Was THE DEEP filmed in Australia?

The shark frenzy above the wreck of Goliath was filmed at multiple locations edited together to look like a single place. The same editing technique was used to create the Orange Grove Hotel and St. David's Lighthouse. The shark frenzy filming locations were:

1. The Coral Sea, Australia, including, "Action Point" at the north end of Marion Reef, Diamond Islets, and Lihou Reefs,
2. The world's Biggest Underwater Set (BUS) at Ireland Island South, Bermuda, and,
3. The bow section of the RMS Rhone shipwreck at Salt Island in the British Virgin Islands.

In his 2002 autobiographical thriller, Shark Trouble, Peter Benchley described escaping a pack of agitated bull sharks, with his wife Wendy and eleven-year old son Clayton, off Long Island in the Bahamas. 

Wendy, Peter, and Clayton Benchley, with Roy Scheider on the set of Jaws 1974 (Source Universal Pictures via Shark Trouble).

The trio huddled together and, blasting bubbles from their regulators, slowly ascended from the sea floor toward the safety of their dive boat. This real life event doesn't appear in Benchley's novel of The Deep but is recreated in the film when Romer Treece (Robert Shaw), Gail Berke (Jacqueline Bisset), and David Sanders (Nick Nolte), surrounded by sharks, huddle together and rise from the sea floor in a whirlpool of sand and air blasted from their dredge.

"I'm going to cut the air hoses!"  (Source Sony Pictures)

The characters of Gail Berke, David Sanders and Robert Shaw, were also played by underwater stunt doubles Jackie Kilbride (as Gail Berke), Jack McKenney (David Sanders) and Howard Curtis (Romer Treece). Scenes filmed in Australia were performed by Kilbride, McKenney, and Curtis.

A version of the scene also appeared in Marvel's comic book special adapted from the screenplay by Peter Benchley and Tracy Keenan Wynn. 

(Source Marvel)

Much of The Deep was inspired by Bermuda's real underwater exploration history including the life of Bermudian explorer Teddy Tucker who had numerous shark encounters during his career. Benchley's novel contained several shark incidents inspired by Tucker's own experiences and these were combined to create the shark frenzy scene in the film.

Teddy Tucker shark encounter during a Saturday Evening Post 1961 expedition (Source Periscope Films)

In 1974, two years before Giddings filmed The Deep, he filmed a 'shark frenzy' scene at Marion Reef for the Cornel Wilde movie Sharks' Treasure. Giddings, Charles 'Chuck' Nicklin, Jack McKenney and Geri Murphy were all crew on Sharks' Treasure.

Cornel Wilde's Sharks' Treasure filmed at Marion Reef in 1974. 

Both Sharks' Treasure and The Deep include a shark frenzy scene but the composition of one shot in The Deep, filmed two years after Sharks' Treasure, is almost identical to The Deep's Hamilton Library. In Sharks' Treasure, Cornel Wilde's scuba diving character Jim Carnahan, discovers a Spanish piece of eight and, like Jacqueline Bisset's character, Gail Berke, Wilde's Carnahan visits a local library to view numismatic texts. 

Déjà vu; Jacqueline Bisset in The Deep filmed 1976 vs Cornel Wilde in Sharks' Treasure filmed 1974 (Source Sony Pictures and Symbol Productions).

In 1974, Australian live-aboard pioneer, Captain Wally Muller, took Al Giddings and the Sharks' Treasure crew to Marion Reef where huge numbers of sharks in clear water could be guaranteed. This experience led Giddings to hire Muller again, in 1976, to take The Deep to the same location. 

Muller was part of a small network of innovative Australian oceanophiles whose circle included shark attack survivor Rodney Fox, and, underwater filmmakers Ron and Valerie Taylor. 

The Deep production team lived at sea for three weeks aboard Muller's vessel Coralita.

Wally Muller's Coralita filming The Deep off Queensland, Australia, in 1976 (Source Sony Pictures).

Filming began at "Action Point" on the northern tip of Marion Reef but filming also took place at nearby Diamond Islets, and Lihou Reefs, after the Marion sharks became less frenzied after days of feeding by the film crew.

Marion Reef, Coral Sea, Australia, 1976 (Source Sony Pictures).

In a 2021 interview, Valerie Taylor credited Peter Gimbel's documentary Blue Water White Death for bringing them to the attention of Hollywood filmmakers. Peter Gimbel had seen two of Ron Taylor's documentaries including Ron and the Great White by Italian filmmaker Bruno Vailati. Gimbel invited the Taylors to journey with him on board a former whaling ship, Terrier VIII,  to find great white sharks in the Indian Ocean. Stan Waterman was also invited to join the adventure. When great white sharks failed to appear the Taylors suggested filming in South Australia. Rodney Fox joined the production and the predator was quickly found providing the successful finale to the film. 

Italian film director Bruno Vailati filming Val while making Ron and the Great White 1971 (Source Madman Films)

Amongst the divers worldwide who had seen Blue Water White Death was Peter Benchley. Jaws movie producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown sent the Taylors galley proofs for Benchley's novel and they replied that the book would make a good movie. In 1974, the Taylors and Rodney Fox were hired to provide live shark footage for the film. 

Ron Taylor with one of his custom made camera housings (Source Madman Films)

According to Wendy Benchley (see the 2021 Valerie Taylor biopic Playing With Sharks) Peter Benchley considered the shark in Jaws was a "... a big one, a 16 footer, and of course Spielberg decided to make it into a 25 foot shark." Ron Taylor recalled discussing the difference between a real shark and the giant in Jaws with Steven Spielberg, "I said Steven, there is a problem here, our white sharks are only about 13 feet long. He said no problem, we'll send down a half size man and half size cages." 

Valerie Taylor with miniatures of Richard Dreyfuss' Jaws character Hooper (Source Playing With Sharks).

Spielberg's miniaturisation technique, filmed by Fox and the Taylors in Jaws, was later used in Benchley's next film The Deep. Two years later, in 1976, the method was used to amplify the size of The Deep's moray eel. Filmed in Bermuda, at the world's Biggest Underwater Set (BUS), the real eel was 7 feet long but the mechanical prop eel, used for quick action pounce scenes, was 12 feet in length. To make the real eel appear larger producer Peter Guber commissioned the creation of two "munchkin" mannequins resembling Henri Cloche (Lou Gossett) and Romer Treece (Robert Shaw).

Half sized mannequins of Lou Gossett and Robert Shaw (Source Sony Pictures)

The final ten seconds of The Deep eel scene included a series of shots in a full size and miniature set, featuring the mannequins, real actors and stuntmen, and three different versions of the eel. The eels included the real 7 foot eel and two versions of the mechanical 12 foot eel; one with soft teeth to be used on the real Lou Gossett and the other with hard teeth to crush a prop version of Gossett's head.

True to the tradition of so many vessels linked to The Deep the Coralita (renamed Bell Cay) had an unfortunate end when she capsized off Swain Reefs, 250 kilometres from Rockhampton, in 2010.

The end of the Coralita in 2010 (Source ABC News Australia)

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