Buildings in the bush were just for show

ORIGINALLY it was pristine bushland, then a quarry and now an airfield but it also hosted TV sets, including one called Five Mile Creek.

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ORIGINALLY it was pristine bushland, then construction giant Boral stripped away the vegetation and soil and ripped up the sandstone for brickies’ sand, and now it’s the airfield of the Warringah Radio Control Society.

But along the way the site in the bush between Oxford Falls and Belrose was also the setting for several TV series, including one called Five Mile Creek.

As photos taken by one of those who helped build the Five Mile Creek sets show, the “buildings” in the bush were merely facades for outdoor shots, while indoor shots were filmed in Eric Porter Studios at North Sydney.

Boral's sand quarry off Morgan Rd in February 1972.

Martin Wale, of Mona Vale, was about 20 when he started working on the sets of Five Mile Creek, three series of which were filmed from 1983-1985.

There appear to have been three outdoor sets – a “harbour” called Port Nelson off the Slippery Dip Trail and a “homestead” and “mining village” that were both near the fire trail that has since become known as the Five Mile Creek Trail.

The two trails are in different watersheds – the creek near the Slippery Dip Trail flows into Middle Creek, while the creek near the Five Mile Trail and now called Five Mile Creek flows into Deep Creek – although both eventually wend their way down to Narrabeen Lagoon.

The Five Mile Creek was looselly based on a book by Louis L’Amour. Picture courtesy: Martin Wale

The “buildings” were merely facades for outdoor shots, while indoor shots were filmed in Eric Porter Studios at North Sydney. Picture courtesy: Martin Wale

Five Mile Creek was a Henry Crawford/Disney production for the American market and was loosely based on a book, The Cherokee Trail, by Louis L’Amour.

Born Louis LaMoore in 1908, L’Amour became one of America’s most prolific writers of Western novels, which he preferred to call “frontier stories”, but he also wrote historical fiction and even science fiction.

The production featured several well-known actors, including Nicole Kidman and Asher Keddie. Picture courtesy: Martin Wale

By the time he died in 1988, aged 80, L’Amour had published 89 novels, 14 short-story collections and two full-length works of non-fiction.

About 40 of L’Amour’s novels were adapted for or inspired productions for both the large and small screen, including The Cherokee Trail.

Altogether 39 episodes in three series of Five Mile Creek were shot in Australia, two series at Belrose and one in Melbourne.

The Five Mile Creek set with the airfield in the background. Picture courtesy: Martin Wale

The series was a frontier saga set in the gold rush of the 1850s and was centred around an attempt by local and American settlers to establish a stage coach line through the goldfields.

A director of the first series, Frank Arnold, said the Australian production was written by Australian writers and had little connection to The Cherokee Trail.

Over the three series, the production featured several well-known actors and several who became well known, including Rod Mullinar, Liz Burch, Michael Caton, Gus Mercurio, Martin Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Scott McGregor and Asher Keddie, and American actors Louise Caire-Clark, Jay Kerr, Priscilla Weems and Jonathan Frakes.

The set designers and architects relied heavily on the State Library of NSW’s Holtermann Collection for historical accuracy. Picture courtesy: Martin Wale

Mr Wale, who was a labourer and lunch boy working on the sets, said the Port Nelson set was near what is now the Warringah Radio Control Society airfield near the Slippery Dip Trail and featured “ships’ masts” visible behind “dockside” buildings.

He said the other two sets, the homestead and the mining village, were near the Five Mile Creek Trail in the next valley.

He said the homestead set comprised a homestead, a bark-clad kitchen, a water well, stables, a blacksmith’s forge, a chicken coop and an outbuilding for stock hands.

Meanwhile the mining village set comprised large and small pit-heads, a tea and coffee tent, a butchery, a general store, a licence agent’s hut, the Cricketer’s Arms Hotel, a supply store, a boarding house, a police station and a smithy.

All the sets were designed by George Liddle.

Thirty-nine episodes in three series of Five Mile Creek were shot in Australia. Picture courtesy: Martin Wale

Mr Wale said the set designers and architects relied heavily on the State Library of NSW’s Holtermann Collection for historical accuracy.

Bernhardt Holtermann was a successful gold miner, businessman and politician whose biggest claim to fame was his association with the Holtermann Nugget, the largest gold specimen ever found – 1.5m long and weighing 286kg – that was found at Hill End, near Bathurst.

Gus Mercurio on the set of Five Mile Creek.

Holtermann used some of his wealth to finance photographers Beaufoy Merlin and Charles Bayliss, who photographed widely across NSW and interstate, and whose UNESCO-listed collection of 3000 wet-plate glass negatives is held by the State Library of NSW.

Mr Wale remembers that the Warringah Radio Control Society’s airfield was being developed at the time and that the owners of the model planes had to be politely asked to temporarily ground their planes while filming was in progress.

Five Mile Creek was just one of a number of TV series filmed in the bush between Frenchs Forest, Oxford Falls, Belrose and Ingleside, including Whiplash, Ben Hall, Rush and The Haunted School.

Over the years, the fire trail that passed the Five Mile Creek homestead and mining village sets came to be known as the Five Mile Creek Trail and in 2011 that connection was taken a step further when the creek near those sets was officially recognised as Five Mile Creek by the Geographical Names Board. This was following a suggestion in 2009 by Belrose resident Donald Carr, who gained the support of Warringah Council.

At the time the board agreed to Mr Carr’s suggestion, he told the Manly Daily that the board normally identified creeks less than 3km long as gullies, rather than creeks, but the fact a film series of that name had been filmed there was enough to convince the board to recognise the name.