Emotional scenes as Nadesalingam family return to Biloela
The Nadesalingam family have disembarked their final flight on the way home to Biloela with a welcome that brought tears of joy.
There were emotional scenes as the Nadesalingam family landed at Thangool Airport, their final stop on the way home to the central Queensland town of Biloela.
Friends cheered as Priya Nadesalingam, Nades Nadesalingam and their two daughters Kopika and Tharnicaa, disembarked the plane.
Priya was brought to tears as those watching on chanted her name.
Footage shared on social media showed Priya so overwhelmed with joy when reunited with friends that she dropped to the ground.
Very emotional scenes in #Biloela The Nadesalingams are back. @abcnews@abcbrisbane@HometoBilopic.twitter.com/K7rVURcLVC
— Jessica van Vonderen (@jessvanvonderen) June 10, 2022
Smiles, tears and hugs as the plane touches down in Biloela with the Nadesalingum family on board. Dancing and singing quickly broke out in the crowd afterwards @abcnewspic.twitter.com/WKGyfkwKWD
— Katrina Beavan (@katrina_beavan) June 10, 2022
A crowd waiting at the airport held welcome signs with streamers as they jumped and cheered.
They danced in celebration to Coming Home by Sheppard.
Despite a mammoth grassroots campaign to bring the family home, the Nadesalingam family spent more than 1500 days in detention.
Last month, it was announced they would be allowed to return home to Biloela on bridging visas after more than four years spent in limbo.
Speaking to media at the airport, Priya said they were “so happy” to be home.
She said her children were “not good” mentally and physically after living in detention, which she described as inhumane.
She pleaded with the government to let them stay permanently and give her girls a future with certainty.
Priya explained that the Biloela community were role models for her daughters and she wanted them to grow up and show as much kindness.
As for what she first plans to do in Biloela, she said: “I have lots of conversations and lots of hugs to do.”
The family were all smiles earlier Friday as they headed to the airport to catch their final flight on their journey to Biloela.
Photos of the family on the way to Brisbane Airport were shared on Twitter, with the two young girls holding stuffed toy cockatoos.
The name Biloela is believed to come from an Aboriginal word for cockatoo and the bird is on the “Welcome to Biloela” sign.
A photo of the family standing together inside the airport was also shared.
The Nadesalingam family flew from Brisbane to Thangool Airport just after 1pm on Friday. From there, it’s just an 11km drive to the Biloela town centre.
Nine News reporter Natarjsha Kramer said council workers had been at Thangool Airport since 5am preparing for the family’s arrival.
“They’ve been scrubbing the windows, doing all the gardening, just making sure it’s perfect,” she said.
“One said to me it’s the biggest thing the town has ever seen.”
Not long now! #HomeToBilopic.twitter.com/gka7v8Thnh
— HometoBilo (@HometoBilo) June 10, 2022
Accompanying the family back to Biloela, friend and spokeswoman of the Home to Bilo movement, Angela Fredericks, said flying to Brisbane on Wednesday was a day of firsts.
“Getting to the airport, that was the first time the family have gotten to make their own travel plans,” she said, speaking to news.com.au from Brisbane.
“It was the first time they’ve walked into an airport through the front entrance and now they’ll get to sit on a plane together.”
"Me and my family are very happy to start our journey back to my community in Bilo. Thank you to all [of you people in] Perth, thanks. Love you Perth." - Priya Nadesaslingam. #HomeToBilopic.twitter.com/HEkCKJjjQR
— HometoBilo (@HometoBilo) June 8, 2022
The community of Biloela have been anticipating and preparing for a homecoming that’s been four years in the making.
This ranged from the practical – like finding and furnishing a home and sourcing a car – to the celebratory.
Witnessing the momentum growing among locals, Ms Fredericks said the excitement was palpable.
“It’s been so amazing just watching all these people come out of the woodwork in the last couple of weeks,” she told news.com.au.
“We’ve had so many amazing community organisations and businesses in town who have just wanted to support and help in whatever way they can to make the family feel back at home.”
Ms Frederiks first met the family when their paths crossed at the local hospital where Ms Fredericks worked as a social worker and the Nadesalingams' welcomed their daughters Kopika in 2015 and Tharnicaa in 2017.
As a result of living in the small town of Biloela, they soon became friends.
“Priya and Nades were such community players and went along to all the community events,” she said.
“Nades volunteers at Vinnies, he was the trolley attendant at Woolies and he met a lot of people that way.
“When they were taken, there was such a grief in the town. They were so many people who were like: ‘They’ve got the wrong family’.”
In 2018, the family were removed from Biloela in an early morning Australian Border Force raid over a visa that had expired by a single day.
They were given 10 minutes to pack, before they were escorted away by police and border control Serco guards, The Guardian reports.
In the four years that followed, the Nadesalingam family were taken to the immigration detention centre in Broadmeadows Melbourne and then the Christmas Island Detention Centre in 2019, after an attempt to deport the couple failed while they were mid-air on a flight to Sri Lanka.
As of June 2021, the family were allowed to live in a community detention facility in Perth, before they were finally granted a bridging visa by interim home affairs minister Jim Chalmers on May 25, 2022.
A home to come back to
With their return to Biloela confirmed and imminent, May – a local – told news.com.au that the anticipation was “huge”. Banners and signs were organised, and a welcoming committee was in the works.
“Everyone in the community has done so much and they just keep on going,” she said.
For example, ensuring that the family have a home to come back to has been a collaborative project of kindness and altruism.
The Nadesalingam’s new home was donated by an interstate investor, who waived six months of rent for the Nadesalingam family after learning of their plight.
With a background in property, May helped to tee up the arrangement between the Melbourne man, who is also a family friend.
Further arrangements have also been made should the Nadesalingams' require further assistance after the initial six months.
While he wishes to remain anonymous, May said the investor was “thrilled to bits” to be able to help.
“He just said that it just feels so good to be able to do something positive,” she said.
Local businesses also helped to furnish the home, from manchester and mattresses to furniture and food.
Watching the town come together, May said the excitement and optimism was a welcome change after the tribulations caused by Covid and the lead up to the Federal Election.
“It restores your faith in the fact that people do care about other people,” she said.
“Before the election you saw so much negativity around. Now it’s like okay, everybody is able to focus on something positive.”
A welcome home to remember
On Saturday, the family will have their official welcome party at the Biloela multicultural Flourish Festival.
The Sunday also marks youngest daughter Tharnicaa’s fifth birthday – and her first celebration not spent in detention.
In honour of the occasion, the girl has requested a “pink-themed” party with a koala-shaped cake.
“It will just be such a new experience for her because she’s never had a birthday party like that,” said Ms Fredericks.
“We just want her to have these childhood experiences.”
It’s set to be a stark difference to her first birthday – in which Tharnicaa was denied a birthday cake, as well and her most recent, where she was battling sepsis and potential organ failure.
After suffering symptoms like 40C temperatures, diarrhoea and vomiting, it took authorities two weeks to fly the child to a Perth hospital where she was diagnosed with pneumonia.
Speaking to media after landing in Brisbane on Wednesday afternoon, Priya shared her family’s excitement around their eminent return.
“Me and my family are very happy to start our journey back to my community in Bilo,” she said.
Driving off, Priya yelled out: “Hello, Brisbane! Hello, Queensland!”. Photos from the moment show the family with toothy grins and hands mid-wave.
But behind the smiles and a “couple of ‘are we there yets’” from the girls, Ms Fredericks said the flight was filled with “many emotions and healing from traumatic events”.
“As the plane took off and we were in the air, it was Priya who said ‘it just feels like all the weight, all the heaviness has left me,’” said Ms Fredericks.
“They’re not quite home yet, but they’re almost there.”
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