Conditions fitting for Bali memorial

While walking through Kings Park on an impromptu photo shoot this morning, I was struck by the eeriness of the place.

The view from the Kings Park lookout at Mount Eliza – normally so magnificent and clear at this time of the year – was dark and obscured from recent burn offs down South.

As depicted below, the city landscape was grey and foreboding – despite it being the middle of the morning, and this grey and gloomy atmosphere appeared to extend across the entire park.

As I wandered across from the lookout to the Bali memorial about 500 metres to its left, the overcast conditions seemed somehow appropriate.

Two hundred and two innocent people of many nationalities died in the Bali bombings on October 12, 2002 in Kuta, Indonesia – with a further 209 people injured.

Of the dead 88 were Australian, and 17 of these from Western Australia.

The WA victims’ names – inscribed on a plaque on the memorial, pictured below – are a fitting reminder (if needed), that every Australian must remain vigilant in these unpredictable times.

The threat of terrorism remains all-pervading – and the Bali bombings show that, even in Australia, the so-called ‘Lucky Country’, we are not immune to the evil machinations of organisations or individuals hell-bent on stamping their mark – in the name of whatever crazy cause they embrace.