Aussie at Heart Filming Locations
“Aussie at Heart” gives its second-chance romance a setting built around the water. Rhiannon Fish stars as Samara Hart, a former attorney who has reinvented herself as an event planner after a professional disaster derailed her legal career. Her newest assignment sounds like exactly the sort of opportunity that could restore her confidence: organize a…
“Aussie at Heart” gives its second-chance romance a setting built around the water. Rhiannon Fish stars as Samara Hart, a former attorney who has reinvented herself as an event planner after a professional disaster derailed her legal career. Her newest assignment sounds like exactly the sort of opportunity that could restore her confidence: organize a couple’s lavish 40th anniversary celebration aboard a luxury yacht in Queensland. The complication arrives with the captain. Nate Lawson, played by Daniel Lissing, is Samara’s former courtroom colleague and rival, as well as the man she associates with the collapse of her old career.
Directed by Colin Budds, the Hallmark romance was produced in Australia under its original title, “Love on Deck.” Rather than sending Queensland scenery into the background, the filmmakers made the Gold Coast part of the movie’s identity, using its waterways, beaches and bright coastal landscape around a story that spends substantial time aboard a yacht.
Gold Coast, Queensland
The Gold Coast is the main confirmed filming region for “Aussie at Heart.” Jaggi Entertainment announced on March 31, 2026, that cameras were rolling there, describing the movie as being shot in and around the Gold Coast rather than at a single resort or studio complex. The production company specifically highlighted the area’s turquoise water, golden beaches and natural Queensland surroundings as part of the film’s visual plan.
That makes the Gold Coast unusually important to this Hallmark story because the setting is not pretending to be somewhere else. Samara travels to Queensland, and the movie was actually produced in Queensland. The high-rise coastline, marinas, open water and subtropical landscape seen around the characters belong to the same region named in the story. Hallmark’s own synopsis also places Samara and Nate’s reunion in Queensland.
The production was handled by Australian company Jaggi Entertainment, with Steve Jaggi and Kyle Lema producing. Screen Australia lists “Love on Deck” as an Australian feature directed by Budds and written by Ansley Gordon, with Sophie Tilson credited for the story.
The Luxury Yacht
The yacht is effectively the movie’s second major location. Samara’s job is to prepare an anniversary celebration aboard the vessel, while Nate’s role as captain forces the former rivals into prolonged contact. Their professional disagreement therefore unfolds in a space neither can conveniently walk away from.
Production material confirms that substantial filming was designed around a luxury yacht on the Gold Coast, and behind-the-scenes photographs released while the movie was still known as “Love on Deck” show Fish, Lissing and the filmmakers working on location in Queensland.
The precise vessel used for filming has not been publicly identified by Hallmark or Jaggi Entertainment. The same applies to the marina where the yacht was based during production. The Gold Coast has several large boating centers around Southport, Main Beach and the Broadwater, but naming one of them as the movie’s base without production confirmation would be guesswork.
What is clear is that the filmmakers wanted genuine coastal scale rather than a story confined to a docked boat. The official production announcement emphasizes water, beaches and Queensland’s outdoor scenery, suggesting the yacht material was designed to sit naturally within the larger Gold Coast environment.
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Beaches and Coastal Scenery
“Aussie at Heart” also makes extensive visual use of the Gold Coast’s beaches and waterfront landscape. Jaggi Entertainment specifically promoted the movie around the region’s golden beaches and “idyllic Australian nature settings,” which places the production beyond a simple yacht shoot.
The Gold Coast is particularly useful for this kind of romance because polished urban scenery and open coastline exist almost side by side. A shot can carry the modern skyline in one direction and uninterrupted water in another, allowing the movie to move between luxury and relaxed beach life without appearing to change locations.
Viewers may recognize the broader look of the Surfers Paradise and Main Beach skyline in establishing material. Towers such as Q1 are among the city’s most distinctive visual markers. However, no official location sheet has confirmed Q1, Soul, Chevron Renaissance or other individual high-rises as filming sites. They are better treated as parts of the surrounding Gold Coast skyline rather than places where actors were necessarily filmed.
When Was Aussie at Heart Filmed?
Production was definitely underway by March 31, 2026, when Jaggi Entertainment and Australian industry publications announced that cameras were rolling on the Gold Coast. The movie was still publicly known as “Love on Deck” at that stage.
Reports surrounding the production place the main shoot across late March and April. An exact official wrap date has not been released, so claims that filming ended on a particular April day should be treated cautiously. By the summer, Hallmark had retitled the finished movie “Aussie at Heart” and scheduled it for an August 15 premiere as part of the channel’s 25th birthday programming.
The title change also explains why early production reports can be difficult to find. Anyone researching the locations will uncover considerably more material under “Love on Deck” than under the final Hallmark name.
