The secret Hollywood town hidden deep in the Australian outback

It’s the Hollywood of Australia’s outback. Silverton in western NSW has appeared in so many films and advertisements that locals have lost count.

The red dirt, flat plains and deserted streets that make up the landscape of this outback town have attracted some of the world’s best directors and actors. Iconic Aussie films starring Silverton’s landscapes include The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Mad Max II, which many locals had a walk-on role in.

Silverton is home to just 50 people, all of whom love it for its quintessential Australian look and feel.

It’s regularly described as a ghost town, but as many as 160,000 tourists pass through every year, usually stopping for a cold one at the Silverton Hotel.

The town is a 20-minute drive north-west of Broken Hill, so it’s an easy add-on to the itinerary for many a grey nomad or road-tripping family.

Population: 50 as of the 2016 census.

Who lives there?

He made it his mission to visit the backdrop of the film, and eventually convinced his family to move to Silverton in 2009.

“It’s funny because it felt to me like I’d come home,” he said.

“I can’t really describe it any other way. Everything felt right about it. I just felt like I was in paradise.

“The view across the plains was absolutely stunning and I just said to my wife, Linda, ‘Do you think you can live here?’, thinking it would never happen, and she said, ‘Yes’.”