Behind the scenes with identical twins Paula and Bridgette Powers after carjacking interview

Australia Broadcast Center

11-05-2025

The words "Run, he's got a gun" reverberate in stereo from Paula and Bridgette Powers and, just like that, they're a viral sensation reaching all the way to Hollywood talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.
The armed carjacking the identical twins are describing doesn't interest Kimmel, or the millions of people who watch the video of them detailing their mother's encounter with the gunman.
What scores the sisters — known as the Twinnies — a spot on Kimmel's popular show is the way they relay the story.
It's a mesmerising, double-barrelled delivery of the same words and sentences, often in sync, sometimes with a slight delay.
Like much of the world, and a host of TikTok imitators, the acerbic funnyman is captivated.
The Sunshine-Coast-based sisters have been in the spotlight before and know it comes and goes, as do the internet trolls who get thrills out of taunting them about who they are; incredibly close sisters who, at 51, still dress the same and speak as one.
So, when the cameras move on, Paula and Bridgette get back to what they've devoted their lives to over the past 25 years.
They work as an inseparable team, rescuing sick and injured pelicans and other seabirds, getting them well and releasing them into the wild.
"[Going viral] has given awareness to the birds that we're caring for and the work we do with them," Paula and Bridgette tell Australian Story.
"We're not going to ever, ever lose sight of that. We love our birds, and they need us. It's our passion."
The publicity comes with sadness, though.
The Twinnies only learnt after giving the interview that went viral that a woman had died during the carjacker's rampage.
"We call it a tragic interview. We feel sorry for all the people involved," they say.
Dealing with the double-edged nature of fame isn't easy but they have some stellar examples to draw on.
People such as the late wildlife warrior Steve Irwin, television veterinarian Chris Brown, and the late ultramarathon folk hero Cliff Young have all been friends and collaborators with the Twinnies over the years, attracted by their commitment to wildlife.
In recent years, a lesser-known Australian has come into their lives.
He, too, was fascinated by the Twinnies and their work.
Charmed, in fact.
One day, they met for tea and biscuits. And their worlds changed.
Peter Sherwood remembers seeing Paula and Bridgette on television about 20 years ago and being spellbound by the way they spoke.
"It was charming. I liked it," he says.
But Sherwood, who had switched careers from a lucrative industrial relations consultancy to Chinese medicine, was also taken by their passion for healing sick birds.
He thought he would like to meet them.
Fast-forward to 2022, and the Twinnies are back on television, telling of their worry that the Sunshine Coast property they rent with their parents, Helen and John, is about to go on the market.
It's the place they built Twinnies Pelican and Seabird Rescue, a rambling facility that costs $75,000 a year just to power and provide bird feed.
It's been largely funded by the family, with some government help and donations.
"Their desperation was that, if they left, they could not afford to set up their place again," Sherwood says.
Then he learned Paula — who, like Bridgette, has suffered ill-health since she was a baby — had collapsed, suffering a blood pressure spike after a vitriolic phone call from a woman accusing them of knowing nothing about birds and being scammers.
He knew it was time to act.
"I remember tears running down my face, thinking, 'Oh, this is terrible,'" says Sherwood, now 82.
"Such lovely, innocent-appearing women being treated in this way."
Sherwood organised to visit for a chat and to make a donation.
He stayed for hours, sharing a packet of biscuits as Paula and Bridgette told him how they gravitated to working with seabirds after a stint at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo.
How the largely self-taught wildlife carers would field calls, day and night, and head out to rescue sick seabirds.
How they'd reach into a pelican's beak and down to its gut to pull out a fishing hook, or lovingly tend to a smelly, lice-infested bird sick with botulism.
Sherwood wrote a cheque for $5,000.
"Helen gave it to the girls and the two girls looked at it and started to giggle. They smiled at me and they were giggling their appreciation," Sherwood says.
"It was so lovely."
He stayed another hour and shared another packet of biscuits.
Then wrote another $5,000 cheque.
"And the girls were giggling again."
Finally, Sherwood left but his mind kept wandering back to the Twinnies.
He could do more.
He bought the acreage property for $1 million and told the family they could stay there for the rest of their lives.
"Helen asked me, 'What about rent?'" Sherwood recalls.
"I said, 'No, you're not paying rent. I'll pick up the rates and the insurance,' and she was in tears. She couldn't believe it."
To Paula and Bridgette, Sherwood is now Saint Peter, a heralded benefactor whose photograph they proudly display at the rescue centre.
"It was a blessing that Peter walked through the door to help us," they say.
"We can't express and explain how we feel, what Peter has done for us.
"It's too overwhelming."
Much of the stress has gone from their lives, allowing them to concentrate on the birds.
"It was just a big load off our shoulders," they say.
"The birds have got a home for life … and we can continue our work as long as we can. Hopefully for another 20 years."
Sherwood says he's learned a lot from the Twinnies about the power of love and devotion in healing.
"I learned from them that you've just got to give love to everybody and take time," he says.
"Don't rush it."
The act of giving is its own reward, says the philanthropist, but over more tea and bikkies at the rescue centre recently, Sherwood told the Twinnies and Helen that he's gained a special bonus.
He's made new friends.
"I don't make friends very easily in life," Sherwood says.
"I've got oodles of mates and thousands of acquaintances but I've only got a few friends in my life. And I think of you people as my friends. Do you think of me like that?"
The Twinnies smile as one.
"Oh yes, definitely," they say.
"We show people when they're having a tour, we always show your face. And we go, Saint Peter is a great friend now. He's just like family to us."
On a wander through their sanctuary filled with pelicans and a goose that thinks it's a swan, Paula and Bridgette are keeping an eye out for Rob.
He's a special pelican that Australian Story viewers met during a program about the Twinnies four years ago.
"There's Rob," they say. "There's Rob right there."
Hearing his name, a tall, graceful pelican turns, looks directly at them and flaps his wings.
Rob was a cold egg when they first met. Literally.
The Twinnies rushed the egg to an incubator and hoped.
They heard a chirp on the fifth day and, by the sixth, Rob was pecking through his egg.
The hand-raised Rob is now almost five years old and free to leave any time he wants "but he's chosen to stay here for now", the Twinnies say.
Perhaps, when it's breeding season, he'll take off but it's possible he'll stay "because he loves us too much".
Chris Brown says Paula and Bridgette are "absolute pros" in their work with seabirds.
"Where the Twinnies are incredibly valuable is the fact that they're so committed," he says.
"A lot of the time … every single waking minute will be spent tending to that animal."
The Twinnies estimate they rescue about 1,000 birds a year, caring for them with the help of volunteers.
Some have botulism, many have hooks in their beaks or stomachs, and some, such as Graham the pelican, another star of the previous Australian Story episode, are clobbered over the head by angry fishermen.
Incredibly, during filming for this episode, the Twinnies think they spy Graham on a power pole, back in the wild, fit and healthy, after having tended to his head wounds and broken beak for about 14 months.
"A lot of people say, 'How can you tell because they've all got the same faces,'" they say.
There'll be a Jimmy in their flock soon, named after a talk-show host who, like many before, has seen the Twinnies as a novelty act, a quirk of nature. A viral sensation.
Ever since their interview went viral, the Twinnies have been inundated with offers to star in documentaries, reality television programs, comedies and commercials, and they're considering an offer from Kimmel to fly to Los Angeles to appear on his show.
It's all very dizzying, but "it won't change us", the Twinnies say.
That's just the type of response Sherwood would expect from his friends.
"They live a frugal life. They're not interested in fame, or glory, or wealth," he says.
"That doesn't come into their thinking. They just love the birds."
The Twinnies know they won't be able to keep up the pace of constant caring forever.
They have their own illnesses: osteoporosis, and heart and stomach issues.
Some days, they admit, "we do feel like we're going to fall off our perch".
So, they've hatched a plan for the future, one Saint Peter is right behind.
If no-one suitable is found to take over the rescue centre, they'll knock everything down and turn it into wetlands "where birds can fly in and out and they'll be safe".
"We'll probably be walking down, looking at the birds with our walking sticks, and even maybe Rob's still there," the Twinnies say, giggling.
Watch Australian Story's Birds of a Feather, 8pm, on ABCTV and ABC iview.