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With the premiere of the fourth season of the ABC’s Mystery Road television series last night, Screenwest has revealed that the popular drama has delivered a windfall of more than $25 million for the Western Australian economy since it began with season one in 2018 with most of this total going straight to regional towns.
Filmed in Kununurra, Wyndham, Broome, Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie and Pemberton, the two Mystery Road seasons and the two prequel seasons of Mystery Road: Origin have seen regional communities reel in an estimated $18.5 million.
“Mystery Road is one of the ABC’s most successful series and has catapulted iconic Western Australia towns into the spotlight with productions in the Goldfields, Kimberley and most recently in Pemberton,” says Rikki Lea Bestall, the CEO of Screenwest.
“We have seen screen productions really pull regional communities and country towns into their exciting projects. In York, we saw this happen with The Twelve and Runt, Scrublands: Silver in Augusta and Mystery Road: Origin Season 2 in Pemberton.
“With the exponential increase in film production in Western Australia and the Perth Film Studios due to open in Malaga early next year, there will be even greater scope for regional towns to become film friendly and engage in on-location shoots.”
Perth Film Studios is set to create a new chapter for screen production in Australia when the facility opens next year by delivering two sound stages that are purpose-built for major international and domestic productions as well as dedicated workshop and lock-up space for set construction, props and fabrication, among other facilities.
“Western Australia is already experiencing unprecedented levels of production in the state,” says Bestall.
“The availability of state-of-the-art studios, coupled with the state’s striking natural landscapes and unique locations, will support further growth of the screen industry and contribute to significant economic spin-off, not to mention the flow-on effects to the tourism industry.
“Screenwest remains committed to driving local content production in Western Australia, supporting local production houses and building workforce capacity to ensure we have enough skilled crew for when major productions land.”
The second season of Mystery Road: Origin, which premiered on the ABC last night, was filmed in the south-western town of Pemberton and returned an estimated $7.3 million to the Western Australian economy, including $5 million into the region, according to Screenwest.
The latest season continues the story into the early years of Detective Jay Swan in a six-part drama produced by Bunya Productions.
The series is produced by Greer Simpkin and David Jowsey, with major production investment from Screen Australia’s First Nations Department in association with Screenwest and Lotterywest and the Western Australian Regional Screen Fund.
AACTA Award-winning lead actor Mark Coles Smith (We Bury The Dead, Beasts of War) plays the young Detective Jay Swan, while AACTA Award-winning lead actress Tuuli Narkle (NCISS1 & S2, Territory) is Young Mary and Clarence Ryan (Territory, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga) appears as Sputty.
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