Pistol and boo: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s dogs who were smuggled into Australia in 2015

Everybody knows the story of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s dogs were smuggled into Australia and Barnaby Joyce’s threat to put them down. This is the real story of how they were found

The Gold Coast film sector has grown dramatically in the past decade.

A new studio is planned for Pimpama in the city’s far north, while a new post-production facility is being created by the council at Miami with Baz Luhrmann’s outfit Bazmark to be its first tenant.

It’s an exciting time for the sector, which was only at the early stages of its revival a decade ago this week when perhaps its greatest and most bizarre scandal occurred.

The filming of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales was beset by strange occurrences almost from the beginning.

Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp)

A man dressed in a pirate costume with a parrot on his shoulder attempted to break into the set at Helensvale, in an incident later declared the “cutlass wonder”.

Star Johnny Depp injured himself, forcing filming to be suspended while he recovered.

He and his then-wife Amber Heard returned to the Gold Coast in April 2015 on a private jet so filming could resume.

It was just a month in May that year when it was revealed that the pair had brought their pet Yorkshire terriers Pistol and Boo into the country without declaring them and kept them at Mick Doohan’s Coomera mansion, where the couple were staying at the time.

The revelation of the dogs’ presence in Australia came after they were pictured on social media after attending the Happy Dogz grooming business at Maudsland.

Pistol and Boo leaving Australia in 2015.

Owner Lianne Kent did not get to meet either actor but posed for photos with the pair of dogs.

“They wanted the dogs groomed somewhere that’s a bit more private and we’re right near the set anyway,” she told the Bulletin at the time.

Just two days later, the Department of Agriculture launched an investigation into the incident, and warned the dogs could either be shipped back to the US or face being put down.

Then agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce made the threat bluntly at a press conference the following day.

“It’s time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States,” he said at the time.

Mr Joyce slammed the actor for breaching biosecurity laws while the government had allowed monkeys into the country for the film

Minister for Agriculture and Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce in 2015. Picture: Ray Strange.

“He (Johnny Depp) knows the drill,” Mr Joyce said.

“We bent over backwards for the (pirate) monkeys, so they in particular should be very familiar with Australia’s quarantine laws.

“They came in on their own private jet and they have to have the proper paperwork and do what law-abiding Australians do with their own pets.

“The department is now conducting an investigation.”

The dogs were rapidly spirited out of the country within 72 hours on a private jet while the actors remained behind to finish the film.

Johnny Depp and wife Amber Heard leave The Southport Court, Southport, Queensland, . (AAP Image/Glenn Hunt)

That wasn’t the end of the saga however, after Heard was charged with illegally importing the dogs.

The couple returned to the Gold Coast in April 2016 to face Southport Magistrates Court where they braved the largest media scrum in the city’s history to appear before magistrate Bernadette Callaghan for a planned four-day trial.

Johnny Depp and Amber Heard apologises for not declaring their dogs Pistol and Boo during a stay on the Gold Coast in 2015

Heard was discharged with no conviction and a one-month $1000 good behaviour bond after Ms Callaghan determined the actor had not set out to deceive authorities.

“We’re very happy,’’ Depp said as they left the court surrounded by security guards.

The pair were then forced to film a widely mocked “hostage video” apology in their Palazzo Versace hotel room after cutting a deal with the government.

Heard filed for divorce from Depp the following month, which became official in 2017.

Originally published as Pistol and boo: Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s dogs who were smuggled into Australia in 2015