Mutika # 14
I’ve had a break from Mutikas for the past couple of weeks but now present this weeks cruiser, a Troopie that is ACTUALLY a Troopie , taken during the 2006 troubles in East Timor when the ADF came back to Dili after 5 or so years of rebuilding and relative peace after the country decided to break away from Indonesian rule.
Digger of the 7th RAR on the streets of Dili after a night of unrest and arson.
After the initial INTERFET deployment to Timor Leste in 1999 dozens of these troop carriers were left behind in Dili after the new government decided to slap an export tax on them before the army could take them back to Australia, so they were driven to a vacant block next to the Australian embassy , the batteries taken out and left there.
They came in useful in June 2006!
Which brings me to Foto Freo where I got the nod to be incorporated in the festivals exhibition entitled “Growing Pains”, 10 years of a free Timor Leste.
The pictures below all taken on assignment for the Sydney Morning Herald and Age newspapers, range from 2006 and culminate in the aftermath of the 2008 asassination attempt on the country’s President and Prime Minister on the same day and are included in the exhibition along with my good mates David Dare Parker , Martine Perret , and the Prince of Darkness himself Phillip Blenkinsop.
