Rob Maccoll
The 2002 Bali bombings occurred on 12 October 2002 at 11pm (1am here) in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali.
The attack killed 202 people (including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, 23 Britons, and people of more than 20 other nationalities). A further 209 people were injured.
I got the call to pack my bags and I was in Bali that afternoon. I still have vivid memories of the destruction and the hurt and a lot of my shots are too graphic to publish. However, it was an incredible time working with a team of journalists and photographers from across the globe.
The media gets a bad rap today but it was the media who met these families of the victims as they struggled off the planes from Australia. Many were in a state of disbelief, they’d never been out of Australia before, never travelled overseas, never been in a foreign country where they couldn’t understand the language. They had no idea of where they were, what to do, where to go.
There was a lack of government support in the first days after the bombing and it was the media covering the tragedy that stepped up.
They put away their notebooks and cameras and helped. They found them transport and somewhere to stay. They took them to the hospital and helped them find their sons and daughters or to the morgue to identify their loved ones.
They explained the local customs and how the Balinese deal with death.
After a few days when the shock started to wear off, some became angry at the lack of support from the government and they went to back to the media for help. Some formed lifelong friendships.
As the days and weeks wore on we started to track down and chase the bombers and the story across the length and breadth of Indonesia.
