Airdate: People’s Republic of Mallacoota

Six part documentary series People’s Republic of Mallacoota will screen on ABC in early April.

Can the traumatised survivors of a bushfire-ravaged coastal community seize control of their own destiny, overcome their differences, and save their town from dying?

Produced by Renegade Films, this is a character-led observational documentary series, chronicling what happens when the citizens of a divided, disenfranchised and bushfire-ravaged Australian community roll up their sleeves, take charge of their own future, and seek to rebuild their town.

Armageddon arrived in Mallacoota on New Year’s Eve 2019. The iconic images of its residents and tourists huddled on the foreshore as a 200km-long fire front bore down upon them made the remote Victorian coastal community the international face of environmental catastrophe. As the Royal Australian Navy evacuated thousands of people trapped on Mallacoota’s beaches, the whole world witnessed Australia’s first climate-change refugees.

Weeks later, those traumatised evacuees returned to a community devastated by bushfire only to be hit by the double whammy of Covid-19. With Mallacoota’s economy in ruins, its environment scorched, and many of its residents homeless. People’s Republic of Mallacoota tells the story of a regional community with a strong streak of self-reliance and deep distrust of outsiders, that kickstarts a grassroots revolution to save their town.

People’s Republic of Mallacoota follows an ensemble cast of resolute, charismatic, and forthright regional Australians as they fight to rebuild their lives, rehabilitate their environment, and re-invent their community. And they’re in a race against a time to make sure the horrors of the last bushfire season never happen again.

The transformation of this isolated community also offers a dramatic microcosm of the urgent challenges that all Australians face as we seek to forge a common vision of our future from a multitude of competing claims. So, can Mallacoota’s citizen-led recovery provide a roadmap for the rest of us to follow? Or will this bold experiment in self-determination descend into a maelstrom of resentment and chaos?

Production credit: People’s Republic of Mallacoota is a Renegade Films Production for the ABC. Principal production investment from Screen Australia in association with Film Victoria. Producers Joe Connor, Lucy Maclaren, and Ken Connor. Director Tony Jackson. Executive Producers Joe Connor and Ken Connor. ABC Documentary Manager Stephen Oliver. Head of Factual and Culture Jennifer Collins.

Tuesday 5 April, 8pm on ABC.