Among the hellish images of the summer of 2019-20 seared into the national consciousness, those of the besieged town of Mallacoota remain indelible. The morning sky eerily red from approaching flames, then blanketed by black smoke so thick that day seemed turned into night. Thousands of terrified residents and tourists fleeing to the beach, eventually to be evacuated by a navy warship. It was an apocalyptic vision that wouldn’t have been out of place in a sci-fi film.

It’s hard to imagine anything positive coming from such a catastrophe. Yet People’s Republic of Mallacoota, a six-part documentary series shot over the two years following the blazes, chronicles an inspiring tale of empowerment, resilience and resolve. It illustrates how, in a time of crisis, a community, even one with radically divided opinions, can come together in an effort to determine its future.

Executive producer Joe Connor arrived in the northern Victorian coastal town five weeks after the New Year’s Day blazes tore through, destroying 123 homes. He’d received an alert from food writer and regional specialist Richard Cornish that something interesting was happening there. Connor’s company, Renegade Films (RocKwiz), founded with his brother, Ken, had previously produced a range of documentaries, including Inside the Firestorm and Aftermath: Beyond Black Saturday, about the survivors of Victoria’s 2009 fires.

What he found on his exploratory initial visit was “a very small town with a very wide range of opinions”. Remote and ringed by national parkland, Mallacoota relies on its commercial fishing industry and tourist trade. It’s home to shooters and sea changers, environmentalists, abalone divers and farmers, a range of people who value very different aspects of the place. Yet Connor notes with affection, “the great thing about people in Mallacoota, no matter what their differences of opinion are, is that they have those opinions because they’re passionate about the place”.

After the fires, the townsfolk were united in their belief that distant officials should not decide their future. The residents wanted to determine how to rebuild: which infrastructure projects would take priority, how to formulate a fuel-management plan to reduce risk. “I found a community that discovered that they had worked well together to defend their town and to defend each other’s homes,” says Connor. “They realised that they were capable of doing much more, that they were capable of finding a united voice to determine what shape their recovery would take.”

To establish that voice, which was essential to access funding, they decided to form the Mallacoota & District Recovery Association (MADRA). Elections were held to select 12 volunteers from 44 candidates.

Connor initially spoke to activist and CFA brigade leader Lynn Harwood about the formation of MADRA, then returned to the town weeks later with a cameraman and researcher. They started to record the destruction and film interviews. They left just before COVID-19 hit, triggering the declaration of the second state of emergency in 11 weeks and further battering the weary and traumatised townsfolk.

Connor pitched the idea for a series to an interested ABC, although, in the early stages, its style and shape were undecided: it could be made up of three hour-long episodes, it might have a presenter, it might have narration. Connor credits the broadcaster with patience and flexibility. “They understood that it was going to take us two years to deliver anything that was going to reflect what the community went through,” he says. Director Tony Jackson then spent weeks at a time filming in Mallacoota.