In 1992, several scenes of the movie ‘Reckless Kelly’ were filmed at Tomaree Head, Port Stephens. This paper looks at various aspects of the movie’s production at Port Stephens.

The Movie

‘Reckless Kelly’ was produced by Warner Brothers and starred Yahoo Serious. It featured the exploits of a character based on the legendary Australian bushranger, Ned Kelly.

Publicity poster for Reckless Kelly

The modus operandi of Restless Kelly was to take money from the rich and give it to the poor, like the legendary Robin Hood.

A short synopsis of the movie was released as follows:

‘Australian music, movie and comedy star Yahoo Serious presents his own hilarious homage to legendary Outlaw Ned Kelly. Modern day bank robber Ned Kelly (Serious) loves to rip off the rich and help the poor. Unfortunately, Sir John, the chief executive of the corrupt International Trust Bank, does not share his enthusiasm.

Tired of Ned’s endless thefts, Sir plans to tow his entire homeland, Reckless Island’ to Tokyo Bay and sell it off as a Japanese tourist attraction. There is only one way Ned can save his wilderness paradise. He must go where no Kelly has gone before – America!’

It was aimed at an American audience, like the first Crocodile Dundee movie that had been released six years previously in 1986.

Reckless Kelly ran for 103 minutes and opened in Village cinemas in Sydney and Melbourne on 8 April 1993. It was was not a commercial success here and received little attention in America as some of the themes satirised American culture.

The movie was filmed at Port Stephens, Broken Hill, Gold Coast, Sydney, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Hollywood.

Movie Location at Port Stephens.

The first and final scenes of the movie were filmed at the base of Tomaree Head, Port Stephens on the grassland reserve near the historic Second World War ‘Tomaree torpedo tube’ which was occasionally visible in the film.

On the Port Stephens movie site, the producers built the ‘Glenrowan Hotel’ which appeared to be based on the style of the ‘Ettamogah Pub’. The hotel featured in the most of action filmed at Tomaree Head. The access road to the grassland reserve where the ‘Glenrowan Hotel’ was located, was also used during the filming.

Mount Tomaree featured several times in the movie as it served as the backdrop for Reckless Island which was to be towed to Tokyo Bay.

No evidence of the movie set currently remains at Tomaree Head, except for a piece of discarded machinery, used as a film prop that lies in the bush as the rear of the site.

Screen Shots from the Movie

The following photos are screen shots from the movie together with several photos of the location sites today.

Screen shot: The Glenrowan Hotel movie set at the base of Mount Tomaree

Site of the Glenrowan Hotel at the base of Mount Tomaree today [Author photo]

Screen shot: The movie set at the base of Mount Tomaree, with the ‘Tomaree torpedo tube’ to the left of the photo near the yellow crane

Screen shot: Reckless Kelly riding his motorbike (centre right) on the access road to Tomaree Head with Port Stephens in the background

The site of the access road to Tomaree Head today [Author photo]

Screen shot: Reckless Island ‘under tow’– Mount Tomaree backdrop.

Screen shot: a piece of machinery as seen in the movie

The above prop now abandoned in the bush at the base of Mount Tomaree near the movie site [Author photo]

Concluding Comments

Despite the film not being a box-office success, it did provide publicity for the beautiful waters of Port Stephens.

The movie site is an easy ten-minute level walk from the car park at the entrance to Tomaree Lodge, Shoal Bay.

The credits rolled as follows:

Scene shot of the movie credits acknowledging the assistance of the people of Port Stephens

Researched and compiled by Kevin McGuinness

November 2023

POSTSCRIPT

Tourism Australia ‘So Where the Bloody Hell Are You?’ Campaign – 2006

The ‘So Where the Bloody Hell Are You?’ tourism campaign was launched by Tourism Australia in 2006. It featured the model, Lara Bingle and was aimed at attracting overseas tourists to Australia.

Part of the tourism commercial was filmed on the sand spit that connects Fingal Island, where the Point Stephens Lighthouse is located, with Fingal Beach, Port Stephens.

Sand spit connecting Fingal Island with Fingal Beach, Port Stephens [Author photo]

The commercial ends with Lara Bingle stepping out of the ocean and onto the sand spit asking, “So Where the Bloody Hell Are You?”

Lara Bingle filmed on the Fingal Island sand spit at Port Stephens [Tourism Australia]

The campaign received extensive coverage in Australia and abroad. It had a mixed reception, praised for its provocativeness but criticised as inappropriate for tourism. The advertisement was stopped being used in 2008.