The perfect setting for a historical or contemporary Western film, the Barkly region covers an area of 322,713 square kilometres made up of vast grassland savannah, sweeping vistas from the eastern Tablelands and imposing and unique geography in the warm rocky desert climates to the south.

The region also gets an average of 181 clears days annually, with weather patterns clearly defined through the dry and “Wet Season”, meaning minimal need to schedule for wet weather coverage.

As the second largest local government area in Australia, the Barkly covers an area which is 42 per cent larger than Victoria with a population density of just 2 people per square 100km. It’s also a unique demographic with approximately 70 per cent of the people in the region identifying as Indigenous.

With 49 pastoral stations operating in the area, there are huge swathes of private land available for filming on with some of the cattle stations in the area covering thousands of square kilometres and carrying tens of thousands of cattle.

One of these, the Tipperary Station as part of the Tipperary Group of Stations, has sweeping pastoral grasslands and mountain ranges as well as a 2,200 metre sealed airstrip and excellent accommodation facilities available on station for shoots that wish to be self-contained.

Tennant Creek is the largest town of the region, the perfect double for small town New Mexico, and is located on the Stuart Highway 510 kilometres (316 miles) north of Alice Springs and 670 kilometres (416 miles) south of Katherine. Tennant Creek features its own dedicated airport and played an important part of the Australian gold rush; becoming the third largest gold producer in Australia and boasting some of the richest goldfields on the continent.

As such, much of the heritage of this mining infrastructure are still in place – including the Tennant Creek telegraph station built in 1872 from stone quarried from a site nearby. The station consist of the main building, two basement food storage buildings and two smaller dwellings.

Other historical sites include the Battery Hill mining museum, the site of the old No 3 Government Gold Stamp Battery where the 1930’s outback gold rush started, and the Tennant Creek Church of Christ the King which was originally constructed in 1904 in Pine Creek prior to being moved to Tennant Creek.

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