TALLAROOK Hotel has been chosen as one of the sets for the ABC’s three-part mini-series on the life of Indigenous tennis player, Evonne Goolagong Cawley.
Local hotel proprietors, James and Valerie Carlin, were thrilled when their venue was chosen for the epic production.
Mr Carlin told the Review that the ABC crew also used the main street, the Tallarook Pool and Popples Lane [Hilldene] as sets for Goolagong.
“Filming has certainly created activity with our staff and contractors,” he said.
“We’ve found that people are sending us photos [of the hotel] from up to 150 years ago.
“It shows they have an affinity with the place.”
Mr and Mrs Carlin are the new custodians of country pubs peppered around the North East region, including their very first business venture together—the Tooborac Hotel.
“We facilitate keeping country pubs open,” he said.
“It’s hard to meet all the statutory and commercial obligations as an individual [hotel] operator.
“We’re trying to centralise human resources, payroll, accounting and all the things that take up operational costs…so staff can focus on customer experience.”
To the delight of local’s past and present, the hotel will reopen on Thursday, August 16 for lunch and dinner, and thereafter is sure to become Tallarook’s favourite water hole once again.
The term ‘things are crook in Tallarook’ was coined after the hotel closed in 2021.
Former proprietor, Tim Sutherland, cited increases in liquor taxes making it uneconomical to continue trading.
The Tallarook Hotel is situated at 15 Main Road, and Tallarook is the Traditional Owners, the Taungurung people’s word for wattlebird’s cry.
VicScreen Chief Executive Caroline Pitcher said the much-anticipated films story is sure to resonate with all Australians and even deepen our connection to Evonne as both a First Peoples woman and athlete.
Evonne Goolagong Cawley was born on July 31, 1951 and she is one of the greatest Australian tennis players of all time.
The proud Wiradjuri woman was the third of eight children. Evonne’s father, Ken was a sheep shearer, and her mother, Melinda a homemaker. Growing up in the small country town of Barellan, NSW, at an early age, she’d hit an old moth-eaten ball her father had found against a wall using the handle of an apple crate.
At the age of 19 in 1971, she won the French Open singles, the Australian Open doubles championships (with her hero Margaret Court) and next won the women’s singles at Wimbledon. Its amazing that, also in 1971, she was named Australian of the Year.
In the course of her extraordinary career, the ace tennis player would win 86 Women’s Tennis Association Tour-level singles titles and 46 doubles titles.
In 2025, alongside fellow player tennis ace, Ash Barty she was one of the Role Models who had a Barbie doll made in her image.
Goolagong will air on ABC and IVIEW in 2026.
