Airdate: Back Roads

On Monday’s Back Roads Heather Ewart heads to the tiny border town of Hebel in Queensland, where the population is just 67.

In this episode presenter Heather Ewart travels to the border town of Hebel in south-west Queensland, a tiny outpost that clings to a crossroad 4 kilometres north of the NSW border. Hebel has been through the wringer over the past decade, battling severe drought, floods, even a mice plague.

Hebel is a “blink and you’ll miss it” kind of place. There’s not much more to it than a pub, a general store, a caravan park and a little primary school with just six students.

When the pub and local shop were finally forced to close their doors in 2020, the town was on the brink of falling off the map.

But a local grazier wasn’t about to let that happen. When the drought broke in early 2021, Frank Deshon and his family bought up the town’s entire real estate portfolio. Arriving in Hebel on a sweltering 38- degree day, Heather heads straight to the pub to meet him and some of the locals.

Frank was determined to stop Hebel turning into a ghost-town but his plans were derailed by the pandemic. A month or so after he bought the town, the Queensland government reimposed a hard border lockdown with NSW. A roadblock and checkpoint were set up right outside the pub.

But, as Heather discovers, in hard times people always seem to find a silver lining.

8pm Monday on ABC.