CLIMATE

Central Australia is one of the sunniest places on Earth, both in terms of number of days of sunshine and the daily average. We don’t have an official “wet” season, but if it rains at all it is more than likely to happen in the months November to February, coinciding somewhat with the monsoons and cyclones hitting the NW coast of Western Australia. In those months it can be, and often is, hot, with daily temperatures exceeding 37 degrees C (100F).
Nevertheless, cloudy days are rare at any time of the year.

So, in short, if you’re planning a shoot, try to plan it for February to November inclusive or even better, our Winter time. In June, July and August the days are often glorious, with almost guaranteed cloudless skies and temperatures averaging around 20 degrees C.

VISAS AND PERMITS

There are various localities that require shooting permits in Central Australia, this includes Ayers Rock/Uluru (Commonwealth) and all Northern Territory parks. In addition, some areas of the Northern Territory are Aboriginal land. You will require both a permit to enter the lands and a separate permit to take commercial images. You should be aware, though, that more than 80% of all filming permits are refused at Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Park (Ayer’s Rock/The Olgas) due to a mind-numbing bureaucracy dressed as “protecting the environmental and cultural aspects of the Park”. Recent filming refusals include the Royal Ballet, BBC Natural History Unit and BBC Science. It is simply one of the most frustrating and oppressive environments in the world to shoot in. This singular interpretation of the Parks’ values comes largely from two radical individuals within the relevant Commonwealth Department, respectively in Canberra and in Darwin and not from the Aboriginal Traditional Owners.

At an event I managed in the Park attended by the Governor General of Australia we had a Ranger tie pink ribbons to the 3rd rung of a ladder to stop media going any higher and accidentally getting a shot of a small Aboriginal sacred site 2km away and obscured by bushes. This for people doing wide shots of an event just metres away from the ladder. We have even had the Park claim (falsely) that they control the airspace above it up to 3 kilometres! One of their Lawyers sent me a threatening letter to remove an image of the Olgas (Kata Tjuta “place of many heads”) from my website as I “wasn’t showing enough heads” and this was “offensive”.

All this despite the fact that Google Earth can take you anywhere in the Park you like (including sacred sites) and that 300,000 visitors a year photograph what they damn well like from any angle and post it for all to see on the internet!

Still don’t believe what an oppressive environment this is to shoot in? We have even had a Park Ranger explain to us that they don’t want to promote the Park for tourism and that the “purpose of World heritage areas is to exclude human beings, not to include them”.

Would you be angry if a Park Ranger said this to you? Well don’t get too upset.
Bureaucrats who harass people people so intensely always make sure they can protect themselves.

What do you think the penalty is for, say, “threatening a Ranger”?
Try 7 years jail or a $50,000 fine, I kid you not. Needless to say the Park won’t be receiving a Christmas card from us this year, and as you can no doubt tell we have given up trying to apply for filming permits for our clients in the Park.