“Everything is that bit more extreme, including the weather”: Behind the scenes on Deadloch season two

There must have been a lot of bemused looks on the faces of the grey nomads who rolled into the tiny historic town of Batchelor on the outskirts of Litchfield National Park in late 2024.

Originally known as Rum Jungle, the town, situated 98km out of Darwin, has had a chequered history to say the least. It’s been an air base, a “demonstration farm”, and has the dubious honour of being Australia’s first uranium mining town.

These days it’s pretty empty — a 2016 census had the town’s population sitting at just 507 people — though plenty of travellers still pass through on their way to Litchfield.

Those who did in September 2024 must have been left scratching their heads: the general store sign is covered up, the neon-lit banner replaced with one that reads Barra Creek Tavern.

There’s a giant billboard advertising something called “Don Darrell’s Best Best Jumping Croc Tours”, touting the area as the “Home of King, the largest croc in the NT”. There’s also a giant graffiti penis on said sign.

Yep, Deadloch has rolled into town. Batchelor is now Barra Creek, the fictional setting for the second season of Prime Video’s international smash hit comedy.

“We own it for a couple of weeks,” says Helen O’Loan, the show’s production designer, showing PLAY around the town’s old general store, doubling for the Barra Creek Tavern, when we visited the set.

It’s a crew base during filming, “and yes, we have had a few people wandering in, wanting beers”, she laughs, also telling us that “a couple of wild brumbies” have also mosied by during filming.

It’s steamingly hot on the day we cruise in. Everyone’s gathered at the tavern en masse, including Aussie comedy legends Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney, who write and showrun the series.

They’re busily dashing around, doing rewrites on the run, answering a million questions, fielding flustered but friendly “hellos” to the assembled journalists on set, who are sheltering along with cast and crew in that air-conditioned sanctuary. Somewhere in the background a props person wanders past with a metres-long rubber croc.

“I couldn’t concentrate in a scene yesterday, the sweat was literally dripping down my back,” says series star Alicia Gardiner, who is chatting during a break from filming.

The first season of Deadloch was filmed in Tasmania, but season two sees the two central detective characters, Dulcie (Kate Box) and Eddie (Madeleine Sami), plus Gardiner’s Cath, Dulcie’s sweet-natured partner, heading to the Top End to investigate the death of Eddie’s one-time partner, Bushy.

They’ve arrived in Barra Creek, the setting for a new mystery involving dismembered body parts, two warring croc-wrangling families, a couple of missing backpackers and plenty of errant crocodiles, one of which is that fake rubber one we’ve just seen being carried past.

“This series feels so different,” says Gardiner, “for a start, it was freezing in season one!

“I was looking at photos today of us all just huddled up like penguins, trying to stay warm, and this is the exact opposite of that.”

“I had two showers last night to try and clean my feet,” says Madeleine Sami, who has joined the chat.

“I am a week into filming now, and I’m thinking I’m going to have to get some sort of scrubbing device, because that dust is so fine and it sticks to everything because we’re all lathered up in sunscreen. We are really up in it here.”

She’s right. There really is no escaping the hot, steamy, sultriness of The Top End during “The Build Up”, that time before the wet season begins in earnest.

The feeling has been written into season two, lending an oppressive, leaden atmosphere to Deadloch’s hilariously watchable, blackly funny story.

Everyone’s always hot, and flustered, cranky and chafing from some sort of rash. It makes for hilarious viewing.

“The expression up here is ‘going troppo’ and I think that pretty much sums up this season,” Sami says with a laugh.

“Everything is that bit more extreme, including the weather.

“There are more threads and more stories; more mysteries going on.

“I do think the heat, just shooting here in it, changes your performance.

“When you’re out there, dealing with 38 degrees, 95 per cent humidity, it takes some acclimatising, and when we watch it back, we all go, ‘Oh yeah, that’s some different acting from me …

“It’s just … feels different.”

And therein lies the charm: Deadloch season two is a million miles from the moody atmospherics of season one, yet somehow the essence of the show remains intact. The characters are every bit as quirky and compelling, but this time with added Top End flavour.

It’s tropical gothic. And Batchelor is the perfect setting for the insanity.

“It’s very exciting (to see it all play out),” says Box, who won an AACTA for her portrayal of Eddie’s stitched-up partner, Dulcie.

“It feels like we got to see Dulcie and Eddie in a ‘noir’ setting (for season one), and now the audience is kind of getting to know them in a western. It’s really different.”

Creating the strange, tropical world in season two was quite an undertaking for The Kates and their crew, who worked for months before filming began to get everything right.

They looked at a number of locations, but once they arrived in Batchelor, they knew they’d found their Barra Creek.

Batchelor lies in the shire of Coomalie and the traditional owners of the land surrounding the town are the Warrai and Kungarakany peoples. The Kates met with local filmmaker Cian McCue, who went on to become the show’s Indigenous community engagement officer and an associate producer on the season.

“They invited me up for a coffee when they first came up here, about 12 months ago,” he explains.

“I have that local knowledge of where it’s OK to film, and permissions that are needed, so that’s how I came into the frame.

“On top of everything we’ve been doing, we have been trying to get a bit of community engagement going as well, and I have got some young fellas from an at-risk youth program coming up to check out the set.”

Though Deadloch is at heart a darkly funny crime drama, it doesn’t shy away from thornier messaging. Season one had some interesting things to say about misogyny, homophobia and the politics of small-town life. Season two weighs in on issues of race, kinship care and crime in the Top End, all with the show’s signature light tone.

There is no shortage of Fs and C-bombs, and if anything, the manic energy is notched up a level — but there are still so many layers to the story.

“That is the brilliance of the Kates’ writing,” says Sami. “They have an amazing, crass, comedic voice, but then there is that beautiful political undercurrent as well.

“It’s a dream to be a part of something like that, because you get to have a play on the surface, but then you also get to kind of hit something home. “

Box agrees: “They draw you in with s...s and giggles and then start talking about something wildly important.”

Best of all, it’s bloody funny; maybe even more so than the wildly successful first season, which topped Prime’s streaming charts internationally, winning legions of fans in the process.

You’ll have to wait to find out how Barra Creek Tavern, that graffitied sign and the long, rubber croc play into the story, but trust us when we tell you: you’re in for a treat.

“Crocs. Bugs, dirt, heat rash, lesbians,” Box laughs when we ask her to describe this season in a few words.

“No, but seriously, it really hits your heart.”

“Everything from season one is levelled up,” Sami adds.

“I think it’s going to be a blast.”

Deadloch season two is streaming now on Prime Video