Visit Mission Beach, the location for 'Irreverent'

This is at Mission Beach, a 13-kilometre stretch of picture-perfect coastline located midway between Cairns and Townsville with box office views over Dunk and Bedarra Islands.

Irreverent, a feel-good Aussie drama on screens this summer, follows a Chicago crime figure as he clashes with a hot soup of small-town misfits - there's bogans, bluecoats and busy bodies - played by a raft of Aussie acting greats including Wayne Blair and Russell Dykstra.

Shining even brighter than the oddball characters are epic Queensland backdrops, like the Gold Coast skyline (with plenty of dreamy scenes set in Palazzo Versace Gold Coast) and the shoreline around Mission Beach.

American actor, Colin Donnell (of Chicago Med fame) who plays the crim on the run posing as the town's new church minister Reverend Mack loved his time in far north Queensland.

"Being up in far north Queensland was such a joy. It (Mission Beach) was a small town and I think our film crew doubled the population at the time. But what I remember most (about) being there was that me and my wife and kid could walk down the street getting coffee," he said.

"There was a lovely group of retired people who would meet there every single morning at seven o'clock and we would sit and have coffee. They would love my daughter and got to know my wife. I miss the community. They were so embracing of us being there."

If the series makes you want to have your own Irreverent getaway, here's how you do it.

Hang out with a Clump (Mission Beach) resident

Executive officer of Cassowary Coast Tourism in Mission Beach, Patrick Bluett, is delighted with how his hometown (known as Clump in the Netflix series) has come up in the series and says, just like the characters in Irreverent, Mission Beach is an eclectic mix of people who are "very laid back, welcoming and eager to mix with visitors and happy to point out secret spots to explore."

Nobody knows the area's hidden gems more than local resident Nancy Lowe, whose Mission Beach Dive operation takes visitors to relatively unchartered reefs.

"No pontoon, no semi-sub, not roped off areas. Just the reef as it always was," Nancy said.

She also recommends travellers make time to "just sit under a tree. Read a book. Contemplate your navel. Or go for a swim."

Congregate at the Old Church

In the Netflix series, Reverend Mack lords over a timber chapel that is constantly under threat of redevelopment. Just 40 minutes' drive from Mission Beach, the fortunes of the Church of the Sacred Heart faced a similar fate. That was until local tourism legends, Mark and Judy Evans of Paronella Park fame, breathed life into the parish building, transforming it onto The Old Church - a mid-century retreat with a divine loft bedroom, wide timber floors and retro comfort.

Take a walk in the Wet Tropics wonderland

When one of the characters in Irreverent goes missing in the rainforest, the entire town joins a search and rescue mission. Avoid the drama and take one of the well sign-posted hiking trails around Mission Beach such as the Musgravea Track or Lacey's Creek Walk. Or play it safe and head to Mamu Tropical Skywalk, a 350-metre long elevated walkway that meanders through the World-Heritage wet tropics. True nature lovers can also choose to spend a night deep in 50 acres of lush rainforest in a low-impact hut at the adults-only Sanctuary Retreat, Mission Beach or shack up at Licuala Lodge a Queenslander style bed and breakfast surrounded by green and run by friendly owners Dawn and Blair.

Soak up the Irreverent scenes

Visitors to Mission Beach can wake up to the same palm-fringed sea views broadcast in the Netflix series by staying at Castaways Resort & Spa, Mission Beach or lazing around its bar and horizon-edge 25-metre infinity lap pool. For quieter escapes, The Bungalows at Wongaling Beach come with fat tyre bikes perfect for exploring the 13-kilometre long beach. Both offer those epic views of Dunk Island that pop in and out of Irreverent.

Experience Murder in Mission

The plot of Irreverent starts with the murder of a Chicago mob boss's son. Thankfully, the only murder making headlines these days is Murdering Point Winery in the nearby village of Silkwood that has been producing exotic fruit wine for 60 years and is open for tasting. For the record, the name Murdering Point was coined in the late 1800s after a slew of deathly reprisals on the local Indigenous people following a tragic shipwreck. It has since been replaced by Kurrimine which means "Rising Sun" in local language.