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What happens to Neighbours studio at Nunawading?

"Everyone's asking 'What's happening to the Kennedy painting?'" says producer Jason Herbison.

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A number of readers have been asking about the future of the Nunawading studios now that Neighbours has concluded.

The building, which won an architectural award in 1965, was given a heritage overlay by Whitehorse Council in 2016.

Executive Producer Jason Herbison tells TV Tonight, “We have it to the end of the year and we’ll be utilising it for some other things between now and the end of the year. But I don’t know what’s going to happen to the site beyond that.

“Everyone’s asking ‘What’s happening to the Kennedy painting? What’s happening to the couch?’ We don’t know, but we’ve had a lot of interest. Various museums, for example, have reached out to us.

“I would like to think very important props, for example, will find a home somewhere. But these are decisions we’ve got a little bit of time to make, because we have the site till the end of the year.”

The future is less clear for the backlot: Lassiters complex (originally built for 1981’s Holiday Island), the 2013 construction of  full-size backyards of Ramsay Street houses plus the ‘Power Road’ streetscape facade of ‘Grease Monkeys’ and Fitzgerald Motors (previously Carpenters Mechanics).

Over several decades the site was home to  Prisoner, Young Talent Time, Rove Live, The Magic Circle Club, Holiday Island, The Comedy Company, Carson’s Law, The Box, Kommotion, The Early Bird Show and TEN Eyewitness News.

 

13 Responses

  1. I have a feeling that It’s a Knockout was also filmed there, I can remember seeing the tiered seating and the bright lights from our home.

  2. … every other television factory in the world has gone the way of the bulldozer … I’m talking about sites like BBC Television Centre, LWT, Thames and Granada in the UK, many of the US network studios and, of course, Australian sites like ABC Gore Hill and Ripponlea, ATN7, GTV9, TEN10 … the list goes on … notwithstanding a “heritage overlay” from the local council, ATV0 will join them … money talks …

    1. Sadly you are right CJ, ATV will probably become some sort of housing/town houses estate.
      Haven’t been there in a long long while, but I understand that suburbia has grown up all around the site, compared to it’s early days when there was just empty land and even farms out there.
      It was state of the art when built, but now just suitable for dramas/soaps or smaller uses since the once “big” studios are now too small for contemporary shiny floor shows that are built around the “scale” expected for prime time entertainment programming styles in 2022 (eg The Voice, Ninja et al).

      Also sadly, I can’t see the stations & studios on Mt Coot-tha lasting past the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. Word is that they’ll all be relocated to the Host Broadcaster facilities at Southbank after the event, then the existing buildings will be re-purposed for tourism (restaurants, zipp-lines, parks & wildlife displays etc) or returned to nature (amenity bases, parking etc for walking trails and so…

      1. … the problem for Mt Coot-tha is that the land has a specific zoning for television that is required to revert to parkland should they leave … in all the other situations the television companies haven’t just left the sites, they’ve made heaps of money selling them to developers which is what has actually driven the decision-making rather than any television-related consideration … not only are those multi-million dollar benefits not available to the networks in this case, but they will also have multi-million dollar costs to remediate the sites … if any politician thinks they can swing a law through to get around that to the benefit of the current occupiers they are kidding themselves (and I speak from actual experience dealing with Mt Coot-tha land/building approvals) … rock meet hard place !!!

        1. Word I heard is that the fix is definitely in. Qld State Govt & particularly the Bris CC are actively planning to make any of the old land covenants, zoning and subsequent vegetation rehabilitation costs go away. And the networks really want to move to the city, lease & downsize. Sad for the old historical TV buildings/production studios on the mountain. And the Olympics Organising Committee eventually gets much of the financial outlays building the HBC offset by the sale or lease-back when the networks take over the site post Games, thus contributing to reducing the overall cost of the Games to taxpayers. It was part of the pitch to get the Games that they will be much more cost-effective than the billions spent previously in other cities.

  4. I was there for the 1979 Grand Final episode of Young Talent Time. There is so much TV history there. It will be a shame to see it go. It’s a bit of a sad side effect of the lack of creativity in modern television. I guess you don’t need as many sets when everything is reality.

  5. I think it needs to be kept as is and be used as an outdoor film set for future projects, similar to a Warner bros and universal outdoor sets.

  7. Enjoying the Neighbours related posts on TV Tonight, you are asking all the right questions David.
    Driving past the chain link fence at Channel 10 Nunawading or having a dinner at the old Keg Restaurant on the perimeter, I always wanted to get in as a kid and have a look, see the old Prisoner walls and see how Neighbours was made. Its a real slice of suburban Melbourne circa 1960′ to 1980’s out there around the Burvale Hotel, Pinoak Court and Channel 0/10 . Rapidly changing and disappearing too.

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