Bluestone customs houses and colonial hotels face a working boat harbour, the same waterfront where SeaChange filmed its Pearl Bay courthouse.
What Williamstown looks like
curves along the harbour, one and two storey bluestone and rendered buildings meeting the footpath under iron lace verandahs. The , on the corner with Syme Street, is a classical bluestone building from 1873 to 1875. Further along, the Bank of Australasia's rendered facade dates from 1877. , a Gothic Revival building in dark bluestone with lancet windows and buttresses, stands a short walk up the street.
Boats moor along the seawall in front of the shops, their masts crossing the view of Melbourne skyline across the bay. Past the shops, Nelson Place opens onto Point Gellibrand, where the runs 143 metres of bluestone quay wall out to the water and still takes vessels in for maintenance. The bluestone base of the stands over the same stretch of foreshore, dating from 1852.
On Electra Street, the Mechanics Institute keeps its cement rendered front and parapet lettering from 1860. Away from the harbour, weatherboard and rendered brick houses line quieter streets, some behind cast iron verandahs and picket fences.
Shot in Williamstown
Blue Heelers used the disused Williamstown police station at 10 Thompson Street as the exterior of the fictional Mount Thomas police station. The series also shot at Williamstown High School and at the Willy Tavern, on the corner of Ann Street and Nelson Place, which played the fictional Commercial Hotel. The tavern building has since been demolished. SeaChange used the Williamstown Swimming and Life Saving Club, on the Esplanade at Williamstown Beach, as the exterior of the Pearl Bay courthouse.
SeaChange, 1998
Played the Pearl Bay courthouse, Pearl Bay, 1998
On the Esplanade at Williamstown Beach, the Williamstown Swimming and Life Saving Club played the exterior of the Pearl Bay courthouse in SeaChange. The clubhouse stands at the western end of the beach, facing straight out across the bay. Street View
What Williamstown can double for
West End, Fremantle in Perth, Western Australia
Fremantle's West End has boom era limestone and stucco warehouses fronting a working container port, the same way Nelson Place fronts Williamstown's harbour. Victoria Quay still has its own dry dock. Fremantle's boom era facades are taller and more ornate than Williamstown's plainer bluestone, so a tight street level frame holds the match better than a wide one. Try searching limestone port warehouses now.
The Rocks' colonial sandstone buildings line narrow quayside lanes above Sydney Harbour, built in the same decades as Williamstown's own waterfront. The Harbour Bridge and cruise ships crowd a wide shot, so tighter frames along the lanes hold the period better. Try searching sandstone quayside lanes now.
Lyttelton in Christchurch, New Zealand
Lyttelton's small port frontage and its stone and timber buildings share Williamstown's harbour town scale, from the same colonial settlement decades. Earthquake rebuilding replaced parts of the original waterfront, so check a shot against current Street View before booking. Try searching small colonial port town now.
