{"id":553477,"date":"2026-03-20T19:53:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T19:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/553477\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T19:53:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T19:53:17","slug":"everything-is-that-bit-more-extreme-including-the-weather-behind-the-scenes-on-deadloch-season-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/553477\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cEverything is that bit more extreme, including the weather\u201d: Behind the scenes on Deadloch season two"},"content":{"rendered":"

There must have been a lot of bemused looks on the faces of the grey nomads who rolled into the tiny historic town of Batchelor on the outskirts of Litchfield National Park in late 2024.<\/p>\n

Originally known as Rum Jungle, the town, situated 98km out of Darwin, has had a chequered history to say the least. It\u2019s been an air base, a \u201cdemonstration farm\u201d, and has the dubious honour of being Australia\u2019s first uranium mining town.<\/p>\n

These days it\u2019s pretty empty \u2014 a 2016 census had the town\u2019s population sitting at just 507 people \u2014 though plenty of travellers still pass through on their way to Litchfield.<\/p>\n

Those who did in September 2024 must have been left scratching their heads: the general store sign is covered up, the neon-lit banner replaced with one that reads Barra Creek Tavern.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a giant billboard advertising something called \u201cDon Darrell\u2019s Best Best Jumping Croc Tours\u201d, touting the area as the \u201cHome of King, the largest croc in the NT\u201d. There\u2019s also a giant graffiti penis on said sign.<\/p>\n

Yep, Deadloch has rolled into town. Batchelor is now Barra Creek, the fictional setting for the second season of Prime Video\u2019s international smash hit comedy.<\/p>\n

\"OutsideCamera IconOutside the Barra Creek Tavern are Madeleine Sami, Kate Box, Kate McLennan, Kate McCartney, Nina Oyama and Alicia Gardiner. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cWe own it for a couple of weeks,\u201d says Helen O\u2019Loan, the show\u2019s production designer, showing PLAY around the town\u2019s old general store, doubling for the Barra Creek Tavern, when we visited the set.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a crew base during filming, \u201cand yes, we have had a few people wandering in, wanting beers\u201d, she laughs, also telling us that \u201ca couple of wild brumbies\u201d have also mosied by during filming.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s steamingly hot on the day we cruise in. Everyone\u2019s gathered at the tavern en masse, including Aussie comedy legends Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney, who write and showrun the series.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re busily dashing around, doing rewrites on the run, answering a million questions, fielding flustered but friendly \u201chellos\u201d to the assembled journalists on set, who are sheltering along with cast and crew in that air-conditioned sanctuary. Somewhere in the background a props person wanders past with a metres-long rubber croc.<\/p>\n

\"AliciaCamera IconAlicia Gardiner and Kate Box on set. Credit: Prime Video<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t concentrate in a scene yesterday, the sweat was literally dripping down my back,\u201d says series star Alicia Gardiner, who is chatting during a break from filming.<\/p>\n

The first season of Deadloch was filmed in Tasmania, but season two sees the two central detective characters, Dulcie (Kate Box) and Eddie (Madeleine Sami), plus Gardiner\u2019s Cath, Dulcie\u2019s sweet-natured partner, heading to the Top End to investigate the death of Eddie\u2019s one-time partner, Bushy.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve arrived in Barra Creek, the setting for a new mystery involving dismembered body parts, two warring croc-wrangling families, a couple of missing backpackers and plenty of errant crocodiles, one of which is that fake rubber one we\u2019ve just seen being carried past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis series feels so different,\u201d says Gardiner, \u201cfor a start, it was freezing in season one!<\/p>\n

\u201cI was looking at photos today of us all just huddled up like penguins, trying to stay warm, and this is the exact opposite of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had two showers last night to try and clean my feet,\u201d says Madeleine Sami, who has joined the chat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a week into filming now, and I\u2019m thinking I\u2019m going to have to get some sort of scrubbing device, because that dust is so fine and it sticks to everything because we\u2019re all lathered up in sunscreen. We are really up in it here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

She\u2019s right. There really is no escaping the hot, steamy, sultriness of The Top End during \u201cThe Build Up\u201d, that time before the wet season begins in earnest.<\/p>\n

The feeling has been written into season two, lending an oppressive, leaden atmosphere to Deadloch\u2019s hilariously watchable, blackly funny story.<\/p>\n

Everyone\u2019s always hot, and flustered, cranky and chafing from some sort of rash. It makes for hilarious viewing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe expression up here is \u2018going troppo\u2019 and I think that pretty much sums up this season,\u201d Sami says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is that bit more extreme, including the weather.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are more threads and more stories; more mysteries going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think the heat, just shooting here in it, changes your performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re out there, dealing with 38 degrees, 95 per cent humidity, it takes some acclimatising, and when we watch it back, we all go, \u2018Oh yeah, that\u2019s some different acting from me \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just \u2026 feels different.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LukeCamera IconLuke Hemsworth stars as a croc wrangler in Deadloch season two. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

And therein lies the charm: Deadloch season two is a million miles from the moody atmospherics of season one, yet somehow the essence of the show remains intact. The characters are every bit as quirky and compelling, but this time with added Top End flavour.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tropical gothic. And Batchelor is the perfect setting for the insanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very exciting (to see it all play out),\u201d says Box, who won an AACTA for her portrayal of Eddie\u2019s stitched-up partner, Dulcie.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like we got to see Dulcie and Eddie in a \u2018noir\u2019 setting (for season one), and now the audience is kind of getting to know them in a western. It\u2019s really different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creating the strange, tropical world in season two was quite an undertaking for The Kates and their crew, who worked for months before filming began to get everything right.<\/p>\n

They looked at a number of locations, but once they arrived in Batchelor, they knew they\u2019d found their Barra Creek.<\/p>\n

\"NinaCamera IconNina Oyama, right, returns for season two. Credit: Prime Video<\/p>\n

Batchelor lies in the shire of Coomalie and the traditional owners of the land surrounding the town are the Warrai and Kungarakany peoples. The Kates met with local filmmaker Cian McCue, who went on to become the show\u2019s Indigenous community engagement officer and an associate producer on the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey invited me up for a coffee when they first came up here, about 12 months ago,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have that local knowledge of where it\u2019s OK to film, and permissions that are needed, so that\u2019s how I came into the frame.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn top of everything we\u2019ve been doing, we have been trying to get a bit of community engagement going as well, and I have got some young fellas from an at-risk youth program coming up to check out the set.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Deadloch is at heart a darkly funny crime drama, it doesn\u2019t shy away from thornier messaging. Season one had some interesting things to say about misogyny, homophobia and the politics of small-town life. Season two weighs in on issues of race, kinship care and crime in the Top End, all with the show\u2019s signature light tone.<\/p>\n

There is no shortage of Fs and C-bombs, and if anything, the manic energy is notched up a level \u2014 but there are still so many layers to the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the brilliance of the Kates\u2019 writing,\u201d says Sami. \u201cThey have an amazing, crass, comedic voice, but then there is that beautiful political undercurrent as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a dream to be a part of something like that, because you get to have a play on the surface, but then you also get to kind of hit something home. \u201c<\/p>\n

Box agrees: \u201cThey draw you in with s…s and giggles and then start talking about something wildly important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best of all, it\u2019s bloody funny; maybe even more so than the wildly successful first season, which topped Prime\u2019s streaming charts internationally, winning legions of fans in the process.<\/p>\n

\"BatchelorCamera IconBatchelor visitors may have been left scratching their heads at this strange sign. Credit: Clare Rigden<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll have to wait to find out how Barra Creek Tavern, that graffitied sign and the long, rubber croc play into the story, but trust us when we tell you: you\u2019re in for a treat.<\/p>\n

\u201cCrocs. Bugs, dirt, heat rash, lesbians,\u201d Box laughs when we ask her to describe this season in a few words.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, but seriously, it really hits your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything from season one is levelled up,\u201d Sami adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be a blast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deadloch season two is streaming now on Prime Video<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There must have been a lot of bemused looks on the faces of the grey nomads who rolled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-553477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}