Neighbours

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
PHOTOGRAPHED IN 2022 & 2025

Through photos and videos, I’ve carefully documented the Neighbours sets and studios prior to demolition. The galleries labelled 2022 feature photos taken following the first cancellation (which turned out to be a hiatus), with those labelled 2025 showing a completely vacated site following the programme’s permanent end.

_{New map coming soon} ^{A map of Nunawading Studios in the context of Neighbours}

Studios

For series one in 1985, Neighbours was filmed in studio 7 of Channel 7’s Melbourne studios (opened 1956) at 49-61 Coventry Street, pictured below in 2025.

When 7 cancelled the programme after less than a year, it was picked up by Network Ten who took over production at Nunawading Studios, 104-168 Hawthorn Road, Forest Hill. Rather conveniently, the studios were located just five minutes away (by car) to the Ramsay Street filming location!

HARDCORE FACT: The Neighbours studio block once doubled as Wentworth Detention Centre in 1980s soap, Prisoner: Cell Block H. This later inspired the modern TV series, Wentworth, also filmed in Melbourne at a former university campus at 80-90 Champion Road.

All five studios (A,B,C,D,F) at Nunawading were used for Neighbours from 1986 until filming ceased for the final time in 2025.

Gallery (2025)

Backlot

Filming for outside scenes took place on the outdoor lot, which originally housed the set for 1981 series, Holiday Island, starring Tom Oliver (Neighbours’ Lou Carpenter). $300,000 was spent on building a convincing set, but the programme was ridiculed for appearing overcast and windy throughout the series. Holiday Island didn’t make its first anniversary.

^{The Holiday Island outdoor set, courtesy Nostalgia Central}

But all was not lost. Neighbours was able to transform the set into the Lassiters Complex, making the pool into a pond-type thing and repurposing the artificial lake as a key location which came to be known as Lassiters Lake.

^{_{Aerial photo of the newly-formed lake}}
^{_{© Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 1981}}

The set was redecorated and rebuilt throughout the early-mid 1990s (with and without corresponding storylines) but fell into disuse towards the end of the decade. At the same time, the ‘Power Road’ set was gradually developed along the studios’ rear service road and scenes were shot here from 1997 onwards (although the car yard existed from 1992).

^{Aerial photo of Power Road in 2005 ©Whitehorse City Council}

Lassiters Complex was rejuvenated in 2001, however asbestos was found a few years later so most of the buildings were destroyed in a 2004 arson storyline then rebuilt. However, the Lassiters Hotel building itself was retained and remains the only surviving original set structure.

Gallery (2022)

Gallery (2025)

Street

Back in the late 90s/early 2000s, the BBC used to host the occasional post-broadcast webchat where you could send real-time questions to selected members of the Neighbours cast. Looking back, it was actually quite ahead of its time in a way, which is perhaps why I can recall to this day the child me asking actress Krista Vendy where Ramsay Street really was.

The answer – which somehow lodged itself in my brain for life – was Pin Oak Court in Vermont South. The real street was built in the 1970s/early 80s and was chosen for Neighbours thanks to its quiet and out-of-the-way location, plus the fact that some of the houses were accessible from Billabong Park behind.

The houses at 1-6 Pin Oak Court doubled as 22-32 Ramsay Street; most of them cleverly numbered in such a way that an extra number could be stuck on for filming. Those that couldn’t would simply have the on-screen number affixed and the real house number masked.

^{The outline of the ’32’ affixed for filming at no. 1} ^{can be made out on this mailbox}

To compensate for the inconvenience of filming and the fact that contracts between the production company and property owners prohibited external alternations to their homes, residents were paid and provided a 24/7 security guard due to the street’s popularity with visitors from around the world.

^{A sheet on the security guard’s dashboard, surprisingly referencing Neighbours}

Despite the contractual arrangement, filming opportunities on the properties themselves were limited – after all, the homes are real; Ramsay Street is not.

In 2013, recreations of the no. 22, 26 and 32 backyards were built on the lot at Nunawading Studios, providing unhindered filming access at any time. A small-scale version of no. 28’s backyard was also added in 2017.

See the Backlot galleries above for photos of these.

Gallery (2022)