A Kyabram nurse who was caught in the middle of the Bali Bombings tragedy is disappointed her colleagues haven’t received their due recognition for the role they played in treating injured Australians.
Last week there were several ceremonies to recognise the survivors of the October 12, 2002 attack, but Lynne Allen said she felt “a bit forgotten’’.
Ms Allen was working at the Royal Darwin Hospital in October 2002 when, less than 48 hours after the terrorist attack, the first of 62 severely injured patients arrived in the Northern Territory.
Ms Allen was in the offices of the Kyabram Free Press last week to plead with the Australian government, and media, to further promote the role staff at the hospital played in the treatment of survivors.
Three bombs were detonated in Bali, two at busy nightspots — the Sari Club and Paddy's Bar — and one in front of the US consulate.
The explosions killed 202 people, 88 of whom were Australian, and wounded hundreds more.
Mrs Allen had relocated to Darwin only months earlier in February, and was working in the hospital’s resuscitation department within its emergency response unit.
“The first boy I saw, and resuscitated, was a 17-year-old who died five days later in Sydney,” she said.
“The second person I treated was a backpacker from Germany and the third was Jason McCartney.”
Ms Allen recalled the effect of a radio news item she heard while in the car that the teenager had died.
“We had worked on him for some time and that news hit me very hard,” she said.
Ms Allen said such was the professionalism of the Darwin unit that only hours after finishing her eight hour shift and reporting back the very next morning, most of the patients were gone.
Then, a week later, the Balinese survivors starting arriving at the hospital.
Ms Allen returned home to Kyabram in February 2003 and is still working as a nurse, now at Kyabram hospital.
Ms Allen was not angry, more frustrated that the 20th anniversary of the Bali Bombings event had an almost singular focus on survivors and somewhat ignored the role of the hospital staff in the incident.
“It was horrendous in Darwin and I feel the staff has been totally forgotten,” she said.
"What they did on that day was nothing short of a miracle.
"When the bombings occurred we heard there was something happening, but we waited ages for them to arrive at the hospital.“
Ms Allen said it was sad that the staff involved in treating the injured Australians were not a prominent part of national commemorative services.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attended a service at Coogee in Sydney, while Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Penny Wong, hosted a memorial service at Parliament House in Canberra.
At that ceremony victims’ families, survivors and first responders were joined by the Governor-General, David Hurley and former Prime Minister John Howard.
Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Tim Watts, attended a commemorative ceremony at the Australian Consulate-General in Bali.
Ms Allen has a 40-plus year history in nursing and worked at Kyabram hospital for many decades, having moved to Kyabram in 1978.
After the year-long stint at the Royal Darwin Hospital she returned to work at Kyabram.
Royal Darwin Hospital staff received their first patient at 7am on Sunday, October 13, when a man arrived at the triage desk of Royal Darwin Hospital with minor injuries.
He had gone straight to the hospital after arriving on a flight from Bali and telling staff about dozens of people killed and injured.
About 1am on Monday, October 14, the first of 62 severely injured patients were flown out of Bali on C-130 Hercules.
The staff were dealing not only with the physical injuries, but also the emotional trauma of the terrorist attack.
By the end of that week, 55 patients had been transferred to specialist burns units across the country and six remained in Darwin.
Professor Len Notaras was the General Manager of the Royal Darwin Hospital at the time.
He took the call from his 2IC about the impending arrival of bombing survivors and started planning for a worst-case scenario.
That scenario would soon eventuate, and provide the Royal Darwin Hospital with its biggest test since Cyclone Tracy flattened the city on Christmas Day in 1974.