A new book recounts how an unprecedented grassroots campaign in the town of Biloela saved a refugee family from deportation.
Early one morning in March 2018, a contingent of Australian Border Force officers arrived in Biloela, a sleepy town in rural Queensland, population 5,700.
The family was transported to Gladstone, where they were put on a plane to Melbourne, the only Australian city with direct flights to Sri Lanka."It made sense that they'd fly us there," Priya writes in Home to Bilo , the book she wrote with journalist Rebekah Holt.It's a book that chronicles the four long years it took for the Nadesalingam family to return to Bilo , and everything else that happened in this dramatic story that captured the hearts and minds of the country.
However, she initially "stayed away" from the story because she expected the government would act quickly to move the family into community detention. Over the four years leading up to that point, the Nadesalingam family had endured repeated deportation attempts, a series of health crises, and relocations to both Christmas Island and Perth.By early 2022, Holt knew she wanted to write a long-form account of the family's story that still lacked a resolution.At the time, the family was in community detention in Perth, fighting for a bridging visa for Tharnicaa.
In between chapters told in Priya's voice, Holt fills in the gaps, explaining the political and legal landscape, the campaign's progress, and her own involvement in the story.
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