Delvene Delaney returns to Kakadu 40 years after Crocodile Dundee

As the sun rises on the drive from Darwin to Kakadu, Delvene Delaney hears a familiar laugh.

"They're smaller than the ones that we have at home and they make a different call," she says.

For other kookaburras and their rivals, the maniacal cackling serves as a warning to stay away, but for the Australian actress and producer, the sound is a welcome reminder of her very own larrikin, her late husband, John Cornell.

Paul Hogan, pictured with a crocodile while on set for Crocodile Dundee. Supplied: Kakadu Tourism

The original safari truck from the first Crocodile Dundee movie has been restored and was taken to western Queensland for a regional film festival earlier this year. ABC News: Jay Carstens

Delvene Delaney driving the truck, which has been restored in the decades since it featured in Crocodile Dundee. ABC News: Jay Carstens

Australian actors Paul Hogan, Delvene Delaney and John Cornell pictured together in 1975. File: Supplied/ABC

Australian actor Paul Hogan was the star of the 1986 film. Supplied: IMDB/Paramount

Linda Kozlowski starred alongside Paul Hogan in Crocodile Dundee. Supplied: Rimfire Films

A film script from the 1980s. ABC News: Pete Garnish

Mick Dundee served as the film's protagonist. ABC News: Pete Garnish

"I kept thinking about John, who I was last here with, who passed away five years ago," she says.

"Even though he's all around me, and particularly in the shape of a kookaburra feather, he's not with me.

"So, there was a little bit of sadness, but there was also a lot of excitement about coming back."

The last time Delaney visited the national park, about 240 kilometres south-east of Darwin, was during the filming of Crocodile Dundee and its sequel Crocodile Dundee II — both co-written and produced by Cornell.

With Paul Hogan starring as crocodile hunter Mick Dundee, the original 1986 film put the Northern Territory on the map and remains Australia's highest grossing film of all time, raking in US$328 million at box offices world-wide.

Returning for the 40th anniversary of Crocodile Dundee, Delaney says while the area has been built up into a tourist destination, the "outback is unchanged".

"I love the fact that you can feel the sky, and it just seems so vast, it makes me feel quite small as a human," she tells ABC News.

"It feels beautiful and I think 'feel' is kind of the operative word for Kakadu because it's not really somewhere that you visit, it's somewhere that you feel, at least for me because the air is different and the smells are different and obviously the sights and the sounds.

"It's kind of an experience that you embody and that's what I love about it."

For these reasons, Delaney says, the "quintessentially Australian" national park was chosen as the backdrop of the movie.

Despite the success of The Paul Hogan Show, both Hogan and his then co-star Cornell, best known for his character Strop, struggled to gain financial backing to produce the film.

In the end, it was about 2,500 individual investors, including suburban mums and dads, who raised Crocodile Dundee's shoestring budget of just $8.8 million.

Four years after Cornell's death from Parkinson's disease in 2021, Delaney released Love of an Icon: The Legend of Crocodile Dundee, which she co-wrote and directed.

The documentary gives viewers a glimpse into the making of the iconic Aussie films.

"Oftentimes you'll see the crew in their underpants and nothing else except their work boots," she laughs.

"It was so damn hot and [they had to] strip off, as you weren't going to dive into the lagoon, for example, for a quick swim because there's crocs in there."

Delaney was initially inspired to make the documentary after discovering behind-the-scenes footage while working on a restoration of the original film, which was re-released last year.

"To see it come to life, the way that Russell Boyd, the cinematographer, would have originally seen what he was shooting through his viewfinder, that's what the restoration did because the technology that we have in cinemas now matches 4K and 6K restorations," she says.

At 75, Delaney says it was a huge undertaking.

"A lot of people might have baulked at that at my age, but it was like, well, what have I got to lose? It doesn't matter if you're young or old, just go for it. Never give up," she says.

Like many Australians, Crocodile Dundee is a nostalgic comfort film for her — she "never gets tired of it" and still notices something new each time.

Despite doubling as one of the country's most effective tourism campaigns, Delaney believes the film's universal themes have allowed it to stay relevant all this time later.

"I feel a great deal of affection," she says.

"That film's been in my life for all of those years in one way or another … it's such a feel-good film to me as well. It always brings a smile.

"Dundee has all of these inherent values and he won't sort of clobber you over the head to lecture you about it, but he personifies them and it's kind of an intangible quality and yet everybody can really feel it."