The secret lives of diplomats: surviving 'bomb season' in Jakarta

Diplomat Grant Dooley was inside the Australian Embassy building in Indonesia when a bomb went off, killing several people. This was just the beginning of a series of devastating events that Grant had to come to terms with years after moving back home to Australia.

In 2004, Grant Dooley and his wife, Kristan, moved to Jakarta with their two young children to start a three-year posting at the Australian Embassy.

In September of that year, Grant arrived at the embassy complex for a brief visit. Not long after he entered the building, a bomb went off outside, which partially destroyed the building and killed many people.

The Australian Embassy had been the target of an attack plotted by Jemaah Islamiah, a terrorist group with links to al-Qaeda.

Little did Grant know that he and his family had arrived in Indonesia in the middle of a horror show of bombings, natural disasters, and geopolitical tensions, which would not end for the next several years.

The embassy bombing was followed by the Boxing Day Tsunami, a second Bali bombing, the Garuda plane crash in Yogyakarta and more.

Not only was Grant a witness to these events, he was also a first responder to some of them.

Further information

Bomb Season In Jakarta is published by Affirm Press.

This episode of Conversations was produced by Meggie Morris; executive producer is Nicola Harrison.

It explores terrorism, diplomacy, expats, Bali bombings, Sumatra, earthquake, tsunami, Schapelle Corby, Bali 9, drug smuggling, banged up abroad, how to become a diplomat, the real life of diplomats, PTSD, post traumatic stress, Jemaah Islamiyah, jihadist organisation, al-Qaeda, Paddy's pub, Sari Club, Aceh, John Howard, Alexander Downer, Kevin Rudd, Prabowo Subianto, Megawati Sukarnoputri, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Joko Widodo, foreign affairs, books, writing, memoir, modern history, Abu Bakar Bashir, 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing, East Timor, South East Asia, Iraq, Afghanistan, war.

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