Fires: Hunter Page-Lochard stars in TV series on Australia’s devastating summer of bushfires

It’s hard to find anyone on the east coast of Australia who wasn’t affected by the fires that raged in the summer of 2019-20. For Hunter Page-Lochard, who stars in the excellent ABC drama, Fires, dedicated to dramatising some of the stories of those who experienced the devastation firsthand, the danger was real and present. Though perhaps not in the way you might expect. “I was shooting a film in the Daintree rainforest (in far north Queensland) for the first couple of months, so I was out of the smoke, but then I came back to Sydney and experienced that blanket smoke firsthand,” he explains. At the time he and his wife had a newborn daughter, Mila, at home. Both were worried about the effect the pollution might have on their little one’s tiny lungs. “It was hard,” he admits. “We had a newborn baby and an apartment that didn’t have great ventilation, so we were panicking a little bit. We were worried that the child was going to have some long-term effect. Though I wasn’t on the forefront to experience the (fires), I think that blanket of smoke carried metaphorically, and there was a feeling through the whole country that we were all going through this thing together.” That feeling is something very much at the centre of this Sunday’s superb episode, which sees Page-Lochard’s character Mott team up once more with Eliza Scanlen’s Tash. This time the two young firefighters are helping protect a temporary evacuation centre. They must try to persuade the diverse residents sheltering within to band together to support one another through what may turn out to be a particularly frightening Christmas Eve. It’s affecting viewing. And there are some terrific performances, particularly from guest star Sam Worthington and Charlotte Best, who plays Mish, a young musician home for the holidays, forced to evacuate to the shelter. “We’ve got this cast with big Hollywood actors — Miranda Otto, Richard Roxburgh, Sam Worthington and Anna Torv — all these great people. But the thing is, I think people tend to forget because of her age, that Eliza is right up there with them,” he says of his co-star, who has starred in the Emmy-nominated Sharp Objects and had a leading role in Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-nominated Little Women. “She is just as experienced in my eyes,” says Page-Lochard, admitting he forged a close bond with Scanlen while filming. “I was very fortunate to have someone who was younger than me that I learnt from. I really loved that about her.” Page-Lochard — who is the son of celebrated dancer Stephen Page, the artistic director of Indigenous contemporary arts company Bangarra Dance Theatre, and Cynthia Lochard, a former dancer of the New York City Ballet — says he was drawn to Fires because “it’s all about the families”. “It’s about real people, and the experience shared by the nation; the hope and the togetherness that (we have) as a nation, and as human beings,” he explains. “We have banded together more than once in history and succeeded.” It’s been a big year for the celebrated actor. As well as filming the Aussie surf drama Barons for ABC, he’s also been working on a raft of his own personal projects. “I’ve been working with my father and we have opened a production company,” he says. “Me and my dad are working on our opening slate with a couple of films and TV shows.” Watch this space. Fires airs Sunday at 8.40pm on ABC.

Fires: Hunter Page-Lochard stars in TV series on Australia’s devastating summer of bushfires

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