The Town That Changed The Story

Returning to Lithgow during the making of Shattered helped reveal the deeper context behind the stories I was hearing across Australia.

When I began filming Shattered, I thought I understood the story I wanted to tell. I was wrong.

Although I was born in Lithgow, I left as a young child and have rarely returned. I have no family living there today. Returning during the making of the film was not a homecoming. It was a discovery.

Over the course of production, I travelled back to the region four or five times. I stayed at the historic Wallerawang School, built in 1881 and now operating as the Black Gold Motel. It was once the primary school I attended as a child and became an unexpected starting point for my rediscovery of the region.

I visited the Capertee Valley, the Glow Worm Tunnel, the Zig Zag Railway and Lake Wallace. I learnt about Charles Darwin's visit to the area. I met retired powerhouse workers, local historians and people whose families have lived and worked in the region for generations.

What struck me was the deep connection between work, place and community.

The history of Lithgow is often told through its industries — the mines, railways, power stations, steelworks and factories that helped build modern Australia. But behind every industry are people, families and communities whose lives were shaped by that work.

As I listened to those stories, I realised Shattered needed something it did not yet have. Context.

Without context, the film risked becoming a collection of grievances and individual experiences. Important as those stories were, they did not explain how we arrived where we are today.

Lithgow helped me understand that workplace injury does not exist in isolation. It sits within a much larger story about work, identity, belonging and community.

It also reminded me that Australians have always understood something important about work. It is never simply about earning a living. Work shapes our sense of purpose, our families, our friendships and the places we call home.

The further I travelled through the region, the more I realised that Shattered was not simply exploring what happens when people are injured at work. It was exploring what happens when lives are disrupted and how individuals, families and communities find a way forward. Lithgow gave the film its historical context.

More importantly, it helped me understand the people I met as I travelled around the country. Their stories were different, but many were connected by a common experience: what happens when work, health and certainty are suddenly disrupted. That understanding changed the film.