It’s a story years in the making and one with a happy ending that made it perfect for the stage.
Back to Bilo, a collaboration between Belloo Creative and Queensland Theatre, is based on the true story of the Nadesalingam family, who were forced to leave their home in Biloela, and thrown into detention.
The play chronicles their ordeal, including their time in immigration detention. It also tells the story of the community’s strong campaign to bring them home to Biloela, the Central Queensland town colloquially known as Bilo.
The advent of a Labor government following the last federal election ruled a line under their ordeal. And while it was a good result, the writer of Back to Bilo, Belloo Creative’s Katherine Lyall-Watson, says it is a cautionary tale.
“It has a happy ending but there’s another reason Priya Nadesalingam wanted us to do a story,” Lyall-Watson explains. “She wanted to make sure other refugees don’t have to go through the same thing.
“She is acutely aware of how many people are in a similar position. So, while it’s a wonderful happy ending for this family, there is an awareness that it’s not over for other people.”
The heartwarming play, to be presented at the Bille Brown Theatre in South Brisbane in September, is part of this year’s Brisbane Festival. It’s also one of the jewels in the crown of Queensland Theatre’s 2025 program. Tickets have been selling fast, because everyone knows this story and many of us feel we have a stake in it, having morally supported the family throughout their ordeal.
You might like
The idea for the play originally came from theatre director Matt Scholten, who asked Lyall-Watson to come on as writer. Lyall-Watson has form in this field, having written other plays based on real events, including Motherland (stories of three women from different times and places, united by their experiences of exile and displacement), Rovers (a contemporary comedy drama) and Boy, Lost … a true story of a boy’s lifelong search for his mother, adapted from Kristina Olsson’s award-winning memoir of the same name.
‘That wasn’t the Australia we know … But the family is not bitter at all … it’s astonishing because they just have a huge amount of gratitude and they thank Australians that they are safe’
After developing the original concept for Back to Bilo, Scholten passed the baton to Belloo Creative with Caroline Dunphy as director and dramaturg Kathryn Kelly working with Lyall-Watson as writer to bring it to fruition.
“For me, it has been four years of work researching and writing,” Lyall-Watson says. “It has been a long journey but it’s a nice swift 70 minutes in the theatre.”
Of course, it may have had a different ending without a change of government. As it was, Lyall-Watson feels that the plight of Priya and Nades, and their two Australian-born daughters, Kopika and Tharunicaa, showed Australian authorities and certain politicians (including wannabe PM and former Liberal leader Peter Dutton) in an ugly light.
“That wasn’t the Australia we know,” Lyall-Watson says. “But the family is not bitter at all. We can’t imagine what they went through but it’s astonishing because they just have a huge amount of gratitude and they thank Australians that they are safe and can get on with their lives in Biloela.”
There is film footage in the play, based on extensive interviews, and there are re-enactments of what the family went through.
“The deportation scene is quite harrowing,” Lyall-Watson says. “I wanted to make sure Priya and Nades were prepared for it. That last thing we want to do is traumatise them.”
Subscribe for updates
The play also includes the story of the people who fought for them, notably social workers Bronwyn Dendle and Angela Fredericks and immigration lawyer Simone Cameron, who all appear as characters in the play using their real words. This is a verbatim theatre work.
Lyall-Watson has visited Biloela five times over the life of the project and is shaping up for another visit when we chat.
A public reading of the work-in-progress was held in the Biloela Civic Hall in 2024 as part of the WOW (Women of the World) Festival. And it has been worked on since then, adding and subtracting along the way. They also had Tamil language and cultural consultants.
WOW’s Cathy Hunt described the play as “a must-see production about the triumph of the human spirit and the power of community”.
The people of Biloela had welcomed the Tamil family after they fled war-torn Sri Lanka, only for the family to be persecuted by the Australian government.
Four years after settling happily in Biloela there was a knock on the door and the family of four was ripped away in a dawn raid. Their story could have ended there, but a brave band of Biloela women wouldn’t give up on them. Fighting alongside the young refugee family they launched a grassroots, people-powered campaign that galvanised hundreds of thousands of ordinary Australians, who demanded the family be brought back to Bilo.
So Back to Bilo is the remarkable true account of the family’s ordeal in the nightmare limbo of immigration detention, a story of how love is stronger than fear and of how persistence and togetherness can win against crushing odds.
The cast features Liz Buchanan as Bronwyn, Matt Domingo as Nades, Sarah McIntosh as Simone, Erika Naddei as Angela, Menaka Thomas as Uru and Leah Vandenberg as Priya.
It seems only fitting that the play should have its world premiere at Brisbane Festival in the Bille Brown Theatre before it goes on to the Darwin and Perth festivals. The late Bille Brown, a theatre icon loved by all, just happened to hail from Biloela. In fact, he was known as “The Boy from Biloela”.
He may be up there looking down with a smile on his face when this play comes to the stage in the theatre named in his honour. A warning. Take some tissues or a hanky.
Back to Bilo will play the Bille Brown Theatre, South Brisbane, September 3 to 16, as part of Brisbane Festival.