Melbourne became a ghost town during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pubs and venues closed their doors, leaving many of the city’s artists and creatives without a stage to perform on or an audience to perform for.

Yet over successive lockdowns, it was the creative industries that kept communities strong, as we all adapted to unprecedented circumstances. 

In The Stage Goes Dark, four creatives share their struggles and victories during the pandemic and cry out for an overlooked community, calling for a lifeline.

Guests:

Eilish Gilligan

Brenton Harris

Neil Morris (DRMNGNOW)

Virginia Gay

Credits:

Producer: Erin Dick

Executive Producer and sound design: Sarah Mashman

Engineer: Tegan Nichols

Theme composer: Oliver Beard

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions

Management team: Abe Killian and Sime Knezevic

Made in co-operation with: SYN, Melbourne

This episode was made on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation and the muwinina people from Country around nipaluna. These lands were never ceded. 

From the Embers Season 2: Phoenix is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University’s Fire to Flourish program and The Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative and broadcast across Australia via the Community Radio Network

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Four Emergency level bushfires burned over one weekend in Western Australia in February 2022. With roughly 30% of WA agricultural land, most farmers are prepared for fire at any time. But when one comes, they rely heavily on volunteer farmers and locals who form the  Bush Fire Brigade.

On February 6, 2022 near the small farming town of Narrogin, extreme wind and heat, coupled with a powerline spark in a dry pasture paddock, resulted in a massive fire. Only one house was lost but the impact on livestock and farmland will affect farmers years into the future.  

Content warning this feature contains stories of animals in distress

Guests:

Angus Armstrong

Mike Burges

Tammy Freestone

Michael Lange

Credits:

Producer: Leith Alexander

Executive producer and sound design: Sarah Mashman

Engineering: Tegan Nicholls

Theme music: Oliver Beard

Additional music: Blue Dot Sessions

Management team: Abe Killian and Sime Knezevic

Made in co-operation with: Harvey Community Radio, Western Australia

This episode was made on the Wiilman and Wadjuk Countries of the Nyoongar Nation and the lands of the muwinina people from Country around nipaluna. These lands were never ceded.

From the Embers Season 2: Phoenix is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University’s Fire to Flourish program and The Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative – and broadcast across Australia via the Community Radio Network

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Day after day of intense rainfall fell across south east Queensland In February 2022, breaking riverbanks, swamping roads and flooding homes.

The city of Brisbane experienced one of the worst floods on record. In three days alone, Brisbane received 80 per cent of its annual rainfall as people scrambled to find higher ground to shelter.

As people recover and start to rebuild, questions are being raised over where to live and how to prepare for the future.

Guests:

Milena Cifali

Richard Hamernik

Carolyn Karafa

Councillor Johnathon Sri

Credits:

Producer: Maureen Mopio

Executive producer and sound design: Sarah Mashman

Engineering: Tegan Nicholls

Theme music: Oliver Beard

Additional music: Blue Dot Sessions

Management team: Abe Killian and Sime Knezevic

Made in co-operation with 4EB, Brisbane

This episode was made on the lands of the Turrbal and Jagera peoples, and the land of the muwinina people from Country around nipaluna. These lands were never ceded.

From the Embers Season 2: Phoenix is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University’s Fire to Flourish program and The Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative – and broadcast across Australia via the Community Radio Network

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ever increasing record high flood levels are marked on the side of Lismore’s flood levee. 

Lismore, a town in Northern New South Wales is dissected by two major rivers. When there’s heavy rainfall, water flows down from the surrounding hills, slowing at the bottom and spreading across the floodplain. 

The town’s residents know floods, their houses are built high, some four metres off the ground in the canopies of trees. Many have flood plans, keeping kayaks and dinghies tethered to their homes in case of emergency.

On February 27 2022, water inundated the town, sweeping away cars, stranding residents on rooftops and filling houses with inches of mud.

In the weeks that followed volunteer hubs sprang up to feed and clothe locals forced to shelter in tents and cars as they struggle to recover with minimal support and start to clean out and rebuild their homes in the trees.  

Guests: 

Vicki Findlay

Naomi Moran

Aidan Ricketts

Lucy Wise

Freya Woodland

Production team

Producer and sound design: Sarah Mashman

Engineer: Tegan Nichols

Theme composer: Oliver Beard

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions

Management team: Abe Killian and Sime Knezevic

Made with the co-operation of 2NCR, Lismore and the Koori Mail

Roofs above water was made on Widjabul Wia-bal Country of the Bundjalung Nation and the lands of the muwinina people from Country around nipaluna. These lands were never ceded.

From the Embers Season 2: Phoenix is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University’s Fire to Flourish program and The Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative and broadcast across Australia via the Community Radio Network

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One and a half million hectares of Yuin Country was destroyed by the 2019/2020 mega fires in the South Coast of New South Wales. These fires killed countless animals, plants and insect species - some of which are now on the brink of extinction.

Many members of the South Coast Yuin Community call these mega fires, ‘Wrong Fire,’ fires that can’t be controlled and have the capacity to injure and kill. This type of fire is vastly different to Right Fire, often called Cultural Burning. Right Fire has been practised for thousands of years and has the capacity to heal and care for all. 

Content warning this feature contains stories from the 2019/2020 Fires.  

Guests: 

Andrew White

Uncle Nook

Vikki Parsley

Credits:

Producer: Alice Ansara

Executive producer and sound design: Sarah Mashman

Engineer: Tegan Nicholls

Theme music by Oliver Beard

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions

Minga-Yung - Your Mother by Jordan Nye

Management team: Abe Killian and Sime Knecevic

In co-operation with 2EAR, Moruya

This podcast was made on the lands of the Walbunga and the Yuin Nation and the lands of the muwinina people from Country around nipaluna. These lands were never ceded.

From the Embers Season 2: Phoenix is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University’s Fire to Flourish program and The Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative and broadcast across Australia via the Community Radio Network

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The fires that tore through the South Coast of New South Wales in 2019/2020 hit towns on the coast and in the bush.

Within the community, homes were lost, some experienced events that left them traumatised and all inhabited a devastated landscape.

Animal habitats were also affected, and when both logging companies and urban developers began to encroach on the habitat of the critically endangered Swift Parrot, locals from the South Coast began to stand up and take action to save the home that this small bird needs in order to survive.

Content warning: this feature contains stories from the 2019/2020 Fires.

Guests:
Bill Eger

Nick Hopkins

Jordan Nye

Dr. Debbie Saunders

Credits:

Producer: Alice Ansara

Executive producer and sound design: Sarah Mashman

Engineer: Tegan Nicholls

Theme music by Oliver Beard

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions

Management team: Abe Killian and Sime Knecevic

In co-operation with 2EAR, Moruya

This episode was made on the lands of the Walbunga and the Budawang people of the Yuin Nation and the lands of the muwinina people from Country around nipaluna. These lands were never ceded

From the Embers Season 2: Phoenix is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University’s Fire to Flourish program and The Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative and broadcast across Australia via the Community Radio Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Two years on from the massive fire that tore through Mallacoota, a tiny coastal town  in Victoria, the camping grounds are full again, koalas can be spotted in the crowns of eucalypts and the landscape is green with epicormic growth.

But the town is dotted with empty lots where houses once stood and the new green growth only hides the blackened trunks.

Photojournalist Rachel Mounsey documented the approach of the bushfire and the aftermath, focusing her camera on the people who lost their homes amidst the devastation. 

Content warning this feature contains stories from the 2019/2020 Fires.  

Guests

Justin Brady

Brodie Cummingham

Kate Jackson

Rachel Mounsey

Jiya Rose Nation

Credits:

Producer and presenter: Sarah Mashman

Engineer: Tegan Nicholls

Theme music by Oliver Beard

Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions

Production management team: Abe Killian and Sime Knezevic

In co-operation with 3MGB, Mallacoota

Framing Disaster was made on the lands of the Gunai Kurnai people and the muwinina people from Country around nipaluna. These lands were never ceded.

From the Embers Season 2: Phoenix is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University’s Fire to Flourish program and The Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative and broadcast across Australia via the Community Radio Network.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Residents in Lobethal fled their properties for safety in December 2019, not knowing if they’d return and find their houses still standing.

Adelaide’s Cudlee Creek fire filled the air with black smoke and destroyed 85 homes over 10 days. As the recovery rolled-out, the pandemic crept in - isolating people and leaving those who’d lost their homes feeling isolated and forgotten.

Content warning this feature contains stories from the 2019/2020 Fires.  

Guests:

• Belinda Broughton
• Hana Broughton
• Evan Edwards
• Nicole McIntosh

Credits:

• Producer: Lisa Burns
• Executive producer and presenter: Sarah Mashman
• Engineer: Tegan Nichols
• Theme composer: Oliver Beard
• Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
• Management: Abe Killian and Sime Knezevic
• In co-operation with: Radio Adelaide

The House on the Hill was made on the lands of the Kaurna people and the Peramangk people and the muwinina people from Country around nipaluna. These lands were never ceded.

From the Embers Season 2: Phoenix is supported by The Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas, The Paul Ramsay Foundation, Monash University’s Fire to Flourish program and The Minderoo Foundation Fire and Flood Resilience Initiative and broadcast across Australia via the Community Radio Network”

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.