This movie was filmed entirely on location in South Australia in Adelaide, the Adelaide Hills, and the Riverland in the state's north-east.
The name of the fruit cannery business was the "Swan Reach Preserving Company".
A number of scenes in the film featured a camera filter peachy coloured sepia tone aesthetic.
Inspiration for the screenplay came from various sources, according to screenwriter Sue Smith. Indeed, parts of the character of Steph (Emma Lung) came from a children's book that Smith had read in her teens, whilst the closing of the Letona Cannery in 1993, along with Smith's own dismay at the demise of the trade union movement, also inspired the movie's back story.
Screenwriter Sue Smith explained the changes the early script went through: "The first draft was very different in that it did not include the back story of Jude, Alan, Jass, and Johnny. The story existed but was never dramatized in a second time frame. The major changes came from first to second draft. That is when I introduced the diary."