The deaths of 15 young backpackers in a deliberately lit fire at The Palace Backpackers Hostel on 23 June 2000 shocked the residents of the small regional Queensland town of Childers, and deeply traumatised the survivors.
Rod Ainsworth is a creative producer, writer and director working in Bundaberg in regional Queensland, and has written a new song cycle – in collaboration with composer John Babbage of Brisbane ensemble Topology – to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fire. Titled The Palace, the resulting work, which premieres this coming weekend, combines verbatim theatre with contemporary musical composition. It features a 15-member community choir, four voice actors and three vocal leads performing alongside Topology’s five musicians on saxophone, piano, violin, viola and bass.
Being regionally located meant that Ainsworth was already aware of The Palace Backpackers Hostel fire’s impact on Childers. He also knew that Bundaberg Council’s plans to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fire were largely scuppered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I was very aware of the 20th anniversary and the fact that it hit right in the middle of COVID, and I know that Council had big plans around the 20th that didn’t go ahead. And I guess I was thinking at the time, ‘Gee, wouldn’t it be great to have a kind of creative presence in the 20th anniversary?’ but that didn’t come about. So, I’ve probably been thinking about it ever since, really, in terms of the way [the] arts and creativity can really help with community building and certainly in healing,” he tells ArtsHub.
Extensive interviews over many months with the residents of Childers, with Ainsworth sitting with them for hours to listen to their memories of the fire and its aftermath, resulted in a detailed transcript of more than 50,000 words, which the writer/director has pared down to a sparse but resonant verbatim text to ensure the voices of Childers are accurately represented.
He says he approached residents and witnesses to the fire by explaining that his envisaged artistic response to the fire was “not about revisiting trauma”.
“It’s about celebrating how the Childers community came out, dropped everything and for weeks and weeks on end, fed people, clothed people, comforted people, took them into their homes. It’s a celebration of community, and that’s what’s most interesting for me about this project.”
Enter Topology
Composer and saxophonist John Babbage, one of the co-founders of Topology in 1997, was first approached by Ainsworth about the project last year, and says the ensemble “jumped at the chance to be to be involved”.
Topology’s music plays a key role in conveying the emotional context of the fire and its aftermath, Babbage explains.
“When people are watching a movie, if there isn’t any music, it’s sort of like, ‘What’s missing here?’ Music really can fill the gaps that words can’t, I find. Sometimes, words make you think too much, whereas with music, you’re not so much thinking as just listening and feeling. It just touches everyone very differently,” Babbage tells ArtsHub.
His score for The Palace draws inspiration not only from Ainsworth’s text, but also from the people, stories and landscape of Childers.
“Music can carry emotion in ways that words can’t,” Babbage articulated in a media statement. “As [US librettist and lyricist] Yip Harburg said, ‘Music makes you feel feelings, words make you think thoughts, and songs make you feel thoughts.’ That concept guided my composition. For example, the score features a recurring ‘Midnight’ theme that evokes the stillness before and after the fire, reflecting both serenity and foreboding. There’s also a poignant moment where 15 musical tones acknowledge each of the 15 lives lost.”
Ainsworth adds, “The project couldn’t have happened without the music. The music’s such an incredible and integral part. [It] takes us emotionally, and takes our nervous systems, to completely different places. And that was why I was so keen to work with John and Topology in making this happen.”
Personal connections
Many performers in The Palace have a personal connection to the tragedy, bringing a compelling authenticity to the work.
Sue McCloy, a Childers resident and vocal lead in The Palace, said in a media statement: “It’s not just a beautiful piece of art – it gives people a sense of pride and, hopefully, closure. It really does highlight who we are – our empathy, our caring, how nothing was too much trouble when it came to wrapping our arms around the survivors. It makes me so proud to be a Childers-ite.”
The work that’s resulted from Ainsworth and Topology’s creative collaboration with the townsfolk had an immediate emotional impact on McCloy, right from the first rehearsals. “I could hardly get through it without tearing up. The music is just beautiful, and it expresses all of those feelings in a way that words alone can’t,” she said.
The members of Topology are intimately familiar with community-engaged practice, particularly in regional and trauma-affected communities, with the ensemble’s recent projects including You Can Make Some Noise (a song-writing program for young people affected by cancer) and a series of cross-cultural collaborations with First Nations artists in rural Queensland. Babbage says it’s essential to have locals involved in the creative development of projects of this nature.
“I know – because of some of the rehearsals I’ve sat in – it can be very difficult for a lot of the people to be involved with it. But it can be a healing process, as Rod says. And I love that the community wanted to be involved. Even when Rod hasn’t scheduled rehearsals, they’ve been getting together and practising, because they want to, which is great,” the composer tells ArtsHub.
With comparisons to international works like Come From Away and London Road, both of which explored the bonds of communities touched by tragedy, The Palace taps into a wider theme – the way ordinary people respond to extraordinary events.
As Christa Powell, Topology’s Creative Director and violinist said in a media statement: “Even though it’s a local story, The Palace speaks to universal themes of compassion, resilience and collective healing. That’s the enduring power of the arts – they create space for connection and understanding across time, geography and culture.”
Three performances only
The Palace premieres this coming Saturday 21 June at 1pm and 6pm at the Isis Cultural Centre in Childers – the same venue that served as the heart of the community’s recovery efforts in 2000.
A final, private performance of The Palace will be held on the anniversary date, Monday 23 June, as part of a Council-led commemoration of the fire – honouring the lives of the 15 young backpackers from the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, Ireland, Japan and South Korea who died in the blaze – and its community-uniting aftermath.
Ainsworth agrees with the suggestion that there’s a sadly beautiful synergy in the two public performances taking place at the Isis Cultural Centre.
“It’s a nice circular moment. I love how every project has its own kind of life and its own personality, and I love how these things just kind of happen. The original intent was not to be in that location, but it’s worked out that way. And now it couldn’t be anywhere else – it’s just worked so beautifully,” he says.
Adding that he has been deeply moved by Babbage’s compositions for The Palace, Ainsworth describes the finished work as, “50 minutes of storytelling through text and song and music. And the music is lovely – no, lovely doesn’t do it justice. It’s an amazing composition.
“And in the rehearsal process, having community members reflect and say that we’ve captured particular moments and particular details – there’s one part that talks about just the busyness and the chaos afterwards, you know? It’s talking about seven clipboards and the chaos of it. And when people said, ‘Oh yes, look, you’ve just captured that perfectly’, that’s what it’s all about. I think if we’ve managed to do that, then that’s job done.”
The world premiere performances of The Palace take place this Saturday 21 June at Isis Cultural Centre, Childers Queensland. Tickets are available online.
