Back to Bilo

Priya and Nades left war-torn Sri Lanka and found each other in regional Queensland. They married, had two daughters, worked hard and settled into a simple but happy country life.

The community welcomed them with open arms – but four years later came a knock at the door and they were ripped away in a dawn raid.

Their story could have ended there, but a brave band of Biloela women weren’t giving up on them so easily.

Fighting alongside the young refugee family, they launched a grassroots, people-powered campaign that galvanised hundreds of thousands of ordinary Australians to demand the family be brought back to Bilo. This is the remarkable true account of one 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.

Back to Bilo is a profoundly moving new play from celebrated local company Belloo Creative (Boy, Lost) and is made with – and from – the heart of regional Queensland.

“A must-see production about the triumph of the human spirit and the power of community.”
— Cathy Hunt, Women of the World Festival