Stuti Gokhale
A reboot of the eponymous 2000s game show, Netflix’s ‘The Mole’ is a reality game show with a one-of-a-kind format created by Bart De Pauwe, Michel Vanhove, Michiel Devlieger, and Tom Lenaerts. The series brings together twelve participants, who must compete in numerous challenges to add money to a pot, which eventually becomes the prize that the winner takes home. However, there is a major twist- unbeknownst to them, one player is the designated “Mole” chosen by the makers, who secretly tries to sabotage each task and make the others lose money.
After each challenge, one player is eliminated after a quiz-based voting system, wherein the contestants try to guess the infiltrator among them. Hosted by Alex Wagner, the game show not just tests the physical skills of the twelve participants but is also a battle of wits of tactics to save themselves from suspicion. Moreover, the different locations where each challenge takes place amaze the viewers and make one wonder where ‘The Mole’ is shot. In case you’re curious about the same, we come bearing answers.
The Mole Filming Locations
‘The Mole’ is filmed all across Australia, specifically in Queensland and New South Wales. Principal photography for the show’s inaugural iteration reportedly took place in the summer of 2021. Now, without further ado, let’s traverse all the exciting places the contestants cover on the show!
Queensland, Australia
Pivotal portions of ‘The Mole’ are lensed in Queensland, the second-largest and third-most populated Australian state. During the season 1 shooting schedule, the cast and crew first set foot in the Daintree Rainforest, which lies north of Mossman and Cairns on Queensland’s northeast coast. It is a part of the largest continuous tropical rainforest on the continent.
After taping the first challenge for the debut season, the filming unit moved to Brisbane, Queensland’s capital and most populous city. They specifically set camp in Boggo Road Gaol in Dutton Park, which had the reputation of being one of Australia’s most notorious prisons from 1883 to 1989. Next, the team journeyed off the coast of Queensland, where they recorded a challenging segment for season 1 in and around the Great Barrier Reef. It is the world’s largest coral reef system, comprising over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands.
Ravenswood, a rural town and locality in the Charters Towers region, is another important production location for the Netflix series. For the first season, the team assembled at the Railway Hotel, a heritage property on Barton Street built in 1901. While in the former gold mining town, they seemingly lensed some sequences in the nearby town of Charters Towers, in the Bank of New South Wales building at 34-36 Gill Street. The former bank is a heritage site built in 1889 and was one of Australia’s oldest banks.
Several parts of the show are taped in Gympie Region, a local government area in the Wide Bay-Burnett region between Sunshine Coast and Hervey Bay. The iconic Spirit of the Mary Valley coal locomotive that travels across the Mary Valley Rattler railway line appears in several scenes in season 1.
New South Wales, Australia
Many parts of ‘The Mole’ are filmed in New South Wales, a state on Australia’s east coast, which borders Queensland to the north. The production team mainly sets camp in Sydney, the state capital and the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. For the debut season, they chose the Chifley Tower at 2 Chifley Square as a key shooting location; it is one of the tallest buildings in the city.
Some sequences were further recorded at Bill & Toni’s Italian Restaurant at 72-74 Stanley Street in Darlinghurst, a suburb of Sydney. In addition, the Blue Mountains region that lies west of Sydney is one more principal filming site for the game show. The area is known for its breathtaking scenery and mountain towns that attract many tourists.
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