Inside Toni Collette's NSW beach house featured in 'Pieces of Her'

Netflix’s latest female-led thriller series, Pieces of Her, not only features Australian actors like Toni Collette and Bella Heathcote, but Australian locations too.

Set mainly in the fictional seaside town of Belle Isle, Georgia, Pieces of Her is an adaptation of the eponymous New York Times bestselling thriller by author Karin Slaughter.

It follows 911 operator Andy (Heathcote) whose life dramatically changes when out to lunch with her demure speech therapist mother, Laura (Collette).

Laura ends up stopping a mass shooting at the local eatery, and the chilling event turns Andy’s banal life upside down, as she begins to learn her mother isn’t who she says she is. Andy then sets off on a dangerous path to get to the bottom of her life’s mystery.

While a few of the scenes were shot in Georgia, the bulk of the series’ primary locations – including the main houses – are all found in Australia, specifically New South Wales.

The spectacular Victorian Gothic Revival estate owned by the wealthy Queller family is actually ‘The Swifts‘, an 1882-built Darling Point mansion in Sydney’s east, and one of Australia’s most famous homes.

The modern monolith where the US Marshalls take Laura mid-series, is in fact the concrete and glass architectural gem known as the ‘Harry and Penelope Seidler House‘, in Killara on Sydney’s North Shore.

SOLD - $1,710,000

51 Lakeside Drive, Macmasters Beach NSW 2251

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And Laura and Andy’s charming seaside abode? That can be found on the Central Coast in MacMasters Beach – though viewers likely wouldn’t recognise the home because, considering this is a private house, Netflix significantly altered its façade for filming.

The relaxed two-storey waterside pad was originally built in 1927 for Dr John MacMaster, nephew of Allan MacMaster, the landowner who MacMasters beach is named after. Dr John dubbed the property ‘Fort William’ in honour of his family’s ancestral home in Scotland.

Originally a one-story fishing cottage, Fort William’s second level was added in 2006 by previous owners who also renovated the interiors.

The quaint home has three bedrooms and two bathrooms under the main roof, and a third bathroom and home office/guest bedroom above the standalone garage.

The 1035sqm lot is tucked against the shores of Cockrone Lagoon while only 200 metres from MacMasters Beach. The parcel has been meticulously landscaped with native gardens and lovely views to boot. It last sold in December 2016 for $1.71 million.

One positive side effect of the global pandemic saw Australia becoming a relative nirvana for movie and TV filming, thanks to government incentives – the NSW Government secured the Netflix project for Sydney through its Made In NSW fund – and a largely virus-free environment at the time of filming.

Other recent projects filmed Down Under include Nine Perfect Strangers, the Joe Exotic series and Baz Luhrmann’s highly anticipated Elvis film.