Two Birds, a six-part mystery thriller, will film this spring in Perth and Kalgoorlie and will be the first production to use Perth Film Studios. The timing marks a symbolic opening for Western Australia's ambitions as a screen production destination.
The series stars Sheridan Smith opposite Stephen Peacocke and Judy Davis, centring on British police constable Izzie Cornwell who arrives in a small fictional town of Dugdale having been recently widowed and seeking a fresh start in Australia. The series is being supported by Screenwest via the Government of Western Australia's Production Attraction Incentive, designed to attract high profile, market-driven footloose screen productions to Western Australia.
Two Birds is produced in association with and distributed internationally by ITV Studios, cementing a partnership between international broadcasters and Australia's local streaming platforms. Perth Film Studios was delivered on time and on budget, a rarity for infrastructure projects of this scale.
The WA Government invested $233.5 million to construct the screen production facility, with approximately 600 new jobs created during construction. The facility features four sound stages totalling 90,000 square feet with 40-metre clear spans providing more than 8,200 square metres of production space, equivalent to more than 31 tennis courts, and includes the largest backlot in the southern hemisphere at 23,200 square metres, 22 per cent larger than the turfed surface of Optus Stadium.
Western Australia holds only 6% of the nation's screen production workforce, 4% of the post-production workforce and 2% of the game developer workforce, with screen production growth having been limited in comparison to other states due to the lack of world-class screen production facilities. The new studio directly addresses this gap. Over the first 10 years, Perth Film Studios is expected to grow and attract up to 10 per cent of the annual scripted screen productions, compared with the current one per cent of national share recorded in the last financial year.
Almost $300 million has been invested in the facility, including $233.5 million in construction and a further $57 million to support management and operations over the first 10 years under an agreement with Perth-based company Home Fire. The facility is in Malaga, approximately 30 minutes from the Perth CBD, and only 15 minutes from the domestic and international airport.
The facility celebrates local Aboriginal culture through public artworks by Lea Taylor and Buffie Punch, including an entry statement and yarning circle that incorporate motifs inspired by Mia Mia shelters, water, fire, and the native banksia leaf, connecting the modern studio complex to Country.
For Australian content creators, the studio's opening represents genuine infrastructure investment rather than rhetorical commitment. In its 2020-21 Economic Impact Report, Screenwest reported that WA's screen industry was valued between $30 million and $50 million in any one year, with every dollar spent during production reaping almost $3 in return. The question now is whether Two Birds and subsequent productions can sustain that economic multiplier while building the workforce capacity the state lacks.