This week on Back Roads Lisa Millar heads to the old mining town of Kurri Kurri, west of Newcastle, where a Mulletfest has both a fun and serious side.
Kurri Kurri is a proud working-class town. Huge murals paying tribute to its coal mining past adorn every wall in town.
In 2012, the town was hit hard by the closure of the local aluminium smelter, when five hundred workers lost their jobs. Five years on the town was still struggling.
Lisa Millar meets the local go-getter who stepped up to meet the challenge. Hairdresser turned publican Laura Johnson was determined to put a smile back on people’s faces. Over a few wines, the idea for a competition comparing the ultimate bogan haircut- the mullet – was born.
Laura underestimated the widespread love for the much-maligned mane. In 2018, fans drove from interstate and overnight just to get to Kurri in time for the first competition.
Six years later, she’s running events all over Australia in search of the nation’s best mullet. The grand final, held on a property near Kurri, attracts world-wide media attention. And Lisa finds out it is not just about how you wear a mullet but how you shake it!
She also discovers Mulletfest also has a serious side. It raises money for a charity dedicated to finding a cure for brain cancer. Lisa meets the man behind the foundation, Mark Hughes, a local Kurri boy and former rugby league star who was diagnosed with the disease in 2013. Mark says Mullefest does an important job, not only raising funds, but raising awareness of the disease. He reckons Laura is “a typical Kurri -ite”, she just digs in and has a go.
8pm Tuesday on ABC.
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