The cast and crew of the Stan crime drama “Scrublands” have reported mixed feelings about the upcoming conclusion of filming for the second season in Augusta.
Production has taken over the seaside town, giving the economy a welcome boost at the start of winter before filming wraps on July 12.
Rhetoric aside, Third Act Stories co-producer Martha Coleman and the main stars of the Australian show expressed their deep affection for the seaside village.
Coleman told the Times that the film crew quickly felt at home in Augusta after residents embraced the production and opened their doors and businesses to the cast, which included lead actors Bella Heathcote and Luke Arnold.
However, Coleman said many genuinely feel that Augusta and the surrounding area are “incredibly special,” and she urged local authorities to protect the city’s existing character from future overdevelopment.
“It’s like a coastal town from my childhood, it’s not destroyed,” Coleman said.
“It has not become something it is not.
“It’s like a gift that always brings joy. We have all our locations there.”
In the Stan series, which goes by the code name Silver, the journalist played by Arnold returns to his hometown in Western Australia with his girlfriend, played by Heathcote.
As is typical with crime dramas, things soon get out of hand.
Arnold said he appreciated the warm welcome from the Augusta community.
“It didn’t take long for people to start talking about wanting to move here,” he said.
“We couldn’t have wished for a more beautiful location, either on camera or in real life.
“Everyone spends their weekend with incredible food, wine and adventure.”
Coleman and Heathcote also praised the region’s scenic beauty.
“Augusta is breathtakingly beautiful and the people here are extremely warm and welcoming,” said Heathcote.
“The best thing about filming on existing locations is that it feels like I’ve been taken on this multi-week tour of the city: from the lighthouse to the Ellis Street Jetty and everything around and in between.
“It will be hard for me to say goodbye.”
Coleman said the series was conceived during a magical summer, but when winter weather conditions set in at Ellis Street Jetty on the first day of filming, the directors decided to draw on the region’s powerful nature.
This included long days of filming in Flinders and Hamelin Bay, which had been transformed from a pristine white sand beach into a wild, seaweed-covered location since the summer.
“We shifted our focus to making the place not pristine but powerful,” said the co-producer.
“We wanted a coastal town that hadn’t been overrun by developers yet.”
Coleman herself had relocated her company back to Perth during the pandemic, and through a partnership with east coast company Easy Tiger – which is rumored to be shooting some additional scenes for its separate production “The Twelve” in Augusta – idyllic locations such as the city and other parts of the Margaret River region are likely to feature in future shows.
Coleman said that despite strong demand from Perth, the region was relatively well placed to support a burgeoning film industry and that local and state authorities had “bent over backwards” to address any problems.
The biggest challenge was in the area of telecommunications.
The region’s poor broadband and phone system has frustrated creatives in the South West for years and, although Stan Production had its own response vehicle to help out in dead zones like Hamelin Bay, greater investment was needed on this front if authorities were serious about supporting the local creative industries, she said.