Brisbane boy swallows television universe

Designing a 1980s Queensland nostalgia trip for Netflix 

Brisbane's star has burned bright during a global cultural moment plucked from the big imagination of author Trent Dalton and his childhood in the south-western suburb of Darra. 

Capturing the authentic vibe of 1980s Brisbane for Netflix’s adaptation of Dalton’s bestselling novel Boy Swallows Universe took meticulous research, with State Library of Queensland playing its own small part. 

Production designer Michelle McGahey and her team browsed the State Library of Queensland collection and newspaper archives for visual cues. They pored over internet sources, old magazines and Dalton’s family photo albums. 

‘We needed to instantly feel at the opening of episode one that it was not all kittens and rainbows in our Darra,’ said McGahey, whose credits include The Matrix (1999) and the Ron Howard-directed thriller Eden recently filmed on the Gold Coast. 

‘With resources such as State Library, early issues of The Courier-Mail and The Australian Women's Weekly, and photographic references of vehicles, graphics, costumes and hairstyles, we were able to bring to life the detailed world of Boy Swallows Universe.’ 

Teenager Eli Bell’s escapades through the criminal underworld are sprinkled with blasts from an Australian 80s kid’s past: dragster bikes, Space Invaders, cassette recorders, Mad magazine, acid-wash denim, rotary phones, Tang, Quik and the evergreen mullet.   

The 7-part TV series sparkles with 1980s Brisbane nostalgia and has inspired locals to explore filming locations across the city. 

One reference point for the show’s designers was a State Library collection gathered in the 1960s and 70s by Frank and Eunice Corley in fittingly cinematic fashion: driving around Queensland in a pink Cadillac capturing and developing images for postcards or calendars they sold to homeowners. 

‘It was almost enough’  

The Corey Explorer, a State Library database of over 61,000 house images, holds crowd-sourced family stories behind the homes and preserves a snapshot of how they looked pre-renovation or demolition. 

The low-set timber-framed houses documented by the Corleys in Darra typified Dalton’s childhood home. ‘The style of housing was simple, meagre, tidy and maintainable,’ McGahey said. ‘It was almost enough: 2 bedrooms, kitchen, a verandah and a drop dunny – some even had inside toilets. After the shared immigrant housing of Wacol and smaller housing closer into Brisbane, these small, cookie-cutter-style timber and brick dwellings were like a palace for some. 

‘Along with the Corley images, excerpts, photographs, books, trinkets and stories from Trent’s real life, the vision was forming for part of Eli’s world. 

‘Our Darra needed to feel sparse and harsh, a little less than lush, with wide streets where every day was like chuck-out day. Between the suburbs of Beenleigh and Pinkenba, our first look at Darra came to be. At Pinkenba, we even found a location akin to the Darra cement factory.’ 

A Beenleigh weatherboard home with a two-tone blue and silver Holden Gemini parked out front came to represent Brisbane to a global audience on the Netflix landing page. 

Responsible for the show’s visuals, from locations to sets, costumes, mood and lighting in collaboration with heads of department, McGahey lived and breathed the 80s aesthetic ... and the novel.  

‘We used Trent's book like a bible – our copies were well thumbed and highlighted,’ she said. ‘We immersed in the audiobook for daily reminders and points of reference, for subliminal clues that we could dress into the settings to take the viewer straight to the world. 

‘It was important to provide texture and story, not just clutter ... to breathe life into the negative spaces of a setting or environment. The right one artefact, art-directed in the perfect position can set the tone of the world you are trying to create. It can sneak up on you on the edge of frame – you barely know it’s there, but you would miss it if it wasn’t.’ 

Is Boy Swallows Universe based on a true story? 

Boy Swallows Universe draws heavily from Dalton’s childhood exposure to crime, drug abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence and anxiety. Dalton’s beloved mother was his first reader when he finished the Boy Swallows Universe manuscript in 2017. Both agreed the novel was a 50-50 mix of fact and fantasy   

Like Frankie Bell (played by Phoebe Tonkin), Dalton’s mum did jail time. Robert Bell (Simon Baker) was modelled on his late dad, a voracious reader and drinker. Gus (Lee Tiger Halley) is an amalgam of Dalton’s 3 brothers, and the character Lyle (Travis Fimmel) is based on their heroin-dealing stepfather.  

The inspiration for crime reporter Caitlyn Spies (Sophie Wilde) was Dalton’s wife, Fiona Franzmann, a fellow journalist whom he met at his first reporting gig at Brisbane News. 

Even the secret room with the red phone is a memory – a discovery in his stepfather’s home. McGahey saw the exterior of the hidden room under Dalton’s former family home on a visit to Darra. It is Dalton’s voice on the phone to Eli and Gus in the series. The author makes another cameo, on screen this time, in the final episode. 

Who was the real Slim Halliday? 

Bryan Brown’s character, Arthur ‘Slim’ Halliday, was a friend of the Dalton family. The author remembers him as his babysitter.  

Jailbreaks, manhunts, thwarted escape plots, a self-inflicted bullet wound from a struggle with a robbery victim-turned-captor, and a murder trial for which police had his dog stuffed – the real Slim Halliday story was as outlandish as any movie plot.   

Known as The Houdini of Boggo Road, Halliday escaped twice from the notorious Brisbane prison in the 1940s during a stint for burglary. He made 4 other known escape attempts during his 34 years in jail.  

Dalton and McGahey came across an unexpected piece of family history during the Netflix team’s research for the Boy Swallows Universe series. ‘Trent has a photograph of Slim at his original family home in the kitchen with his mum, something Trent himself didn’t realise until we went through his photographs together,’ she said. 

Exhibit A: a taxidermied dog 

Halliday was arrested in June 1952 after shooting himself in the thigh in a tussle with a Sydney shopkeeper he was attempting to rob. He was accused of having used the hold-up pistol to murder Southport taxi driver Athol McCowan the previous month.  

Crowds rushed the court doors for seats at Halliday’s trial, where police produced his dog Peter, stuffed and mounted, for witnesses to identify as proof the escapologist had been in the Southport area at the time of the murder. (The Alsatian cross had died of a tick bite before police found him at the New Farm home of Halliday’s sister and took him to a Queensland Museum preparator.)  

‘I repeat, I am not guilty of this crime,’ Halliday said from the dock before being sentenced to life in prison in March 1953. 

Nine months later, Halliday made another dramatic bid for freedom. That escape attempt almost cost Halliday his life, the Truth reported. He set fire to a pile of wool and fibre at the entrance to the mattress workshop as a diversion, climbed a ladder and was knocking the mesh out of the skylight when the pile exploded, sending flames to the roof. Overcome by smoke, he fell to the floor and was rescued from the blaze.   

Halliday was freed in 1976. He died of cancer in Redcliffe Hospital in 1987, aged 77.    

Streets of your town: cultural history in the making 

Dalton donated the digital manuscripts of his award-winning debut novel for safekeeping at State Library. The 6 Boy Swallows Universe manuscripts include the original unpublished manuscript, publisher's structural notes, revised versions with editor's notes, a marked-up proof and the final proof. 

State Library’s uniquely Queensland collections include 80s-era films like City for Sale, directed by Wendy Roger and Sue Ward, about the demolition of buildings in the Brisbane CBD in the lead-up to Expo 88, and Debra Beattie’s experimental work Expo Schmexpo. A treasure trove of home movies continues to be digitised with the support of donors through the Queensland Library Foundation Reel Rescue campaign.  

Specialist librarian Reuben Hillier said despite its mid-1980s setting, the Netflix series would also ironically serve as a snapshot of many Brisbane landscapes of the early 2020s.  

'Brisbane being Brisbane, the urban landscape can change very quickly. Much of what is seen in the background will likely be altered, renovated or even bulldozed in the coming decades.' 

'The Stones Corner Freemasons Hall, depicted in the series as The Courier-Mail office, was destroyed within months of shooting to make way for a high-rise. The mid-century building wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but I really liked its dark brick and brutal angles and was sad to see it go. It is forever immortalised on Netflix.’ 

Where was Boy Swallows Universe filmed? 

Boy Swallows Universe is populated with places from Dalton’s childhood, recreated on screen to an exuberant soundtrack of Aussie rock classics by the likes of Men at Work, The Angels, Divinyls and Skyhooks. 

Since the series’ January 2024 release, location spotting has spawned self-guided tours that take in locations pivotal to the plot, such as Boggo Road Gaol, Brisbane City Hall clock tower, and Darra’s Que Huong restaurant. 

Eagle-eyed viewers identified streets, houses and landmarks in Annerley, Beenleigh, Bracken Ridge, Camp Hill, Chelmer, Darra, Doomben, East Brisbane, Fortitude Valley, Hemmant, Herston, Kangaroo Point, Moorooka, Murrarie, Pinkenba, Redcliffe, Robertson, Spring Hill, St Lucia, Stone’s Corner, Sunnybank, Wavell Heights and Yeronga. Jacobs Well and Mudjimba Beach were among the other filming locations in the region. 

The western stars of Boy Swallows Universe 

Jandowae on Queensland’s Western Downs has had its own Boy Swallows Universe buzz – some of the locals scored roles as extras when the town’s main street was closed off in December 2022 for filming at the pharmacy and pub.  

McGahey’s mood board for the stately mansion of fictional crime syndicate kingpin Tytus Broz (Anthony LaPaglia) had a French castle vibe. It was love at first sight when McGahey scouted Jimbour House near Dalby with Director of Photography Mark Wareham and Locations Manager James Legge, both of whom had shot there previously. 

‘This had to be the Tytus Compound location,’ she said. ‘Producer Andrew Mason and line producer Anna Steele leaned heavily into the vision and made it possible for the unit to shoot there for a few days.  

‘Jandowae was a bonus – what a wonderful township.’ 

The Queensland designer said her time in the orbit of a beloved Brisbane author was a delight. ‘The BSU phenomenon is astounding,’ McGahey said. ‘I feel incredibly honoured to be a part of it. I was so fortunate to spend time with Trent and his family. He is joyous.’  

‘We had an incredible team. Everyone in every department gave so much to the production, and it shows in the work.’ 

Time-travel through Queensland suburban streets with the Corley Explorer.  

Access historical and contemporary newspapers online or visit State Library to view microfilmed Queensland newspapers. Queensland residents can register for free membership to enjoy thousands of newspapers and magazines via PressReader.