Community
28 June, 2024
National series wraps filming in C’down
CAMPERDOWN is set to be introduced to a national audience after filming for the ABC television series Back Roads concluded early this week.
The film crew arrived in town last Monday, filming various community groups and aspects of the Robert Burns Celtic Festival.
Back Roads presenter Kerry Staight said Camperdown came to their attention because of the Robert Burns Festival.
“It’s a fairly random sort of festival and pretty interesting, like a nice, quirky festival,” she said.
“We looked around for more stories whether that’s about the town as a whole, or the history of the town, or what makes the town special now.
“More importantly, we look for individual stories and individual characters that have amazing stories in their own right, because all of the Back Roads episodes are carried by individual stories.
“I’ve not been to Camperdown before, so it’s all a discovery for me as well because that’s what we do. We discover towns as we go, and we introduce viewers as we’re discovering them.”
Ms Staight said her travels around Australia had yet to take her to Camperdown.
“I’ve been to Warrnambool, I’ve been to Port Fairy, I’m normally based in South Australia, so I’ve done a lot of travel around the country, but I’ve never been to Camperdown,” she said.
“I’m excited to go into any community that I’ve never been to, any regional community, whether there’s a festival on or not.
“The fact that there is a festival on that has a Celtic theme, and there’s a really interesting history behind it just makes it more fun.
“We’re introducing national audience to some really intriguing people in a town.”
In addition to the Robert Burns Festival, Back Roads filmed in various locations around the town and focused on some notable members of the community.
One such community member was the Lakes and Craters Band’s musical director Jane McSween, with band secretary Bernie Dunn saying the band was also filmed as part of the focus.
“They picked out Jane McSween as a person of interest because she’s our musical director, she’s involved with the theatre company, she’s a local medical scientist at the hospital, and she rides a motorbike,” he said.
“They’re pretty excited about it.
“Some of our younger people were nervous because there was a chance of them being on television.
“Everyone was pretty happy with it and the way it went.”
Others who were interviewed for the show included Tony Dupleix, who spoke about his business Upright Burials, and Lawrie Courier, who spoke about his collection of antique items.
The final day of shooting saw Camperdown’s Theatre Company in the spotlight, with the film crew also taking the opportunity to take shots of the sights around Camperdown.
Ms Staight said the filming over the festival weekend was a “good time” for the crew and extended her gratitude to Back Roads producer Joffa Hardy, camera operator Ben Cunningham and sound recordist Terry Chadwick for their work during the week.
“We filmed some of the bagpiping competitions, which was excellent, and some of the various events and well as filming different stories,” she said.
“The more people you meet, the better feel you get for what the town’s all about.
“After a couple of days, it’s hard to get a good sense of a community, but it feels like a legitimate, tight community.
“We ended up at the pub for dinner (on Sunday) and it was such a good vibe in there, and we caught up with a few people we’ve met over the last few days.”
Speaking with Western District Newspapers, Ms Staight praised the people of Camperdown for their confidence and ease throughout the process.
“Thank you, because it’s not always easy to have a camera put in your face, and we can often get people to repeat things quite often – it can get pretty intimidating,” she said.
“We are always fairly confident the interviews will work, but you never know for sure until you hit record because TV equipment and crews can understandably throw people.
“But everyone has been really accommodating and welcoming, and they’ve all been really good.
“Every single person that we had lined up has been really authentic and really themselves on camera, really comfortable but also quite animated.
“A piece won’t come together without good characters – it’s not about me, it’s about who I meet on the way.”
Ms Staight said the show as about “capturing a really authentic version of the town”, rather than trying to summarise the community.
“Visually, you’ll see that it’s a beautiful town – I drove in and went ‘oh this is lovely’, and that’s not always your initial view when you drive into a regional town,” she said.
“They’ll be introduced to the beauty that is the landscape and also the town itself, but it’s about the people that drive the town.
“There’s a really strong arts and musical focus in this town, which is quite extraordinary – you don’t always get that in regional towns.
“It’s all about the people who make up the heart of the town.”
Ms Staight said she struggled to pick out her favourite part of filming in the town but enjoyed Camperdown’s vibe.
“When you look at the natural scenery around here, it’s been so beautiful that there’s been really peaceful moments in all the festival energy,” she said.
“I’ve really loved those moments as well, but I wouldn’t say they are my favourite part. That’s the part of storytelling, especially on TV, you go ‘wow, this is beautiful’.
“It’s got a lovely vibe, and you don’t always see that – some communities can take a while to get a really good feel for, but everyone’s been really open, really interested, really polite, and everyone’s got a good story to tell.”
Camperdown’s Back Roads episode is expected to air sometime in summer 2025.
