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After postponing production due to the pandemic last year, the sixth season of Australian Survivor is staying on home soil in 2021 with Cloncurry in north-west Queensland chosen as the rugged new location for the series.
The move is a big shift for the series which has filmed previous seasons in the tropical surrounds of Samoa and Fiji, adding to the list of productions being filmed in COVID-safe Australia.
The latest season of Australian Survivor, produced by Endemol Shine Australia for Network 10 and hosted by Jonathan LaPaglia, is expected to be worth $14.6 million to the Queensland economy while delivering a major boost to the profile of the Cloncurry region.
"It's rewarding to see such a big show as Australian Survivor heading to outback Queensland, a region that knows adversity and hardship first-hand, and whose people, I expect, share those human qualities celebrated in the show: courage, endurance and strength," says Screen Queensland CEO Kylie Munnich.
"From urban centres and coastal ranges to sweeping outback plains, Queensland has enormous capacity to cater for a wide range of screen productions, from international features through to reality juggernauts like Australian Survivor."
Beverley McGarvey, the executive vice-president of ViacomCBS Australia and New Zealand says the new location will "turn the game on its head".
"Moving from the beaches of Fiji to the outback of north Queensland will shift the game in a way we haven't seen before," she says.
"If the castaways think they know how to play the game, they will need to think again."
Network Ten has spruiked the new challenges planned for Survivor contestants in the outback setting.
"With its rich history and epic landscape that includes iconic red dirt, towering rock formations and spectacular fresh water dams, Cloncurry is the perfect place to really change things up," says the network.
The producers have worked closely with the local indigenous community to secure locations for filming the series.
"The production acknowledges the traditional owners of the land, the Mitakoodi people, and are consulting with the local Aboriginal community to gain a deeper understanding of the country on which the series will be filmed," says Endemol Shine Australia CEO Peter Newman.
Australian Survivor is expected to support 150 jobs, adding to a host of productions planned for Queensland this year.
"Outback Queensland is also the setting in part for ABC's Total Control Season 2, which returns to film in Winton this year with support from Screen Queensland," says Munnich.
The Netflix teen series Dive Club recently finished filming in Port Douglas, while Hollywood heavyweight Ron Howard is gearing up for filming his latest feature film Thirteen Lives on the Gold Coast next month. Universal Studio's Joe Exotic, starring Nicolas Cage, will soon start filming at Screen Queensland Studios in Brisbane.
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