Thorne Harbour Country’s AOD videos for LGBTIQA+ people in Bendigo

Thorne Harbour Country is a Victorian LGBTIQA+ health organisation. Its LDAT partners were Bendigo Community Health Services, the Youth Support and Advocacy Service (YSAS) and headspace.

The LDAT focused on LGBTIQA+ people in the Bendigo region. It used funding for its Community Action Plan to create Let’s Talk About It, a series of short videos about AOD use. The videos show ways people can connect with their community without relying on alcohol, drugs or partying.

Research shows that drug dependence is reported more often among people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex¹. People in regional and remote areas are also more likely to drink frequently or at harmful levels^{2, 3, 4}. These areas often have limited access to health and information services, especially services for LGBTIQA+ people.

“There’s still a lot of stigma in some communities around being different. One of the ways that queer people can cope with these stresses is to use either drugs or alcohol as a way of escaping the sense of being disapproved of. That’s something we would like to be able to reduce,” said Chris Butler, co-convener of the Bendigo Queer Film Festival.

Shannon, a volunteer with Thorne Harbour Country, said he wanted to be part of the project because “it wasn’t about disagreeing with use (of AOD), it was about harm minimisation and self-care.”

“Living in a smaller country town, there is that isolation where you may not be able to access services or find someone going through the same things, particularly being a LGBTI person,” said Shannon.

Consulting the community

Over 12 months, the LDAT held two community forums, in Castlemaine and Bendigo, where LGBTIQA+ people could come together to talk about AOD issues. From these forums, it formed a community reference group, which met weekly to decide the key themes for the videos.

Thorne Harbour Country’s Program Coordinator, Damien Stevens-Todd, said the organisation had engaged well with its community.

“Getting a cross section of LGBTI people from right across our community engaging with a range of organisations was really important to the success of this project,” he said.

Making the videos

The team wanted LGBTIQA+ people watching the videos to feel understood and to feel a sense of belonging, and to know that support is available.

“The purpose of our Local Drug Action Team is to engage with LGBTI people and to support them to create a suite of digital resources that allows them to educate their peers across the community about how to reduce the harm associated with alcohol and other drug use,” said Damien.

Premiering at the Bendigo Queer Film Festival

The videos premiered at the 2019 Bendigo Queer Film Festival, which that year was part of the first Bendigo Pride celebrations. They were screened before other LGBTIQA+ films, so they reached as large an audience as possible.

Chris Butler said the festival was very pleased to show the videos.

“These video resources will really add to what’s most important to festivals like this, which is improving the wellbeing and health of our community,” Damien added.

“The resources that the Alcohol and Drug Foundation have provided to us to best support our Local Drug Action Team have been significant in making sure the project was a success,” said Damien.

After the premiere, the LDAT received further funding to take the campaign and videos across the Loddon Mallee region, where there are other LDATs, and to run workshops to help communities better understand AOD use. It aimed to share the videos as widely as possible in isolated communities that may not have had access to LGBTIQA+ content or conversations before.

To watch the videos, visit the Thorne Harbour Country Facebook page.

Working with LGBTIQA+ communities

See our resource on key things for LDATs to consider when working with LGBTIQA+ communities.

References

1. Roxburgh, A., Lea, T., de Wit, J., & Degenhardt, L. (2016). Sexual identity and prevalence of alcohol and other drug use among Australians in the general population. International Journal of Drug Policy, 28, 76–82.
2. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2019. Alcohol and other drug use in regional and remote Australia: consumption, harms and access to treatment, 2016–17. Cat. no. HSE 212. Canberra: AIHW.
3. Roche A, Kostadinov V, Fischer J, Nicholas R, O’Rourke K, Pidd K, Trifonoff A. Addressing inequities in alcohol consumption and related harms. Health Promotion International. 2015;30(suppl_2):ii20–35.
4. Allan J, Clifford A, Ball P, Alston M, Meister P. ‘You’re less complete if you haven’t got a can in your hand’: alcohol consumption and related harmful effects in rural Australia: the role and influence of cultural capital. Alcohol and Alcoholism. 2012;47(5):624–9.

Last reviewed: 30 October 2026