Oscar-winning cinematographer John Seale has been behind the lens of numerous critically acclaimed films, including Dead Poet’s Society, Witness, The English Patient, Rain Man and Mad Max: Fury Road.
What many people don’t know is that in the early 1970s he went through “the apprenticeship of his career” on a series called Castaway, which aired on ABC TV and was largely filmed in Port Macquarie in northern NSW.
![A black and white image of a young man behind a large video camera in the 1970s.](http://economystep.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Pioneer-Days-Acclaimed-Filmmaker-Returns-to-1970s-Castaway-Series.webp)
The historical drama was based on the trials of a group of shipwreck survivors who were stranded on an island in the Pacific Ocean in 1840 after their ship bound for Australia crashed in a hurricane.
It was a co-production between ABC, Scottish Television and a German company.
Seale said the project helped launch his highly successful international career.
“As Australians who learned the trade here, we tended to take a ‘what if’ approach at the time.”
![A man is smiling with bush in the background.](http://economystep.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/1653810622_303_Pioneer-Days-Acclaimed-Filmmaker-Returns-to-1970s-Castaway-Series.webp)
He said the crews would experiment with different ways of firing.
“We didn’t really know the rules, so we made our own,” he said.
He said international crews have brought their rules into their production process.
“On this one there was an English director, German actors and an Australian crew,” he said.
![A man in shirts and a bare chest is filming behind a camera on a beach, as other people watch, in the 1970s.](http://economystep.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/1653810623_273_Pioneer-Days-Acclaimed-Filmmaker-Returns-to-1970s-Castaway-Series.webp)
Keeping history alive
Castaway is back in the spotlight nearly 50 years after it first aired thanks to efforts at Port Macquarie to produce a documentary-style film about the series.
![A group of people in the 1970s, many in shorts and t-shirts, filming standing actors on a beach.](http://economystep.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/1653810623_953_Pioneer-Days-Acclaimed-Filmmaker-Returns-to-1970s-Castaway-Series.webp)
Retired National Parks and Wildlife Service ranger Mike Dodkin and heritage consultant Mitch McKay are leading the project.
“We’re trying to keep this story alive as part of Port Macquarie’s history,” Dodkin said.
![A helicopter hovers over the water at the end of a beach break wall and people film from the rocks.](http://economystep.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/1653810624_423_Pioneer-Days-Acclaimed-Filmmaker-Returns-to-1970s-Castaway-Series.webp)
Stepping back to ‘Castaway Beach’
Australians involved with Castaway have been invited back to Port Macquarie and Seale recently traveled from his home in Sydney to visit the Castaway site for the first time since the 1970s.
![An elderly man in jeans, a shirt and a hat stands smiling on a beach with rocks in the background.](http://economystep.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/1653810625_408_Pioneer-Days-Acclaimed-Filmmaker-Returns-to-1970s-Castaway-Series.webp)
He was joined by Australian actor Alan Cinis, who was 12 when he appeared in Castaway.
Most of the Castaway scenes were filmed at Port Macquarie’s Miners Beach, in what is now Sea Acres National Park, with one scene filmed in Sydney’s North Narrabeen.
Seale and Cinis headed to Miners Beach along the original, now heavily overgrown “Castaway track”.
![Miners Beach (1)](http://economystep.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/1653810626_177_Pioneer-Days-Acclaimed-Filmmaker-Returns-to-1970s-Castaway-Series.webp)
Cinis said it was an emotional day.
![A man in a blue shirt and wide-brimmed hat stands smiling in a rainforest.](http://economystep.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/1653810627_766_Pioneer-Days-Acclaimed-Filmmaker-Returns-to-1970s-Castaway-Series.webp)
“It’s like visiting a house you lived in as a kid, where you had really good times, that you get a little bit of excitement from each room…it’s very personal,” he said.
He said spending 14 weeks filming in Port Macquarie was “one of the great experiences of my life”.
![A 12-year-old boy with brown hair, looking into the distance, in the 1970s.](http://economystep.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/1653810628_592_Pioneer-Days-Acclaimed-Filmmaker-Returns-to-1970s-Castaway-Series.webp)
Life behind the scenes
Cinis and a fellow child actor, Lexia Wilson, had to stay away from their families during the filming of Castaway in Port Macquarie, as well as doing schoolwork.
“I hated school work, the poor teacher, I just wanted to be at the beach, or watch the movie or watch the sand crabs,” Cinis said with a laugh.
![A black and white image of a caravan in a forest clearing, with a group of people on chairs, in the 1970s.](http://economystep.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Pioneer-Days-Acclaimed-Filmmaker-Returns-to-1970s-Castaway-Series.jpeg)
A group of 20 native people from Kempsey were also involved in the series.
“At a Castaway reunion in 2017, we found out that only two of those 20 actors were alive.”
![John Seale at Port Macquarie](http://economystep.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/1653810629_988_Pioneer-Days-Acclaimed-Filmmaker-Returns-to-1970s-Castaway-Series.webp)
Seale, now 79, said that while Castaway marked a significant moment in his career, he found it difficult to pick favorite projects.
It is hoped that the Castaway documentary will eventually be screened at the Sea Acres National Park Visitor Center so that the “castaways” are not lost for good.
![A group of elderly men are standing together on a beach, smiling.](http://economystep.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/1653810630_559_Pioneer-Days-Acclaimed-Filmmaker-Returns-to-1970s-Castaway-Series.webp)
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