Season One of ABC Studios TV crime drama Reef Break is broadcasting and streaming on demand in the US now.

Set on a Pacific island paradise, the Gold Coast in South East Queensland proved the perfect location. The production was attracted to the Gold Coast Australia by its ideal locations, talented crew and cast, experienced businesses and service providers and attractive incentives, including the Queensland Government’s Production Attraction Strategy through Screen Queensland as well as the Federal Government and City of Gold Coast. The City of Gold Coast is the only city council in Australia to have a film attraction incentive program that is in addition to state and federal programs.

The five month-long shoot established its base at stages 2, 3 and 4 at Village Roadshow Studios – one of the largest studios in in the Southern Hemisphere, with nine sound stages with an overall floor area of 15,380.7m2 (156,775.21 sq ft), three water tanks, production offices, wardrobe, makeup, construction workshops and more. The Gold Coast is home to highly-skilled and experienced crew due to decades of high-end productions in the region including recent back-to-back productions in the past five years such as Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Godzilla vs Kong, Aquaman and Thor:Ragnarok, to name just a few.

The Gold Coast as well as nearby Brisbane provided a range of suitable locations including golden sand beaches, tropical jungle, casinos and hotels, riverbanks, jails and airports:

• Broadbeach, Gold Coast – Streets, Surf Club, Hotel, Nightclub
• Main Beach, Gold Coast – Beaches, Marina, Restaurant, Streets
• Tamborine Mountain, Gold Coast Hinterland – Jungle, Resort
• Moreton Bay Marine Park, Cleveland – Sandy Riverbanks
• Boggo Road Gaol, Brisbane (heritage site)
• ­Archerfield Airport, Brisbane – Terminal Building & Runway (heritage art deco)

The City of Gold Coast and Brisbane are part of a network of affiliated film friendly councils that support visiting productions, by cutting red tape and streamlining approval processes for filming as well as connecting productions with on-the-ground businesses and service providers.  

Post-production including editorial, picture post, sound and VFX were delivered by Queensland companies including The Post Lounge and Resin. These experienced, local post facilities enabled a convenient, speedy, high quality delivery.  

Executive Producer and star of Reef Break Poppy Montgomery said that filming in Queensland was a clear front-runner in terms of locations, experienced local crew, incentives and facilities.

“ABC Studios and I decided that Queensland was the best state pretty much out of the gate. ”

“The list is sort of endless. The look of it, the people, the access, the weather, the facilities.“

“I would 100% recommend Queensland as a destination to other filmmakers.”

Poppy Montgomery

The show is currently on air in the US on Thursdays 10|9c ABC.

For more information on Reef Break, as well as Screen Queensland production attraction incentives, contact:

Gina Black
EVP – Production Incentive and Attraction
Screen Queensland
[email protected]
+61 7 3248 0504
www.screenqueensland.com.au

Reef Break premiere 15 July 2019, Home of The Arts (HOTA) for the Gold Coast Film Festival.

Reef Break premiered 15 July 2019, Home of The Arts (HOTA) for the Gold Coast Film Festival.

Images and video: courtesy of ABC Studios International