Priya Nadesalingam 'BILOELA IS OUR FOREVER HOME'

THE TAMIL FAMILY THAT CAPTURED AUSTRALIA'S HEARTS HAVE FINALLY FOUND PEACE

- Sara Tapia

When most people talk about the idea of their “forever home”, it consists of four walls, a roof and maybe a swimming pool or media room. But for Priya Nadesalingam and Nades Murugappan, their forever home is so much more than just a house. For them, forever is a town located in Central Queensland where they started their family eight years ago and a community who never gave up fighting for their safe return.

“Occasionally [my daughters] ask questions. Last week they asked, ‘How long are we going to be in Biloela for?’” Priya tells WHO exclusively. “And I assure them that we are going to be here forever.”

If you’re familiar with the family’s story, as many Australians now are, you may start to understand Kopika and Tharnicaa’s question. In March 2018, Tamil refugees Priya and Nades’ home in rural Biloela was stormed in a shocking dawn raid by immigration officials, with the couple and their two Australian-born daughters quickly bundled into awaiting cars and sent to a detention centre in Melbourne.

They would go on to spend the next four years held in detention, both in Melbourne, Perth and on Christmas Island, living through hellish conditions no person, let alone a family with young children, ever should. “The first eight months where we were locked in a room, where the children couldn’t even go out in the sunlight – it was very difficult for us to see them in that way,” Priya explains. “And then when we were taken to Christmas Island, seeing that the girls were suffering due to lack of support, it was very difficult and we felt so helpless.”