Tourists are looking for places in Australia that don’t exist.
Searches for the town of Agnes Bluff have reached an all-time high this month, with people from around the country and even the world wanting to know where it is.
Agnes Bluff is a remote location in the Northern Territory featured in Australian author Holly Ringland’s novel The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, which is currently being adapted into a television series on Amazon Prime Video.
The town first featured in the fourth episode on August 11 and data obtained by news.com.au shows that Google searches for Agnes Bluff within Australia increased by 1640 per cent between July and August, with a further 40 per cent increase in September.
The most common country searching for “Agnes Bluff” is Australia, followed by Spain, Canada, the UK, the US and Italy.
Agnes Bluff and nearby Mia Tukurtha National Park are fictional locations featured in Alice Hart’s The Lost Flowers. News.com.au
In the TV series, Alice Hart, played by Alycia Debnam-Carey, finds Agnes Bluff on a map and heads there to take a job in nearby Mia Tukurt National Park, which is home to a spectacular crater.
Unfortunately, in the real world, Agnes Bluff and Mia Tukurtha National Parks don’t exist on the map.
But the good news is that they are based on real places within the territory.
Ms Ringland told news.com.au that Alice’s time in the Australian outback was inspired by her time living on Anangu people land in Australia’s Western Desert.
“This was a place and time that I will remember for the rest of my life, even after I leave,” she said.
Place names are fictitious but based on actual locations in the Northern Territory. News.com.au
“Years later, when I began writing The Lost Flowers of Alice Heart, one of the first things I knew about Alice’s life trajectory was that she would spend part of her adult life in the dramatic beauty of the desert.
“I created Agnes Bluff, the national park, and the crater full of bright red desert beans because to write about the places I actually lived would mean telling a story of a place I shouldn’t be telling.
“Knowing that people are Googling the places I fictionalized brings me true joy. I can’t imagine a greater compliment to my work.”
Since the show aired, Google searches for Agnes Brough have increased by more than 1600 percent. News.com.au
The TV series was also filmed in real locations in Central Australia.
These include Alice Springs Desert Park, Simpsons Gap, O’Olamina Station, Standley Chasm and Ormiston Gorge.
For example, Ormiston Gorge appeared in the story as “Jean Grey Waterhole”.
The series was also filmed in a number of locations across the Territory. News.com.au
A notable crater seen in this series is Goses Bluff Crater, about 175km west of Alice Springs.
Speaking to the NT News last month, director Glendyn Ivin described the crater as “one of the most beautiful and special places I have ever visited”.
Filming for the series marked his first visit to the Northern Territory.
In Australia, search interest in Goses Bluff Crater is currently at a 15-year high.
This is Ormiston Gorge, called Jean Grey Waterhole in Alice Hart’s The Lost Flowers. News.com.au
Searches for the site increased 500 percent month-over-month in August and then increased another 50 percent in September.
Australia and the UK are the top countries searching for this keyword.
A data analyst at Google Trends told news.com.au that the most popular question about Australia’s Goses Bluff Crater over the past two months was “What is the crater in Alice Hart’s ‘Lost Flowers’?”
Godses Bluff, also known by its traditional Aboriginal name Tonorara, is a registered sacred site, but traditional owners welcome visitors.
Entry into the crater or walking along the crater rim is prohibited, but there is an observation deck from which you can view inside the crater.
According to the Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Commission, there is a short walk to a lookout point on an adjacent ridge, and a longer circular walk offers great views of the crater from a higher vantage point.
