Netflix’s ‘My Brilliant Career’ Filming Locations Take Viewers Across South Australia’s Heritage Estates

Netflix’s new adaptation of ‘My Brilliant Career’ has drawn attention not just for its story but for where it was actually shot. The streamer brought Miles Franklin’s beloved 1901 novel to life as a full series for the first time this month, with ‘The Newsreader’ star Philippa Northeast stepping into the role of Sybylla Melvyn alongside a cast that includes Christopher Chung, Anna Chancellor, and Genevieve O’Reilly. The six part Australian period drama premiered on August 13, 2026, with all six episodes released at once.

Rather than returning to the original film’s setting, the production team built an entirely new version of turn of the century Australia. The 1979 film was primarily filmed in New South Wales, but the Netflix series set up shop in South Australia, with a chunk of the episodes shot in Adelaide. That shift in location turned out to carry real weight for the region’s screen industry.

South Australia Was Chosen As The Series Setting

The bulk of the shoot took place across several distinct pockets of South Australia rather than a single studio backlot. Filming took place in South Australia, including Adelaide, Penola, Adelaide Studios, and the Southern Barossa Valley, among other locations across the state. Production ran through June 2025, during the middle of the Australian winter.

The scale of the project made it a significant undertaking for the state’s production sector. With a budget of $17 million AUD, it became the most expensive television show ever filmed there. The series was produced by Jungle Entertainment and South Australian producer Paul Ranford of Jetty Films, known for ‘Territory’ and ‘Stateless.’

Local officials framed the production as more than just a creative exercise. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that South Australian arts minister Andrea Michaels expressed hopes the series would boost tourism in the state, with ‘My Brilliant Career’ projected to add roughly $17 million into the state’s economy, more than any other production filmed there. According to the South Australian Film Corporation, the series became the single biggest season of television ever made in the state, employing 600 South Australians and engaging 410 local businesses across hospitality, transport, and other supporting services.

Adelaide Studios Anchored The Production’s Interior Work

While the countryside supplied much of the period atmosphere, the city of Adelaide handled a large share of the technical work. The production captured urban backdrops at the city’s heritage locations while interior sets were built at Adelaide Studios. IMDb also lists Adelaide, South Australia as a formal filming location for the series.

Those interiors were designed to match the lavish tone of the story’s society scenes. The spacious interiors were stacked with glimmering chandeliers and bottles of fine aged wine as the characters take part in dances and tense confrontations. That combination of studio built interiors and real heritage exteriors let the production mix control with authenticity.

Adelaide Studios also served as a secondary base for scenes shot outside the city. Some shots for the Penola based portion of the shoot were also captured at Adelaide Studios rather than entirely on location. That approach allowed the crew to move between the city and the more remote wine growing regions without losing continuity between scenes.

Para Para Mansion And The Barossa Valley Provided A Lush Period Backdrop

One of the most visually distinct locations sits on the edge of the Barossa Valley in the town of Gawler. On the fringes of the Barossa Valley lies an exquisite house towering above neatly trimmed hedges and a sea of lavender flowers, known as Para Para Mansion, a popular tourist attraction that served as a visual backdrop for Sybylla’s many society run ins. The setting gives the series an outer lawn hosting fancy tea parties and boozier gatherings with oysters and cocktails, drawing comparisons to Australia’s answer to ‘Bridgerton.’

The property itself carries genuine historical weight. Built between 1851 and 1862, the complex is at least 170 years old, and the mansion and its gardens are open to the public on select days. Located on Penrith Avenue in Gawler, the heritage property features a grand Victorian era design with landscaped gardens and historic architectural details, and it has undergone restoration work while also hosting events through Para Para Lavender.

Beyond Para Para Mansion, the wider Barossa countryside contributed to the show’s rural texture. The Southern Barossa region was also used as a filming area, with the production shooting across the region’s countryside landscapes to add to the rural atmosphere of the series. Known for its vineyards, farmland, and historic communities, the Southern Barossa supplied locations that reflected the story’s turn of the century setting.

Penola And Yallum Park Rounded Out The Rural Locations

Further south, the small town of Penola served as another key base for the production. The town, with a population of 1,376, sits in the Coonawarra wine growing region and was the main base for a portion of the shoot. Its scale and setting gave the crew access to open countryside that suited the story’s farm rooted early chapters.

The standout location in that area is a preserved 19th century homestead. Yallum Park in Penola was confirmed as one of the major heritage locations used for the series, providing an authentic backdrop for its period scenes. Built between 1878 and 1880 for pastoralist and politician John Riddoch, Yallum Park is considered one of Australia’s best preserved historic homes, featuring grand architecture, gardens, and extensive grounds that matched the visual style of the series.

Additional countryside filming took place nearby to fill out the show’s sense of scale. Pine Hill, South Australia, was another filming location used to capture the countryside atmosphere required for the story’s early 1900s Australian backdrop. Together with Penola and the Barossa, these locations gave the production a layered picture of rural South Australia rather than a single repeated backdrop.

Star Philippa Northeast has spoken about the intensity of shooting on that scale, noting she barely had a day off during production and appeared in the vast majority of scenes, a detail that gives some sense of how demanding the multi location shoot actually was for the cast. Northeast has also discussed how the series honors the spirit of Miles Franklin’s novel while updating certain elements for a modern audience, telling TV Insider that the approach gives different perspectives on the search for agency, since other characters are also navigating their own challenges and expectations, while keeping the heart of a story about defiance intact.

With Para Para Mansion’s lavender gardens, Yallum Park’s Victorian architecture, and Adelaide’s studio backlots all standing in for Sybylla’s world, it’s worth asking which of these South Australian settings felt most true to the spirit of Miles Franklin’s Australia to you.