Australians were shocked and horrified by the TV images they were watching coming live from the US. The first attacks on the World Trade Center Towers happened approximately 11pm Tuesday night Australian time. People still awake at that time, possibly watching The West Wing which was showing at that time in Sydney, stayed up until the early hours of the morning glued to the coverage. Many rang family and friends to wake them to tell them of the terrible events.
Australian TV and radio stations stopped normal programming for the next two days to provide live coverage from the US on the unfolding drama. The large TV screens that were erected all over Sydney during the Olympics just one year ago were again put up so that the live coverage could be seen by those working in the city.
It is hard to believe that the attacks happened one year after the Olympic Games in Sydney when all the nations of the world gathered together in peace for sport. Now twelve months after this happy combined event, there is war.
Australia grieved with America over the lives lost and with Australians who lost family members in the attacks. Flowers and messages were left outside the American Embassy in Canberra and the American Consulates in the state capitals.
When President Bush announced that there would be retaliation against the perpetrators and asked for other nations to ally themselves with the US for this task, Australia was one of the first countries to answer the call.
Australia and the US have been allies together in many wars especially World War II. After WWII Australia, New Zealand and the US formed the ANZUS Treaty, promising to defend each other in times of attack. Australia blood has been shed with American blood in Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War.
The September 11 outrages have had their ongoing effects in Australia too. People are afraid of tall buildings and planes. Especially those that work in Sydney's tallest building, the MLC Centre, which also houses the US Consulate.
There are many immigrants in Australia of Middle Eastern background, some Christian some Muslims. There are Muslims from other countries, particular south-east Asia. There have been some attacks on mosques and verbal abuse of anyone that looks Arabic.
There have also been ongoing fire bombing of Christian Churches, starting on September 12 with the burning of an Arabic Christian Church. This has been ongoing since then, predominantly in areas where there is a concentration of Arabic peoples, many of them Muslim.
Go To Page: 1 2
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Joanna Skinner's Australia's History topic, please visit the Discussions page.