Set over a single winter in a remote Australian ski resort, The Last of the Locals follows resort General Manager Stuart Diver as he tries to hold together a fragile mountain community under increasing pressure. Once defined by its wild spirit and tight-knit culture, the resort now sits at the intersection of corporate growth, climate uncertainty and deepening social divides.
The sole survivor of the 1997 Thredbo landslide that killed 18 people, including his wife, Stuart’s connection to the village is deeply personal. Beyond running the resort, he is driven to unite a town increasingly divided between long-time locals, transient workers and a rapidly modernising operation. But the task is far from simple. Corporate expectations continue to grow, locals feel disconnected from the place they helped build, and each winter becomes harder to predict.
Alongside Stuart is Casee, a Dutch immigrant and village pioneer whose deep connection to the resort’s past offers a contrasting perspective on the changes reshaping the village. Angel and Kayleigh, an immigrant couple raising a young family while running a successful business, represent a newer generation drawn to the opportunities the mountain provides, yet they too feel the strain of a place changing around them.
As the season unfolds, unreliable snowfall, warm spells and rain place mounting pressure on the resort and the people who depend on it. Snowmaking machines work around the clock, highlighting a deeper reality: what was once natural is becoming increasingly manufactured.
With intimate and unprecedented access, The Last of the Locals is a character-driven documentary about community, identity and adaptation in a warming world. While rooted in one ski resort, it reflects a global story of places and people confronting an uncertain future.
Isabel Darling is a director and producer known for intimate documentaries on Australian subcultures. With a background in high-level tourism content, she worked in Sydney and Melbourne production companies before founding Torchlight Media in 2014.
Her feature documentary The Carnival, filmed over eight years, premiered at the 70th Sydney Film Festival and is streaming on SBS. It was shortlisted for a Walkley Award in 2023 and praised by The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Monthly.
Isabel was a finalist at the 2018 AIDC Viceland ‘Australiana’ live-pitch and was selected for the Director Pathways Program in 2020. Her films Being Frank (2015) and Corey the Warrior (2017) screened internationally, with the latter a finalist at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival and Cannes International Film Festival on Disability.
She is currently developing a limited TV series, her first narrative feature, and finalising post-production on her short film Little Gifts.
