Gallery: The Pacific launch

South Melbourne’s Railway Hotel was bustling last night with US Marines, Sailors, War Brides and paperboys selling copies of The Argus.

The Pacific was back in town -well momentarily, anyway.

Seven decked out the old hotel, a location used for the $200m HBO miniseries, to launch its 10 part miniseries.

Squeezed into the tiny venue were stars including Gary Sweet, Zoe Carides, Claire Van Der Boom and Leon Ford.

Jennifer Keyte hosted the evening’s formalities, which included a speech by Seven Melbourne General Manager Lewis Martin and Film Victoria CEO Sandra Sdraulig. Media, VIPs and industry watched on including Seven execs John Holmes and Graeme Hill plus stars from City Homicide and The Bounce.

Gary Sweet spoke about filming with American crews in the Queensland Daintree forest.

“We went to bed at 1am and got up at 6am. We usually rose to the sound of an enormous machine gun,” he said.

Speaking about one US crew member, he said, “He used to say in the morning when it was going off, ‘Hear that boys? That’s the sound of freedom!’

“After about 9 days when you heard the buses coming up the road to take us away you’d say ‘Hey buddy, that’s the sound of freedom!'”

Claire Van Der Boom who appears in scenes set in Melbourne said of the US II Marines, “These American boys arrived, and they had been protecting our borders, and arrived to this great applause.

Playing one of the girls who showed some local hospitality, she said, “It wasn’t such a conservative time as you might think.”

The Pacific premieres 8:30pm Wednesday April 14 on Seven.