As a keen Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries fan, I had been looking for another Australian murder-mystery series set in past eras to watch.
I came across Doctor Blake Mysteries purely by accident, and was immediately hooked!
It stars well know Australian actors Craig McLachlan as police surgeon Dr Lucien Blake, and Nadine Garner as his housekeeper Jean…and potential love interest…
So you can imagine my excitement to find that there was a Doctor Blake exhibition was on in Ballarat while we were there.
The series is set in Ballarat in the late 1950s…the town providing a perfect backdrop for each episode.
So it is no surprise that the exhibition is currently being held there, housed at the Gold Museum at the iconic Sovereign Hill.
As you walk into the museum, you will find Doctor Blake’s 1937 Coventry Standard parked out front….
Now this exhibition is a little different to what I expected in that it is spread throughout the permanent displays depicting the gold rush history of the Ballarat.
As you walk in, you find the Doctor’s desk set up…
You can even sit at the desk for a photo…
You then have to walk through the museum to come to the next part of the exhibition….
To the left is Cast & Crew…a room with costumes on display, and information about the series on the wall…
Found looking at the scripts interesting…so much work goes into the writing and preparation…
The room on the right features locations used in the show, plus there is the full recreation of the Doctor’s lounge room, compete with an old tv playing an episode from the series.
And yes, you can sit on the furniture…
You then have to continue through the museum, and in a nook you will find a few comfy chairs set up in front of another old tv showing an episode of the series…
The last part of the exhibition can be found in the Auditorium, which was screening an interesting documentary giving a glimpse of behind the scenes.
I was interested to find that they only film during the winter…Ballarat is known for being freezing during the winter months…
Although I did enjoy the exhibition, I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t housed all in one, perhaps with more sets and information…more like how the Miss Fisher and The Dressmaker exhibitions were done.
It felt somewhat disjointed, and it was hard to immerse yourself in Doctor Blake’s world.
We did notice that many of the overseas visitors were rather confused as to what it was all about!
It would have been fantastic if it could have been shown in an old gallery or house, but I guess there were reasons why it was done this way.
But in so saying, the actual exhibits were well set up and fascinating…if you love Doctor Blake, then it is definitely worth a visit, even just to see the full lounge room set up and the costumes.
My husband has never watched Doctor Blake’s Mysteries but enjoyed the exhibition…so much so he wants to start watching the series from the start…no complaints from me!
And even better, Series Five is coming out later this year, although I did read that sadly this will be the last series.
Hopefully that will change as it would be such a shame to lose such a brilliant Australian show…with loyal viewers across 130 countries, surely it needs to continue…
Please note: this is not a sponsored post! My opinions are, as always, totally my own!
Doctor Blake’s Ballarat is on until September 3 at the Gold Museum, Ballarat.
To find out more about Doctor Blake’s Ballarat, click here to visit the website.