Our second day of shooting is 11 days later and in a new year. It is another fine sunny summery 25 Degrees day and, Simon Anderson and I leave Melbourne for Geelong around 11:30.

First up we film the Charger prowling through middle of Geelong city – the polarising filter is pulling the sky into a deep blue. Beautiful.

We head out along the Melbourne Road tracking alongside Dick as he drives along the service road – it looks like a typical strip of franchised businesses.

But is has a secret history. This is where a classic petrol station used to be – before it got demolished to make way for an camping store’s expansion.. This particular building was built into the shape of a, er, a sparkle. This is probably the most extraordinary building Dick has captured before it was demolished, and is a real jewel in the crown of this many hundreds of photos.

Dick mentions it in the book’s foreword:

“For instance, an excellent example of the fabulous 'Googie Architecture', popular in Southern California in the 1950s and the 1960s was the 'XL' Petrol Station on Melbourne Road, North Geelong. This magnificent expressive and dynamic 10 metre high, metallic-beamed 'starburst' structure was demolished in late 1994…”

We then catch up with Dick & the Charger at a modern BP petrol station - as his car guzzles more fuel - and then it’s off to Avalon Raceway. Located a 10 minute drive outside Geelong and Avalon is the home of many a local fuel-sniffing speed-freak’s frenzied fantasies.

You might think we were trying to establish Dick’s bona fides as a hoon! Actually it is the flat landscape around the Raceway bleached the colour of straw by five years of drought that we’ve come for.

In any case, while we’re at Avalon Raceway, a strange thing happens. We are filming the Charger coming in off the main road a couple of times – want to see the You Yang mountains behind him – when a Triple M FM Black Thunder ute turns up.

The Black Thunder parks and, of course, has the radio blaring. And suddenly our location is inundated with people turning up for giveaways & freebies.

We quickly leave and head for Avalon Beach - a tiny bayside community – consisting of a street and maybe a dozen old fibro houses. It is another stark sun-faded spot – with cactus growing amongst thin sand dunes and the occasional clumps of mangrove, and a beach largely made up a little sand and a lot of small unbroken seashells. Looks great, but its proximity to Geelong’s heavy industry precludes any swimming in it.

While we are filming the Charger drive down the only street, the sound from our walkie-talkies attracts the attentions of a local dog. The dog is part or entirely Dingo, I’m not sure. It eyes us suspiciously; we are a threat. The dog does a strange canter on the other side of the street, never taking its eyes of us. Like it is trying to get behind us… Nothing comes of this. It’s just an odd moment of tension in an otherwise sleepy one street town.

For years I have had it in the back of a mind to film some kind of twisted take on a western in this place. So the dog is in the picture!

We head back to the city and film Dick amongst his cacti collection in his backyard. Sitting in the garden, he reminds me a lot of one of our mutual heroes: Mr. David Lynch.

We then return to Manifold Heights to visit a closed down petrol station / garage. Dick photographs the battered face of a petrol bowser. At last we are actually a closed petrol station!

North Geelong Silos Lost Highways 3 Building RS POV 2002/1/10 18:21:53 LS RS voice good

Our final location returns us to North Shores – to some wheat silos. The air is thick with the smell of manure, due to the close proximity of a fertilizer company. Charming. It is here we film the Charger charging (what else?) down to the end of a road that appears to end in Corio Bay. While we are filming this, we even see one or two container ships sail by.

This location is a bit of a cheat - in the sense of it not being any great discovery - we discovered it some 20 years ago when we were shooting a short movie called “Killer Instinct”! We film Dick photographing the same fenced-in building we used as a background two decades ago. Most of the footage we shoot here ends up in the title sequence.

Glad to get away from the smell, we finish the day’s shooting around 6:45 pm, pack up the car and head back to Melbourne.