Capturing the story of Australia’s veterans

A Moreton Bay charity that aims to preserve veterans war stories through documentaries has relocated to Redcliffe.

Now located in Sutton Street, award-winning filmmaker and This Story Australia CEO Jeff Hughes says he hopes to capture more stories of veterans from the peninsula before they are lost forever.

“We have travelled all over Australia to interview veterans and make documentaries to ensure their heroic actions live on forever and can be remembered for generations to come,” Jeff says.

“By moving the charity’s office to Redcliffe, we hope to have more of a presence in the community and partner with local organisations to share local stories.”

Having co-founded the not-for-profit charity in January 2020 alongside Rachel Dutton, Jeff has captured the stories of nearly 90 veterans, who served in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Somalia, Timor and Afghanistan.

Excited to move into the area, Jeff has been busy meeting people from local businesses who are keen to know more about his work.

He hopes the connections he makes here will lead to more donations and corporate sponsorships.

“We are always applying for grants, but what we need to develop is core support from businesses who want to come on this journey with us, so whenever an opportunity comes up to interview a veteran, we can do that straight away,” Jeff says.

“In the past four years, there are multiple examples when we have been asked by a family to interview their loved one, and by the time we have secured funding, we have been too late. This is heartbreaking, but sadly it is too common an occurrence.”

Find out more

If you are interested in learning more about This Story Australia, or would like to see some of Jeff’s recent work, visit the This Story Australia website.

You can also follow them on Facebook.