Movie Set Locations

AUSTRALIA - VCTORIA

Melbourne

The city of Melbourne is not only a centre of industry and commerce, but is is also Australia’s sporting and cultural capital. The metropolis hosts the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament and the country’s Formula-1 Grand Prix.

If you like art, you will definitely find what you are looking for in one of the city’s many museums, galleries and theatres. Melbourne also has a history of filmmaking and recently the Melbourne City Central Studios opened in the Docklands.

We set off from Adelaide for a 6-day journey to Melbourne. After 1.500 km of cruising along the Great Ocean Road, the city's skyline finally appeared at the horizon. We drove into the city from the south and left the Princess Highway M1 via the Williamstown Rd and Melbourne Rd exit.

Here in Spotswood we find our first locations. Take a right at the exit into Melbourne Road. Make a left turn into Hudson Road at the third crossing. Turn right twice into Reed Street. In this one-way street you find Spotswood Primary School.

One of the classrooms here was used in Charlotte’s Web with Dakota Fenning. We would like to express our gratitude to principal Annia Dear, for giving us the opportunity to make photos inside the school building.

Down the road from Hudson Road, in Brooker Street you come across Spotswood Pumping Station, Scienceworks Museum. The museum featured in Mad Max as the exterior of the MFP Headquarters.

Further south on Melbourne Road, you run into the Newport Railway Workshops. This workplace is still operational and is not open to the public. It was used in the Ghost Rider movie, starring Nicolas Cage, for the location of the first encounter between Blackheart and the Ghost Rider. Although the movie is set in Texas - USA, the whole film was shot here in Melbourne – Australia.

Nicole Kidman

We continue our tour closer to the city centre. We go on with our exploration in the Docklands. Here at The Waterfront in Pitt Street you find Melbourne’s walk of fame. Famous Australian stars, like Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, have their name eternized here.

Not far from here, in Docklands Drive you find the new soundstages from the Central City Studios. Recent movies like Ghost Rider and Steven Spielberg’s latest World War 2 TV mini-series, The Pacific, were filmed here.

Another eye-catching construction here is the Telstra Dome. The stadium is home to the AFC Champions League and featured as the SoBe Dome in Ghost Rider. The Dome has a retractable roof and has over 56.000. seats. Filming took place both around and inside the stadium.

Scenes were shot in the dressing roomd, the Corporate boxes, in the hallways, on the field and in the area in front of Gate 3, beneath the giant video screen. You can visit the Telstra Dome. Tickets for a guided tour can be purchased at the box office.

From here it is rather long walk to our next location. You can choose to go through Bourke Street and take a right on Swantston Street. Or you can walk down from the Dome onto the Harbour Esplanade, cross Webb Bridge and continue along the Yarra river, towards the city centre. Another option is the City Circle Tram. Trams 48, 70 and 75 stop at both the Dome and Flinders Street Station.

The movie set locations we are looking for here are on the Southbank Promenade. The Southbank is a pedestrian area. It was used for several scenes in Ghost Rider. The first scene takes place under Princes Bridge. Here Nicolas Cage character helps out a girl who gets robbed. The second scene was shot on the Yarra Footbridge, where the Ghost Rider is chased by the police.

At the other side of the river, at the crossing of Flinders Street en Swanston Street, we come across yet another location from Ghost Rider. In the movie we see Blackheart and his henchmen at St Paul's Cathedral in their search for the Contract of San Venganza.

Across the street from the cathedreal stands the Yound and Jackson Hotel. The hotel was build in 1875. Together with Flinders Street Station it featered in the background of Steven Spielberg's TV mini-series The Pacific.

We end off our quest with another location from the original Mad Max movie. Further away from the centre, in Cotham Road in Kew, you can find St George Hospital. It featured as the hospital where Max Rockatansky's wife passes away.

Melbourne is a city in motion. And this can be taken literally. The city centre has undergone a lot of renovation over the last 30 years. This means that many building have been torn down and replaced with modern office blocks. Many locations have been lost, never for us to be found agian. But Melbourne also has embraced the future. Look out for recent project filmed in the city : Rogue, Where the Wild Things Are and Romulus, My Father.

For more information regarding movie set locations and filming in Melbourne we refer to FILMMELBOURNENOW.