‘We had to speak up for our friends’: the little town that roared for a desperate family

“We just wanted to say, ‘This isn’t right, and someone needs to reverse this decision and bring them home.’ ”

All age groups, from grandmothers to children, turned out to hold placards saying “Home to Bilo”, often featuring pictures of Kopika and Tharnicaa, or drawings of cockatoos.In August 2019, the Bilo group heard that the Murugappans were once again about to be deported to Sri Lanka. They swung into action, putting a call-out on social media to anyone in Melbourne to go to the airport to protest. Several dozen responded.

Calls to let the family return to Bilo grew louder across Australia, by now including members of the government backbench. People such as Bronwyn Dendle’s dad, who’d been against the family resettling, were changing their minds. It had gone on long enough. The nation had had a gutful.of the unholy tug of war between the government and this small Queensland town has been the question of whether it is safe for the Murugappans to go back to Sri Lanka.

. People come to work at the mine, the power station and the meatworks, often staying for only a few years. It’s a transient place where friendships form quickly. Anyone who decides to make it their home permanently is embraced. People who live here value those who work hard, says 51-year-old Jeff Austin, Marie’s husband. “Part of our culture is having a go. ‘Have a go, mate!’ And that’s the thing you want to get behind and build up.

Bilo was built on migrants. The Queensland government created the town in 1924, giving away parcels of farming land with conditions that the land be cleared and put to use or would be taken back. It drew large groups from overseas, many of them Russians; after World War II, Italians and Greeks would move here, too. Sid Semple’s grandparents fled the Russian Revolution and ended up in Bilo. “They were given land, 500 to 600 acres. They cleared all the scrub and grew cotton for quite a few years.

She took an assortment of jobs, from sweeping the floor of an industrial shed to one at the meatworks, then waitressing at the Thai restaurant. As her English improved, so did the work. She later ran the power station’s cafeteria before opening her own cafe and marrying a local. With a staff of six, Rita’s Blue Cafe is the town’s most popular lunch and coffee stop. “People in Bilo care about you and it’s a good place,” says Nhi, who’s petite, with a number of tattoos, and has a high ponytail.

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