With Baz Luhrmann now filming his multi-million dollar epic Australia in Darwin, the locals from his first location in the North Queensland Town of Bowen are coming to terms with the movie industry experience.
"The impact on Bowen has been immense as far as raising the profile of the town," said property developer Erik Fairbairn whose vacant site on the Bowen harbour front was leased by the film crew for the duration of their filming.
"The production company and their crew have made many friends in Bowen and I am sure left Bowen a better place," he said.
Mr Fairbairn said he was initially surprised when approached by the film crew to lease the site but saw the potential it had to increase interest in Bowen and to further the town's economic growth.
Locals lined up to volunteer as tour guides to tourists during filming and many more assisted with set construction and catering for the cast and crew.
Meanwhile hundreds of Bowen locals were given roles as extras, twenty of whom have been asked to go on with the cast and crew to the other locations for further filming.
Therese Saad of Tourism Bowen said the town was going through a bit of "PMS; or post movie syndrome" as the crew cleaned up and moved on to the next town, but that the opportunity had been an extraordinary one that she felt had brought the community closer together.
Businesses in Bowen say they have had an increase in trade and tourism as a result of the filming with curious sightseers drawn to catch a glimpse of the action, especially the two lead actors Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman.
The Tourism Bowen website had 190,000 hits last month and now there are plans to set up a permanent display of memorabilia from the movie for future visitors to the town.
Converted to look like Darwin in the 1930s for several months, Bowen was chosen for its similar coastline to pre-war Darwin, having no high rise buildings to jeopardise the authentic feel of the set. Local construction crews were used to recreate the Territory Hotel and red dirt was even freighted into the small town to recreate the old-time cattle yards in a vacant block.
The film is a romantic adventure saga set in the 1930s and 40s around the time of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour and Darwin.
Utilizing the dramatic Australian scenery as a backdrop, the film tells the story of an English aristocrat, played by Nicole Kidman, who inherits a large cattle station and seeks the help of a drover, played by Hugh Jackman, to move a herd of cattle across the wild Australian landscape in order to thwart a plot to take over her land.
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