Home Hill On The Silver Screen

National television audiences were given insight into the charm of the Burdekin last week as ABC aired an episode of ‘Back Roads’ that was filmed across the region in 2023.

The host of the Australian observational documentary series, Heather Ewart, travelled to Home Hill in May last year to film an episode centred around the sugar cane industry and the Sweet Days, Hot Nights Festival.

“Sugar cane is king in this part of the world,” Heather said.

“It’s the reason the town of Home Hill exists, a community that grew up around a sugar cane mill.”

The episode opened with primary school teacher Nikki Vass giving Heather a tour through the town.

“It’s certainly changed a lot since when I was a young child,” Nikki said.

“All of these shops used to be full, with things like furniture stores, hardware shops and my favourite, the material shop.”

Heather then witnessed authentic Burdekin experiences in a cane fire and a cane cutting competition at the festival.

Delving into the region’s cane cutting history and Italian heritage, she then interviewed Alfie Musumeci on his family’s ties to the region before joining Desley Musumeci and her monthly cooking group, Pandemonium.

“Some of them are recipes that our grandmothers had and if they’re not passed on to the future generation, those recipes are going to die with them, so we have to pass our knowledge onto younger people to learn how to do it,” said Pandemonium group member Teresa Scuderi.

Then diving further back into the Burdekin’s past, Heather met Jim Gaston, a Birri Gubba man and Gudjuda Ranger who shared the work of the Gudjuda Reference Group, including cultural tours and “turtle rodeo”, the capturing and tagging of sea turtles off the coast of Bowen.

“When I first went to school, it was always Captain Cook, and when I went to high school, they were teaching us French, and I said, ‘Why can’t we be taught our language?’ and I got the cane for that,” Jim said.

“That made me worse in wanting to get up there and promote our culture and who we are.”

Trekking north to Ayr, the host sat down with Les Henaway and his wife Denese, where Les shared the history of his grandfather who was a victim of ‘Black Birding’, a practice that brought South Sea Islanders to work in the cane fields through coercion and force.

Ms Ewart then returned to the Vass family, where Chris shared his poem ‘Family’ and Gloria prepared the family’s weekly feast.

“I just really believe that this is something we have to do to keep the contact and also make them realise, especially the little one’s coming through, how important it is to have family connections,” Gloria said.

Joining the Vass family for lunch, Heather concluded that Home Hill is about more than sugar cane.

“No matter what their cultures or where people have come from, they’ve laid down firm roots here, and what’s at the heart of it for all of them is family,” she said.

The episode of ‘Back Roads’, titled ‘Home Hill’, is available to stream at iview.abc.net.au.

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Gudjuda Reference Group Aboriginal Corporation Senior Ranger Jim Gaston and Back Roads Host Heather Ewart. Photo supplied: ABCTv

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