Inside Biloela: the tiny Queensland town fighting for refugee rights

In this episode of Good Weekend Talks, we look at Biloela, the tiny Queensland town thrust into the spotlight after embracing a family of Sri Lankan asylum seekers as their own.

Anne Hyland, a senior writer with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, argues that the town’s resistance to the detention of the Murugappan family has put Australia’s border control policy on the international map. She visited the remote town – 150 kilometres south of Rockhampton, with a population of just under 6000 – for our cover story this week: “From Biloela with love: How a conservative community in outback Queensland – and the family they’re fighting for – changed the national conversation on refugees.”

Anne is joined on the podcast by Biloela resident Angela Fredericks, one of the women who has led the campaign to keep Sri Lankan refugees Nades and Priya Murugappan and their daughters Kopika and Tharnicaa in Australia.

With moderation from Good Weekend editor Katrina Strickland, they chat about everything from what life is like in the small rural town and how the campaign to keep this family there was born, to the lack of safety for Tamils in their native Sri Lanka and how the discretionary powers of Immigration Minister Alex Hawke may be the only way this family can return from Perth to their adopted outback home.

Good Weekend Talks offers readers the chance to delve even deeper each week into Good Weekend’s most intriguing stories, with lively insight from writers, editors and experts. Listen to more episodes by subscribing to Good Weekend Talks wherever you get your podcasts.

For the full feature story, see Saturday’s Good Weekend, or visit The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.