Straight from the Strait, a collaboration between Opera Queensland, Yumpla Nerkep Foundation, QPAC, and Brisbane Festival, made its world premiere to a whistling, cheering standing ovation on opening night.

Straight from the Strait. Photo © Jade Ellis

Playing a limited season, Straight from the Strait is a new musical about three fictional brothers who contributed to the real (and unbroken) 1968 world record for laying the greatest length of railway track in a single day. A team of railway workers, predominantly Torres Strait Islander men, laid, spiked, and anchored 7km of railway from Point Hedland to Mount Newman in under 12 hours, smashing the previous record (held by Americans) of 4.6km.

Straight from the Strait follows the Samusah brothers as they leave home in the Torres Strait and seek work on the mainland to support their families, including their sick mother. Kusa leaves behind his wife and children, Boyor dreams of working on the railway, and Pinau, the peacekeeper, speaks to the audience directly.

Although Pinau narrates, it is Boyor’s journey and personal growth that is followed most closely, from a Gordonvale sugarcane farm to learning the ropes with Queensland Rail...