Sydney Yugoslav General Trade and Tourist Agency bombing

Part of a series on
Terrorism in Australia

Notable attacks
Notable plots
Counter-terrorism

Legislation

Raids

The Sydney Yugoslav General Trade and Tourist Agency bombing occurred in Haymarket, Sydney on 16 September 1972; the attack injured sixteen people.[1] The perpetrators of the attack were believed to be Croatian separatists.[2]

History

On 16 September 1972, Croatian Balkan extremists targeted Yugoslav travel agencies located in inner Sydney. Two bombs were detonated, the first injured sixteen people, two of them were critically injured; the second bomb injured none. The bombings are believed to be connected to the executions of Croatians with Australian passports in Yugoslavia. The New South Wales Police later raided a number of Croatian homes in Sydney.[3]

Historical significance

The 1972 Yugoslav agency bombing was the first modern, observed and documented terrorist attack on Australian soil. While terrorist incidents had already occurred in various countries around the world since the 1960s, up until the 1972 bombing, Australia had not been the target of terrorism; Australia's continental isolation, providing some control of the entry and exit into the country, has been attributed as a main cause for the late arrival of terrorist attacks on Australian soil.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Abjorensen, Norman, and James C. Docherty. Historical Dictionary of Australia. Rowman and Littlefield. 2014. Page 355.
  2. ↑ Democratic Oversight of Intelligence Services. Daniel Baldino ed. Federation Press. 2010. Page 40.
  3. ↑ Richards, Eric. "White Australia dismantled: the 1970s." Destination Australia: Migration to Australia Since 1901. UNSW Press. 2008. Page 265.
  4. ↑ Securing Water and Wastewater Systems: Global Experiences. Robert M. Clark, Simon Hakim eds. Springer Science & Business Media. 2013. Page 290.