Australia (2008): Kimberley to Bowen

Faraway Downs is the cattle station Lady Sarah Ashley travels to Australia to sell in 1939, a huge property that the film places across Western Australia and the Northern Territory. For the screen, Baz Luhrmann used House Roof Hill, behind the horse arena at Carlton Hill Station, as the backdrop for the fictional homestead. Carlton Hill is a real working cattle station in the Kimberley, about 39 kilometres north-west of Kununurra, and it turns out 9,000 steers a year for live export.

Location precision: The homestead is fictional; the pin marks Carlton Hill Station, whose hill served as the backdrop.

Kununurra was chosen to serve as Faraway Downs, the homestead owned by the lead character, and Luhrmann shot most of the film just outside the town. Here Lady Sarah persuades Drover to take the cattle to Darwin. The shoot was gruelling: temperatures hit 43 °C, and torrential rain turned the Faraway Downs set to mud.

Location precision: The film was shot at several sites outside town; the pin marks Kununurra itself.

In Darwin, Captain Dutton negotiates beef prices with the cattle tycoon Carney, and the film's exteriors of the colonial Government House were shot far away, at Strickland House in Vaucluse, Sydney. The harbour-side mansion, in the grounds at 52 Vaucluse Road, doubled for Darwin. It is now a film studio, urban park and visitor attraction.

Visitor guidance: The grounds are an urban park on Vaucluse Road; check access before you go.

Bowen, Queensland, was used to depict 1940s Darwin. The production moved there on 14 May 2007, and a stand-alone set was built in the town, one of several sets built from scratch for the film. It stands in for the Darwin of the story's last act, when Darwin is evacuated after the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Japanese attack the city in 1942.

Location precision: Bowen only portrays Darwin; the pin marks the town, not a single set.

Visitor guidance: Bowen is a coastal town you can visit; the film sets are not preserved.

The film's finale returns to the real Darwin: Drover and the children sail into port as Nullah plays his harmonica. Scenes using Darwin harbour were shot in July 2007, with parts of Stokes Hill Wharf blocked to the public. The earlier wharf was damaged in the first Japanese bombing raid on 19 February 1942. The current wharf is now mainly a venue for restaurants and small boats.

Visitor guidance: A public wharf with restaurants, open to walk along.