A Sunday Drive with Dylan Walsh of Garden State Journal

In today’s fast-paced digital world, 22-year-old Australian filmmaker Dylan Walsh is inviting us to slow down and appreciate simple, everyday moments.

Dylan is the creative mind behind popular Instagram and TikTok page Garden State Journal. He spends his days capturing candid footage of Melbourne – its bustling streets, historic neighbourhoods and fascinating locals – and celebrating the city’s unique character.

There’s something wistful and nostalgic about the scenes he films. Their dreamy, pensive tempo makes the most ordinary interactions feel special.

This contemplative style emerged during Dylan’s early exploration of the craft. He discovered his passion for filmmaking as a teenager – after-school shifts at a fast-food restaurant in Fawkner in Melbourne’s north helped fund his first camera: a Blackmagic Cinema Camera 4K.

“I bought the camera that I still use today,” he says. “It's the best decision I ever made in my life.”

Around the age of 16, Dylan began making his first film: a documentary set in Fawkner and the neighbouring suburb of Glenroy, based on the lives of his friends. He planned scenes as they rode around on pushbikes, his $3000 camera strapped to his back.

Untold stories

Raised in a household with Maltese and Australian roots, Dylan says it was like “growing up in your own little world that only you know about”. His childhood was filled with interesting stories; he fondly recalls everyone’s grandparents playing bocce and other games at their primary school, and sneaking into the hall at lunchtime to watch his nunna play bingo.

For a long time, a career in filmmaking seemed out of the question for Dylan. Hollywood felt so far away. “It's so disconnected from Melbourne and where we live,” he says.

Then a friend told him about a movie being shot with actor Hugo Weaving just a few minutes away from where they were growing up. “They've blocked off where my mum’s salon is!” his friend said at the time.

The film was The Mule (2014), and it made Dylan realise his surrounding suburbs were worth documenting. The idea for Garden State Journal – which was originally a magazine – took hold, and Dylan got to work capturing the lesser-known stories of his neighbourhood.

It was these kinds of niche experiences that Dylan hoped to capture in his work. “I wanted to show what I'd grown up around and how I was moulded naturally by the things I’d seen and experiences I had,” he says.

A love letter to Melbourne

As he filled Garden State Journal’s pages, Dylan also began shooting videos for social media – beginning with a naturalistic video of a friend walking Melbourne’s streets.

“I got some pretty good views on TikTok… that was when I was like, oh, I’m onto something here,” he says.

Often, it’s the simplest things that make Dylan want to pick up his camera and start filming. “When I see an old brick house with a beautiful ’90s Mercedes-Benz parked out the front… or milk bars or fish and chip shops on the corner, they really stand out to me. Not just from a nostalgic point of view, but because this is something beautiful and we should celebrate it, in the same way other people document their city's history.”

His follower count climbed, media outlets got in touch, and he was soon dubbed the "Scorsese of TikTok". The nickname is an apt one; Dylan’s filmmaking influences include the rough realism of Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets (1973) and Midnight Cowboy (1969) – including the improvised “I'm walkin' here!" scene with Dustin Hoffman on New York’s Sixth Avenue – and the intimacy of John Cassavetes’ unvarnished domestic scenes.

Dylan’s videos are a tribute to Melbourne’s unique charm. “If I see a beautiful old house, I think, ‘I better get a shot of that. That might not be here tomorrow’,” he says.

The same goes for people. “It may be the only image someone ever captures of them that will ever exist outside of family photos.”

A Sunday Drive with Mercedes-Benz

To celebrate the history of Mercedes-Benz on Australian roads, we tasked Dylan and the Garden State Journal team to capture a short film of Mercedes-Benz vehicles on the road around Melbourne, called A Sunday Drive.

True to Dylan’s signature style, the film masterfully blends the old with the new. A mix of modern and classic Mercedes-Benz vehicles feature throughout, from the vintage Mercedes-Benz 280 SE through to the iconic Mercedes-AMG G 63.

It also included a stunning Mercedes=Benz 300 SEL with a fascinating story behind it.

"The vehicle belonged to my friend Alexander's dad, who works for a coffee roasting business called Roasting Warehouse," says Dylan.

He explains that the car has become a symbol of Alexander’s family’s success. “They have a successful business. They’ve come far. And this car… it's celebrating that,” he says. “The way they talk about this Mercedes, and what the brand means to them… the car is a way of telling their story.”

Perhaps his favourite vintage car from A Sunday Drive was the “beautiful old Mercedes ” (a green 1973 W 114) in the opening shot. Dylan recalls driving down a street in Carlton with his director of photography Jasper Newman and seeing it parked in front of a double-storey townhouse – immediately, he thought, “that’s the one.”

“[Mercedes-Benz] cars are always beautiful. Every iteration or model is beautifully designed and amazing. But this one stood out because of how beautifully framed it was against the backdrop. As if it were in a movie,” Dylan explains.

While filming, the vehicles sparked his imagination. “You can think of so many stories of who this car belonged to and why it's in this suburb,” he says. “It could have been there 10 years ago, it could have been there 20 years ago… it feels like it will always be there.” 

Dylan credits composer Tom Godbert for creating the incredible musical score for A Sunday Drive. They’ve only been working together for a few months, but Dylan says he is thrilled with their collaborative process; after listening to the filmmaker’s references, which include musical samples, riffs and ideas, Tom will create an entirely new digital score from scratch.

“I literally gave him the words, ‘upbeat but romantic; romantic but also mysterious’… he really understands what's going on in my head,” the filmmaker say.

Working with a composer is a sign of the direction Dylan wants to pursue. “I want to be fully original… it’s all made from scratch. Like a home-made recipe.”