Making of a new version of Storm Boy promises fresh interest in Coorong and an economic boost for Goolwa
EVERY pelican that glides on to Goolwa Wharf is called Mr Percival. It just comes with the territory. Now the town is gearing for a tourism rebirth, as filming starts on a new version of Storm Boy
EVERY pelican that glides on to Goolwa Wharf is called Mr Percival. It just comes with the territory.
Storm Boy, the story of a Coorong boy and his feathered friend, has become special to generations of young Australians everywhere, but here that tale is utterly cherished.
Fewer than 2500 people live in the River Murray town nestled between the freshwater calm and the ferocity of the Southern Ocean, where river and sea combine to create the ethereal estuarine wilderness of the Coorong, and even if not all of them have seen the movie or read the late Colin Thiele’s book, few would fail to relate to it. And it seems the little town is looking forward to its next chapter.
As cinematic types descend on the little hamlet in numbers that might temporarily boost its population by 10 per cent, Goolwa knows it is a tourist town and that they will both spend money and make a movie that is effectively a sumptuous advertisement for a travel destination. After all, it’s happened before.
According to Michael Veenstra, the son of Coorong Cruises boating legend Jock Veenstra, the original Storm Boy “put the Coorong on the map and Goolwa, to a certain extent, on the map”.
“Certainly, my family’s business has been benefiting from it for the past 40 years,” said Mr Veenstra, who has taken thousands of people through the unique Coorong system, the main setting for the new movie.
“A whole generation of people stopped coming to the Coorong because of the (last) drought, because they couldn’t get access through the lock, they couldn’t get access past the (River Murray) mouth. That might change again with the new movie,” he told The Advertiser on a typically windswept winter’s day on the Goolwa waterfront.
Mr Veenstra expects the new movie to again make stars of the pelicans of the Coorong, Australia’s largest breeding ground for the giant birds.
“At the moment, I’ve never seen so many pelicans in the Coorong,” he said. “There are thousands of them. I think over 3000 pelican chicks hatch here every year.”
On the deck of the restored Oscar W paddlesteamer, riverboat veteran Dave Finnie knows well the appeal of the local landscape and why the new movie will introduce it to a new generation.
“You could be 10 or fifteen minutes up the Coorong, and you’d think you’re in the middle of nowhere,” he said. “The Coorong’s a magic place.”
“I think for all country towns it’s important to keep the small-town charm but, let’s face it, the more tourism you can get into the town, the more chance that town has of surviving and the more money it has to ... keep the businesses going.
A little downstream at the Armfield Slip and Boatshed, where volunteers restore wooden vessels in the name of heritage, retired journalist Bob Jennings checks the ropes on HideAway, the boat used in the original Storm Boy.
“After filming, that boat passed through various hands and ended up very derelict and some of our blokes came across it about ten years ago in a very, very sad state ... so over a period of about four or five years they totally rebuilt it,” he said. The boatshed crew, along with some other specialised organisations in the town, are involved in the new production, though all have been sworn to secrecy on what exactly their roles are.
Mr Jennings says the short-term business activity that comes with a film crew will be welcome, but that the publicity will be of longer-term benefit.
“The place really is based on tourism, it’s the main economic driver. Anything that brings people in, especially outside of normal holiday periods, has got to be good for the town and good for business,” he said.
Above the crashing surf on Goolwa Beach, one of those businesses, the Bombora cafe, is already popular with locals and tourists alike, and proprietor Joel Cousins, who grew up in the area, knows why.
“We lived in Adelaide for a little while and then we moved back down here and we completely appreciate what we’ve got down here,” he said
“It’s magical, we have the wonders of the world here, having the ocean and the fresh water right at your doorstep.
“As a kid going fishing, especially with my grandfather, we’d go carp fishing with a piece of corn on a hook. We’d catch a carp and a pelican would come along, throw him the carp and it was an easy catch for him. Growing up with the pelicans has been pretty cool.”
And it is a great place for kids, according to local couple John Taylor and Eva Lukic, whose grandchildren, Miles, 9, and Pheobe, 7, love to visit from Adelaide. The Advertiser found the family kicking a footy around the picturesque park where the great concrete barrages keep the sea from pushing up into the river, and where the pelicans and other waterbirds routinely gather to feed.
Ms Lukic says Storm Boy was a great movie “because it does highlight the country and I do think that the country’s a really good place for kids. Our grandchildren just adore it down here, because they don’t have to worry about cars or whatever
“It just gives them another persepective to their lives ... and it just gives them a breather.”
Mr Taylor said he liked how the story related “to the wildnerness and nature and the local people” and he says that package beats anything the city can provide.
“Cities are only there as a necessity, arent’ they, to get a lot of people together to work in factoriess,” he said.
“Everyone would live out here if they could.”
Not everyone can live there, but plenty do visit the region. Alexandrina Council Mayor Keith Parkes points out that of the 6,080,000 visitors to South Australia in the year ending September 2015, the Fleurieu Peninsula region had the highest visitation (2.2 million) of any region other than Adelaide. Alexandrina has 187 registered tourism businesses of the 678 registered on the Fleurieu.
“We are very pleased and excited to see Storm Boy return to the Alexandrina community,” Mr Parkes said.
“We are a much loved region with many iconic and historic locations and expect the release of the film to boost tourism and visitation. The South Australian Tourism Plan 2020 sets a target of increasing tourism visitor spend in the state by $2 billion, to $8 billion, by 2020. Currently Fleurieu Peninsula expenditure is $428m (to December 2015) and the full potential in 2020 is $683m.”
Back on the wharf, where all the pelicans are Mr Percival, Hector’s cafe staff member Nicole Bailey, is at 29 too young to remember all the fuss over the original movie, but understands the power it still holds in this part of the country.
“We actually had the gentleman who was in the original film (indigenous screen legend David Gulpilil) come in and everybody recognised him and he created a lot of buzz,” she said
“A lot of people did recognise him and came up to him and they took photos and that sort of thing.”
She will be serving more breakfasts, lunches and coffees as a result of the new production and knows it will be good for her town, but she also worries that it might one day become too popular.
“I moved to Adelaide for ten years and now that I’m back I really appreciate that lifestyle and relaxed atmosphere and being so lucky to be close to the beach and surrounded by water. (The lifestyle) just makes people very happy, more easy going and relaxing,” she said.
“I do worry that it’s going to change eventually, but hopefully slowly.”
And hopefully those pelicans will always be there.
“Sometimes in the morning there’ll be one and he just sits there and everyone goes over to him and takes photos and he loves it, just stands there and takes all the attention,” Ms Bailey said.
And, of course, everyone calls him Mr Percival.