Jane Turner tries star gazing at the Grand View, Bowen, Queensland.
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The Grand View, Bowen, Queensland review
Submitted by Jane Turner
Nicole
Kidman and Hugh Jackman are filming
a movie aptly called Australia
in a town north of me.
As
Queensland Beer Delegate, it was my duty to go on an exclusive mission
for UNOB
to see if I could find out exactly where and what Nicole and Hugh
were drinking while filming and
living in Queensland.
According to Baz Luhrmann's official press release, "Australia, is a romantic action-adventure set in the country's northern outback prior to World War II, which centres on an English aristocrat, Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman), who finds herself unexpectedly fighting to save a cattle station the size of Belgium.
"When the local cattle barons plot to take her land, she reluctantly joins forces with a rough-hewn cattle drover (Hugh Jackman) to drive 1500 heard of cattle across northern Australia's breathtaking, yet brutal landscape. Love ensures, but they must still face the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese forces that had attacked Pearl Harbour only months earlier."
The Grand View, Bowen, Queensland
The movie sounds great... even if this isn't Darwin or the Outback, but Bowen, a small country town near the Great Barrier Reef.
It was a beautiful clear blue sky of a day and leading into the town of Bowen you're struck by billboards on the highway and vinyl hanging signs from pubs and businesses saying, "Bowen welcomes Baz Luhrmann's cast and crew."
Bowen, in Queensland, is a place of immense beauty, white sandy beaches, the Coral Sea and reef islands in clear and close view. With a population of only 5,000, the town retains its 1950s charm of wide roads, ice cream parlours and independent shopkeepers.
The buildings have an early 1900 old western wooden architecture, which really isn't part of the movie set facade. If you didn't know you were in Australia, you'd swear it was a gun-slinging town in the USA.
I can easily see why Bowen was chosen for the filming. All the set designers had to do was throw dirt on the paved roads and erect 1930 signage on the buildings, which is exactly what they did.
I drove as far as I could towards where I knew the film set in town was, before the sandbags and security tape had blocked any further access. The pub I was seeking was called The Grand View in Bowen.
It is a real pub, but is also now part of the film set as well, all decorated in WWII on the outside. I was able to gain access by foot quite easily to the Grand View in Bowen, which was conveniently open to the thirsty public.
The outside of the Grand View put Bowen smack
in the middle of
WWII, with advertising signs professionally decorating the
outside of the
pub and a few more surrounding buildings, along with about 50 army
tents for
the battalion training camp shots in the movie.
I wasn't too disappointed that Nicole and Hugh weren't filming when I was there. In fact, I was more focused on having a beer after the long drive.
The Bowen Tourist Information Volunteers were on hand to inform people about the movie; there was some discrepancy on if they were filming today or not. One lady said they were out waiting to film the bombing of Darwin sequence, which I thought would add great atmosphere to my beer drinking.
Inside the Grand View at Bowen there were more signs to the public. "No moving the curtains while filming is taking place." I suppose it would spoil a WWII movie if a gal in a present day tube top was spotted at the pub window, tussling with the pub curtains with a telephoto lens.
Surprisingly,
the Grand View was not Bowen's busiest attraction on the day I arrived.
Jay was the first bartender I spoke to. People in the
region are
very friendly and Jay was no exception.
But he couldn't tell me much about Nicole and Hugh. I had heard they've been seen drinking in this pub (so convenient to their film location when it's part of the set).
Then I spoke to Rusty, who was a wonderfully bright and bubbly barmaid. As she passed me my beer, I asked her about Nicole and Hugh and most importantly, what kind of beer they drank.
"Oh, Nicole is not a beer drinker.
She
drinks wine. And with a big bottle of water too."
"What
about Hugh?" I asked eagerly.
Pondering momentarily to
think, Rusty
finally announced, "He drank Gold."
"Woohoo!" I thought. Hugh Jackman and I drink the exact same lager! I knew I liked him!
A thought of Hugh Jackman and I
drinking
XXXX Gold beer together was an
excellent mental image and I could
imagine the
conversations we'd have over the beer as we sat getting loaded in the
Grand View in Bowen.
However, as he wasn't around to fulfil my beer drinking fantasy, I had lunch instead with the kids I dragged out on this adventure.
The one thing small regional Queensland towns do so well is never to disappoint. Rusty also said that the cast and crew had booked out the entire Grand View, with nobody from Bowen allowed inside, three weeks beforehand for a private cast party.
Nicole brought in her husband Keith Urban (currently touring with his band in Australia) and he played music the entire night. "That cast can certainly drink!" said Rusty. "Oh, not the main stars, but the rest of them can certainly put back the alcohol."
It must have been an amazing night.
Drinks
flowing, Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman relaxing in the Grand View
in Bowen with their favourite
beverages, Keith Urban playing and the cast getting drunk in a pub
beside the Coral Sea and a WWII army camp
film set, in a small town on the Queensland Coast.
Life doesn't get much better than that.
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