Universal message flows in award-winning documentary

The smell of lemon myrtle was the first hint of a powerful theme flowing through Floodland, a documentary about Lismore.

Ahead of last week's screening at Warrawong’s Gala Cinemas, organiser Anna Jane "AJ" Linke handed out leaves from the native rainforest tree, adding to the sensory experience of a film strong on stories, cinematography, the sound of rain and a rising river.

“With the increased severity and frequency of climate disasters – be it floods, fire, heat wave, rising sea level, all of that – we're all going to experience more disasters more frequently,” AJ said after the screening. 

One of the founders of the successful Illawarra Edible Garden Trail, AJ was the film’s impact producer, a role that uses storytelling to campaign for change.

“It's no longer just evacuation routes and sandbags,” she said. “We actually need to start thinking about the social aspect of recovering and preparing and adapting to disasters so that we can build resilience holistically.

“And what's really important at the forefront of that is also to ground and centre First Nations wisdom.”

Panel looks at local resilience

About 100 people attended the screening and stayed on for a panel discussion about disaster response in the Illawarra.

The four speakers were Sonia Graham, a researcher at the University of Wollongong and the new NSW director of Landcare; Clare Robinson, emergency management officer at Wollongong City Council; Kelly Andrews, CEO of Healthy Cities Australia; and Jerrinja/Yuin man Peter Hewitt, a senior lecturer in Aboriginal education at UOW.

“The language of respect and Country resonates really strongly throughout that film,” Peter told the audience. 

“For me, Country is the opportunity for us to come together. There's healing in it. Our old stories talk about how we behave. Resilience comes from those values and holding our own respect.”

An invitation to healing

Seated in the dark cinema, gathered around the virtual fireside of the spotlit panel on stage, audience members held their scented leaves of lemon myrtle, one of Australia's best known bush foods, originating in northern coastal NSW and Queensland.

“You’re all been invited to hold a little bit of Country this evening,” Peter said. “With that little bit of lemon myrtle, it’s an invitation to hold respect, hold healing, and have some grounding, because we were going to story together in that masterful documentary. So, there's an invitation with that lemon myrtle to continue that healing.

“You can pop it into a bit of boiling water, cup of tea, pop those leaves into some water for two or three minutes, put a bit of honey with it – and you'll breathe in that healing, the medicines that are in that leaf. 

“As you breathe in… think about your own relationship with what's around you. We're in a reciprocation with Country, whether we like it or not, that tree is giving life to us, and we can thank it.”

A common theme

Wollongong and Lismore flood differently. Where Lismore has a powerful river breaking its banks, we have multiple creeks surging down an escarpment. Yet Floodland carries a universal message for Australia’s regions: the need to heed to First Nations knowledge. 

This surfaces in Floodland in stories of the settlers who didn’t listen and built their homes on a floodplain, and in the role of weaving in trauma recovery today at the Indigenous-led Northern Rivers Community Healing Hub.  

Peter recommended Illawarra residents learn through observation and told how’s he’s watched local creeks change as roots and trees disappear.

“We've cleared a lot of them for our houses, so those creeks are getting wider. I can see the council putting up safety fences in certain areas to protect people.”

Understanding natural patterns and functions is key to resilience, he said.

“By just observing what's in front of us, we can start to understand that ancient intelligence, and that ancient intelligence comes through really strongly in that film. 

“You know, they built a township on flood plain.

“The water is going to move the way it wants to move – on the surface, underneath the surface, in the sky. It's been here a lot longer than us, so we need to respect it, so we can observe the natural functions, and our old people have been doing that for a long time. 

“The stories that they've shared is in the landscape, so when we look at the mountain, we can see a library, we can see Bunnings, we can see the pharmacy. 

“Those stories are here,” he said, pointing to the Dharawal creation story of Gang-Man-Gang (Windang Island), the long ago chaos of sea level rise, and the enduring relevance of the Five Islands Dreaming. 

“We can still see the textures in the land of those five islands and the sister we call Geera [Mt Keira]. The water that flows off those mountains runs out Port Harbour, so the islands and the mountains are still connected.

“You've only got to look at the pelicans, or garunggaba, fly above Warrawong Plaza in the afternoons. The songline’s still there – we’ve built our clingwrap over the top of it, man-made structures. 

“So you've got those leaves … please use them, hold them and let that healing come through.”

Floodland won the sustainable futures award at Sydney Film Festival 2025, the world's largest environmental film prize. To watch the trailer or host a community screening, visit the website.