Filming Locations

Whale Patrol was filmed along the beautiful coast off Perth and the South West of Western Australia. An area renowned for its rugged beauty and treacherous ocean, it is a unique place that remains one of the true wilderness areas left in the world today. The ocean is home to an amazing variety of marine life, and in winter it is abundant with whales.

Perth is the capital city of Western Australia and from May to December each year, many whales migrate just off the coast of the metropolitan area and lucky residents can regularly catch glimpses of Southern Right whales along the city's pristine beaches. Humpback whales can be seen in between Perth and Rottnest Island and even Pygmy Blue whales migrate in the deep water behind Rottnest Island. The area is also visited by Minke whales, roving bands of Killer whales, two species of Pilot whales and False Killer whales.

To film the migratory behaviour of Humpback whales, Whale Patrol director & cinematographer, Leighton De Barros chose two spectacular locations. The first location was Flinders Bay in Augusta situated on the tip of the state's south coast. Flinders Bay is an incredible place. Wild, rugged and extremely beautiful it's where the Indian and the Southern Ocean meet.

Little known is the fact that this is one of the first places along the Western Australian coast that Humpback whales reach after their long trip from Antarctica. From early June to early September Humpback whales can be sighted here regularly, along with Southern Right whales that hug the coast here and come to give birth.

Leighton has worked in Flinders Bay for over a decade. His objective for filming there for Whale Patrol was to capture Humpbacks travelling in storms and Flinders Bay is the only place along the coast where he could do it relatively safely. With average swells of 4 - 5 metres and winds in excess of 25 - 30 knots it isn't generally a safe place to be operating. However, Leighton teamed up with local whale watching charter operator Steve Mitchell, from Naturaliste Charters. Leighton has known and worked with Steve for over 15 years and Steve knows the Flinders Bay area and the whales' behaviour like the back of his hand.

When bad weather has closed most of the coast, Flinders Bay is still workable because it is protected from the prevailing north westerly winds. Steve's boat, the Cetacean Explorer, is a 60 foot diesel powered catamaran and is one of the mot stable platforms Leighton has ever filmed off. During some filming days, when the conditions were particularly horrendous, the boat was still provided enough stability to be able to film the whales.

Nevertheless, Flinders Bay is a challenging location to work from. With no jetty to load onto, Steve must run his boat through the Blackwood River out into the ocean, a very interesting exercise when two metre waves are breaking across the sand bar. In the past Leighton has worked in Flinders Bay diving off Steve's boat to film Humpbacks. The day after one particular dive, fishermen caught a 14 foot Great White shark in the exact location he had been diving. Needless to say, Leighton didn't need much encouragement to stay out of the water and film the whales from the boat for the rest of the trip. But all of these obstacles, combined with the raw energy and power of the place, make it an exciting, adventurous and unique place to work.

Around mid September, Steve Mitchell moves his boat to Geographe Bay some 100 kilometres north of Flinders Bay. Geographe Bay is a focal point for Humpbacks on their southern migration from late September to early December. As the winter storms subsided and Spring finally emerged, it was safe for Leighton to begin working on his own, out of a smaller 18 foot boat. Steve's other skipper Pete Simpson helped drive the boat for Leighton whenever he had a spare moment. Geographe Bay is massive and Steve and Pete helped Leighton immensely by spotting and guiding him to the whales. Steve also provided a safety/back up platform when the weather got unexpectedly rough, which had to be used on a number of occasions.

Geographe Bay also holds an amazing secret. It is one of the only places in the world where you can regularly see Pygmy Blue whales, sometimes only hundreds of metres from shore. Steve Mitchell was the first person to discover this amazing phenomenon. One trip in the 2007 season he saw at least 7 Pygmy Blue whales in one group. In 2008 the total number of Pygmy Blue whales he saw that year was approximately 90 animals.

Leighton chose the magnificent area from Flinders Bay in Augusta to Geographe bay near Dunsborough to film the whales' migration, because unlike anywhere else in the world, Humpback whales can be found here for 6 months of the year. The sheer number of whales, plus the protection from the prevailing winds, made it the perfect place to film these giants of the deep. Leighton is planning to work on another film in the near future, which explores the magnificent wild beauty of this amazing and unique area.