Grill by suppertime though, for socialising and dancing, when visitors, locals and station staff gather for food, drinks and free entertainment.
Sometimes a campfire is lit and resident musician Mick Tippo, sends the haunting sounds of a didgeridoo (no better instrument for the Kimberley was ever created) into the Outback night weaving stirring ribbons of sound round the boab trees; a reminder of the timeless presence of indigenous tribes, one of whom own Home Valley Station.
Other film scenes were shot “next door” at El Questro Station where you can also camp, hike and swim, however the mythical homestead, Faraway Downs, was filmed at Carlton Hill Station, which is not open to the public.
Back to Queensland and Bowen’s star snacks. The owner of the Jochheim’s Pies who sell these goodies is 72-year-old Bowen resident Merle Jochheim.
A few years ago, she unknowingly gave international director Baz Luhrmann and wife, Oscar-winning designer Catherine Martin, a history lesson on the town and attractions, including the nearby Whitsunday Islands, popular for sailing, diving, snorkelling and sugar-white beaches.
Merle “sold Bowen to Baz” and he set about building a “small town” in a waterfront paddock to depict pre-war Darwin. Now all that’s left is a large sign, however it’s easy to transplant the movie scenes on to the permanent buildings: a rustic police station, prominent hotel, Customs House and jetty.
Previously known as a fruit-picker’s stopover (best mangoes in the country), the movie’s legacy may mean that Bowen’s secrets, including eight lovely palm-fringed beaches and excellent diving and sailing, is finally discovered.
Walks reveal coastal scenery and I join people from all over the region for a lively Sunday market.Other film locations, including Darwin and Sydney, resonated to the sound of film-making, however Bowen and the Kimberley undoubtedly shaped the Australia epic.
Travelling there reveals star turns – scenery, adventure, food and about as close to Hugh and Nicole as we may ever get (sob).
The damage and the details: campsites cost $15/pp at Home Valley Station(www.homevalley.com.au); camp sites at El Questro Station (www.elquestro.com.au) cost $15/pp, plus a $15 permit; For more Kimberley info visit www.kimberleytourism.com; for more on Bowen visit www.tourismbowen.com.au
