Biloela

Biloela is a small town in central Queensland, the administrative centre of the Banana Shire. It is 120kms inland from the port of Gladstone and is set amid long stretches of relatively unexciting landscape. When we passed through in 2011 there seemed to be nothing particularly noteworthy about Biloela either. The only photo we took was of this brilliant bougainvillea.

Biloela came to national attention however in March 2018, when the ‘Biloela family’ were arrested in a night raid by Border Force officers and taken away for deportation. Priya and Nades are Tamils from Sri Lanka who came to Australia by boat as asylum seekers. In 2014 they settled in Biloela, where they had two daughters, Kopica and Tharnicaa and became valued members of the community.

In March 2018 their attempts to gain refugee status had all been exhausted, which meant that they were judged to be illegal arrivals and would be deported. At the last moment the deportation was held over because there was one further legal avenue, relating to the fact that the two little girls are Australian. While this process played out, in August 2019 the family was placed in immigration detention on Christmas Island, an otherwise empty off shore detention centre.

There they remained until, recently, Tharnicaa became so sick with sepsis, resulting from untreated pneumonia, that she had to be flown to Perth for treatment. Priya was allowed to go with her, while initially Nades and Kopica stayed at the detention centre. They have now joined Priya and Tharnicaa in Perth.

You would think the next step would be obvious. The Minister for Immigration has absolute discretion to grant the family visas to remain in Australia. The people of Biloela have continued to campaign for them to come home to Biloela and are eager to have them back, and there is work and accommodation for them there.

After all that they have been put through, don’t we at least owe them that much? But the Government says that, if this one small family is allowed to stay, the illegal boat arrivals will start up again. Ordinary little Biloela has demonstrated a great deal more compassion, and common sense, than the Government.