Faraway Downs Homestead / AUSTRALIA.

ART DIRECTION

Title: Designing Faraway Downs: The iconic homestead from AUSTRALIA

At our first meeting with Baz, he expressed his desire for the homestead design to be as iconic as the house from PSYCHO and REATA from GIANT.

The name Faraway Downs comes from THE WIZARD OF OZ movie, which is a theme that runs through the film. The land is 'far, far away', just as Dorothy muses before she gets transported to Oz. Oz, of course, is a slang term for Australia.

We constructed the exterior of the house in Kununurra, Western Australia, while the interior was built on Stage 7 at Fox Studios in Sydney. We replicated the garden as closely as possible, given the available space in the sound stage.

We created an old, decrepit house first, and then a new, fixed-up version after Lady Ashley decides to stay and has the money from the successful drove.

The house is based on Queenslander-style houses from the tropical north of Australia, but it was stripped back to match the houses built in northern desert regions. Despite being pared back, it still had to be pretty and romantic enough for Nicole's character, Lady Ashley, to fall in love with and want to stay.

We decided that the house was built in 1896 and replaced an older version that we see briefly in one scene.

An interesting detail is the sunburst fretwork in the entrance gable over the front steps. The sunburst was commonly used during the pre-federation/federation times of 1890-1910 as a symbol of a new sunrise and the birth of the new nation. Ironically, the sunburst was also used by the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II, the period in which our story takes

place.

Another detail is the addition of the pavilion in the corner, which Baz referred to as the "Tea Spot." In our story, it was added in the 1920s and has different sweeps, brackets, and balustrading than the established homestead.

Classic Queenslander houses are raised off the ground on stumps to catch the breezes. Large overhangs on the verandas and extra awnings on some elevations help to keep the sun off the interior walls. The roofs are large and are vented to let hot air rise and escape out of the roof, which can draw air in and create a breeze. All the houses have a breezeway that runs from front to back, and the exterior doors have shutters so that they can be closed for safety while still allowing the breeze to flow.

We modelled the house in CAD to ensure that it was the correct height from the ground for the shots Baz wanted and that the "Tea Spot" had the view he wanted of House Roof Hill. We also adjusted the scale of everything to suit Nicole and Hugh, who are both over 180cm tall.

Having been lucky enough to grow up in a house like this, it was a joy to design and an honour to have been part of the process from start to finish.

Lady Ashley: "Let's go home."

Drover: "There's no place like it."

AWARDS: AACTA AWARD - Winner / Best Production Design

SATELLITE AWARD - Winner / Best Art Direction and Production Design