Four Cases of Bomb Attacks in Australia

Australia has seen moments when ordinary life was torn apart by sudden violence. In 1942, the mining town of Boulder was struck by bombings that killed fourteen and injured fifteen, carried out by miner Pero Raecivich, whose motives remain unclear.

In 1978, Sydney faced the Hilton Hotel bombing. A bomb hidden in a rubbish bin killed three men, injured eleven, and exposed gaps in security during a Commonwealth leaders’ meeting. The legal aftermath raised questions about justice and intelligence failures.

Melbourne endured the Russell Street Police bombing in 1986. The attack killed Constable Angela Taylor, injured more than twenty others, and revealed the deadly coordination of criminal networks, reshaping policing in the city.

Finally, in 2010, Darwin’s CBD was rocked when Paul Wayne Clarke detonated petrol and fireworks inside the Territory Insurance Office, wounding nineteen. Amid the chaos, civilians and police acted with extraordinary bravery.

This episode explores these four bombings—the human toll, the investigations, and the communities forever changed by sudden acts of terror.