{"id":732630,"date":"2026-06-12T21:16:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T21:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/732630\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T21:16:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T21:16:22","slug":"agnes-water-films-time-capsule-documentary-to-record-life-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/732630\/","title":{"rendered":"Agnes Water films ‘time capsule’ documentary to record life in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Schoolchildren starring in a documentary about their quaint hometown on the Queensland coast hope the publicity does not change what they love about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As filmmakers set up to shoot a documentary in Agnes Water, four student leaders at the local state school could not contain their excitement.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Filmmakers, including director James Latter (bottom right), are capturing the essence of the community. (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

The film is intended to capture modern-day life in the historical towns of Agnes Water and Seventeen Seventy, about 500km north of Brisbane.<\/p>\n

“Agnes is a small place and knowing that people are coming to film Agnes, even though it’s really small, is really cool,” school captain Phoebe Glasson, 11 said.<\/p>\n

The area has fewer than 3,000 residents, but it has experienced something of a population boom since the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Beautiful beaches are a major drawcard for people relocating to Agnes Water and Seventeen Seventy. (Supplied: Gladstone Area Promotion and Development Limited)<\/p>\n

Nieve Maluga, 11, said Agnes was a place where “it almost feels like we’re all a big family”.<\/p>\n

Byron Mulligan from the Heart of Agnes Community Association said the Brisbane film crew travelled north to create the documentary as a visual time capsule.<\/p>\n

He said the population growth and the pandemic had caused some social division, and the documentary had helped to bring people together.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Byron Mulligan says making the documentary has been a special experience. (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

The most recent census data showed the population grew 25 per cent, by about 600 people, between 2016 and 2021.<\/p>\n

“It’s very special to have newer residents and older residents come out and share what’s important to them about Agnes and Seventeen Seventy,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’re hoping [the documentary] will also speak to other communities that have experienced population growth and a cultural shift.”<\/p>\n

Loading…Local vs tourist perspective<\/p>\n

In the film, students showcase the area through meaningful items they have collected.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Student leaders (from top left) Logan Aitken, Nieve Maluga, Siena Loader and Phoebe Glasson. (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

Nieve said it had been nerve-wracking but fun.<\/p>\n

Some admitted to hoping the publicity would not change the essence of their town.<\/p>\n

“It’s very, very cruisy. I really like it here, I like how it’s not busy,” Logan Aitken, 12, said.<\/p>\n

Siena Loader, 11, said it was great to showcase the community’s perspective.<\/p>\n

“It’s very different being a tourist here to being an actual local,” she said.<\/p>\n

Mr Mulligan said most public information available about the town was aimed at tourists, but that was not the intent of the documentary.<\/p>\n

“If people do take it as an invitation, the nature and the spirit of the documentary is to act like an induction kind of document,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Leigh Tankey relishes the opportunity to capture this moment in time. (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

Agnes Water State School head of curriculum, Leigh Tankey, said it was a “great opportunity to show how special and beautiful our school is and our town and community”.<\/p>\n

“It’s pretty special because I’m a mum, I have three kids and [when] we look back \u2026 10 years goes by in a flash,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Andrew Collis says the town is continuing to change. (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

Principal Andrew Collis said while the school was classified as isolated, it was growing at a fast rate.<\/p>\n

“What’s happening here and now will be very different from what the town is like in 10, 20, 30 years from now,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Kids learning about the history of the town and the place that they’ve grown up in is very important.”<\/p>\n

Remembering history<\/p>\n

While the documentary is focused on the present day, it also tells the story of Agnes Water and Seventeen Seventy’s origins.<\/p>\n

Captain James Cook’s second landing on Australian soil occurred in the region’s bay on May 24, 1770.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

Captain Cook explored Round Hill Head, the lagoon and creek on May 24, 1770. (Supplied: VMR Round Hill)<\/p>\n

It was not until the area was subdivided almost three centuries later that housing development really began.<\/p>\n

A once-weekly mail run was established in the 1970s, and the main road into town was only sealed in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Museum president Ian Richardson said the area once had basic shops, a state school, “and that really was it for a long time”.<\/p>\n

“It was a place to visit for the quietness and the good fishing,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said the town’s population would swell over the holidays in the early days, but now tourists were consistently present.<\/p>\n

The filmmakers will soon enter post-production mode, with a public screening scheduled for December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Schoolchildren starring in a documentary about their quaint hometown on the Queensland coast hope the publicity does not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[25352,354413,64,63,354410,1691,134,23126,291673,344,701,354411,354412],"class_list":["post-732630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-agnes-water","tag-agnes-water-state-school","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-community-documentary","tag-documentary","tag-entertainment","tag-filming","tag-filmmakers","tag-movies","tag-queensland","tag-seventeen-seventy","tag-time-capsule"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732630","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=732630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}