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[Music] nano wadding is a suburb just the outside of the main city area of Melbourne in the state of Victoria there
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was 11:30 a.m. Thursday the 27th of March 1986 in Harris Avenue in Nana wadding prison had a problem for the
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police surveillance team following the red Jaguar there was a small dead-end street no way
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to observe the house a bank robbery suspect was heading to without them being obvious to avoid being detected
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they had no choice but to let the suspect out of their sight there was only one way in and one way out of
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Harris Avenue so the suspect would have to come back past them eventually no big
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deal they thought as they parked outside Harris Avenue keeping a close eye out for the red Jaguar when the 1979 model
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Holden Commodore drove out of the street the police weren't to know their suspect
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was inside they were looking for a red Jaguar not a Commodore there was a stroke of luck for the suspect he had no
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idea the police were watching him the change of cars had nothing to do with avoiding the police table there was a
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far more sinister reason for the switch [Music] back in 1986 the Victorian police
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headquarters building was located on the corner of Russell Street and Latrobe Street in Melbourne opened in 1943 the
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building was recognized as a symbol of policing in Victoria and was referred to by many officers simply as Russell
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Street the building housed many different police units and hundreds of officers were based there at 12:50 p.m.
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that same day Thursday the 27th of March 1986 officer Charles buzina from the drug squad parked his unmarked police
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car on Russell Street directly outside of headquarters he was annoyed at the car parked in front of him a two-tone
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Holden Commodore sedan the same one that had driven out of Harris Avenue past police surveillance teams a short while
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earlier buzina knew it wasn't a police car but it was parked in the police parking spot he had a quick look through
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the window there was no one inside and he couldn't see anything to be worried about he didn't have time to deal with
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the illegal park if it got to be at it and made his way inside headquarters directly across the road from the police
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headquarters building was Melbourne Magistrates Court constable Karl denardio was a young 19
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year old officer fresh out of the Academy he was assigned to court security at the time which basically
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meant he set up the back of the courtroom and made sure no one caused any trouble it was a slow day in
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denardio was happy when the court broke for lunch he made his way out of the court building and onto Russell Street
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just before 1:00 p.m. as denardio was walking out of the court 21 year old constable Angela Taylor was flipping a
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coin with her partner they were working in the watch house that day which is the
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police cells next to the court and they were also on a lunch break Angela Taylor
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graduated from the police academy at the top of her class and was described as a
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brilliant and vibrant person with a magnificent career ahead of her the loser of the coin toss had to go and buy
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lunch Angela lost the toss and made her way onto Russell Street heading across the
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road to the canteen inside police headquarters the quickest way to the canteen was through the southern
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entrance and that's where Angela Taylor headed denardio was headed for the canteen as well but he wasn't as
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familiar with the layout of headquarters being fresh out of the Academy so he made his way to the northern entrance
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denardio and Taylor headed for the same place but were walking in opposite directions
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they didn't in the prone into a scene of mass panic by the blast the first explosion went off just before 1 o'clock
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when a car blew up outside the police headquarters Eyewitness News cameras were first on
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the scene we're just a few minutes ago a car bomb exploded outside the police station here in Russell Street there was
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a sound of one massive explosion we were sitting in our office our Eyewitness News office just around the corner of
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the glass it was shattered in the windows of our office after that there were several more explosions the sound
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of properly fuel in the car exploding Russell Street was in a complete state of chaos for seconds Russell Street was
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in a state of chaos policemen police women were screaming everybody was in a state of complete hysteria 19 people in
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the busy lunchtime crowd were injured two police officers in a passerby are in a serious condition three cars were
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destroyed in the six explosions there was massive damage to nearby buildings Russell Street was covered in a thick
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cloud of black smoke the Holden Commodore which police referred to as the bomb car as our
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warning up caller had been packed with 12 kilograms or 26 pounds of gel ignite three-quarters of it was in the boot and
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the rest was in the center console a small crater had been left in the road underneath where it was parked the
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crater was 15 centimeters deep and one and a half meters wide which equals six inches deep and five feet one
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the explosion was extremely powerful shaking the foundations of the police headquarters building and other
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buildings nearby as well as shattering a heap of windows the force of the blast sent constable denardio flying back 15
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meters in the air he suffered a severe wound to his leg where he was hit with a piece of shrapnel they completely sliced
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through his muscle were down to the bone and it was bleeding heavily he couldn't
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walk but he managed to crawl off the road where he was assisted by two fellow officers
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one of them used her shirt to try on a Kerry and his Lake to try and stop the bleeding
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one of his kidneys had been sliced by the shrapnel and his lung was also punctured making it difficult for him to
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breathe he had also been struck with a number of smaller shrapnel pieces all over his body he required emergency
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surgery that night constable Angela Taylor was closer to the explosion and was caught in the
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inferno she suffered horrific burns 70 to 80 percent of her body many people tried to
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do the best they could to help her but she soon lost consciousness magistrate Ian West who was walking out of the
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court at the time of the explosion was also struck with shrapnel and was badly wounded there were around 20
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people injured in total half of whom were police officers constable Angela Taylor was the most
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critical but constable Karl denardio was in a bad way as well ambulance officers
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arrived on the scene quickly and conveyed the injured to Royal Melbourne Hospital the busy city street near
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resembled a warzone injured people scattered along the ground everywhere debris and smashed glass all over the
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street confusion and people screaming for help I was standing out in McKenzie Street
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just around the corner from Russell when the first explosion hit like an earth tremor the buildings shook and the
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winner is all around us shattered and we rushed onto the street series and flying
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all over the place woman eating most of us amazing we saw were people pouring out of the buildings
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[Music] [Applause] crowd seem together from nowhere but they were being pushed further and
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further back the special operations group people moved in every car was a potential bomb and they had to check
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them all everybody was being put further and further away out into the city Street Police Headquarters happen to be
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where the Victorian police special operations group were based pretty much the same as SWAT which you might be more
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familiar with they quickly responded to the carnage on Russell Street helping to
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secure the area and carry the injured away from the blast zone for these officers and the other officers who were
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assisting the threat of a second bomb was firmly in their minds it's a common tactic for a smaller explosion to go off
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which attracts a lot of people into the area to help only then for a second larger explosion to go off maximizing
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the amount of casualties what happened in the Russell Street bombing was that it didn't go off as
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planned when the primary explosion went from the booth where most of the gel ignite was this disrupted the secondary
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explosion in the center console where the rest of the gel ignite was and as a result that gel ignite in the
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center console hardly exploded at all so the bomb didn't go off to its full potential this meant there was still
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live detonators and sticks some gel ignite present and the bomb car was up in flames
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firefighters weren't all that keen on approaching the vehicle to put the flames out that job is left to Senior
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Constable Denis tipping from the Special Operations Group he put on a bomb suit and managed to get close enough to put
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out the flames safely the area was completely shut down and evacuated creating traffic chaos throughout the
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city a thorough search was conducted of other vehicles and buildings in the area
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to see if there are any other bombs none were found such was the force of the explosion
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debris was found several blocks away a toy from the bomb car was found in the rear carpark of police headquarters
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meaning it had been blown over the roof well it was three cars parked across the
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road and then there was this almighty explosion and one of the cars just burst into flame and shared us what sort of
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debris and everything else and with that it sort of threw us against the wall and
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down on the ground I think one of the guards of the car came down on top of Ginny's head said he hit the wall and
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bounced or from occasional shower on that J was wandering around he hit the ground
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so he threw him to the ground I don't know it's just like a big fireball oh I hate this big explosion I just
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automatically ran outside to see what was happening and what about you well I was facing the window and I heard the
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huge explosion and the window just shook the glass panel just moved it's just like a gas explosion and how frightened
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really very frightening numerous crime scene officers attended and bomb experts from the Defense Department were also
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called in to help they quickly found the first big clue a piece of wood with the
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remains of an alarm clock attached there was another piece of metal connected to
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the alarm clock which helped make up the circuit but the piece of metal couldn't
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be identified at that time the piece of wood looked like it had been cut from a fence post the alarm clock was the
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timing device when the alarm sounded a metal piece at the back of the clock clicked a lot and connected with wires
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which completed the circuit and set off the bomb the bomb was found to be poorly
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constructed an amateur job definitely not made by an expert but it was designed to inflict maximum damage the
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bomb maker had packed a large amount of metal tools and sockets around the bomb to act as extra shrapnel in total 50
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sticks of gel ignite were used if the bomb had gone off to its full potential it was believed that part of the police
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headquarters building would have come down some thought it may have been an attack against the court maybe somebody
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who was pissed off with a court ruling and was taking revenge of course this had happened before in Australia it was
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actually still very fresh in everybody's Maude's but perhaps the largest chapter
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written in Australia's history of outrages concerns the Family Court and Family Court judges the first judge
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David opus done to death outside his Valera home in June 1980 then justice Richard G whose bellerose home was blown
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apart in early March 1984 the Parramatta family law court was badly damaged by a
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bomb blast in the following month and then in July 84 possibly the worst of the family law court attacks the wife of
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61 year old family court judge justice ray Watson was killed the family's Greenwich apartment was shaken to the
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foundations by a bomb triggered to explode as the front door was opened although a member of our family Lord
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judiciary had been the target his wife became the innocent victim but today's attack although not an isolated incident
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stands out as this city's first senseless terrorist action directed at the public at large not yet the streets
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of Beirut but a big step closer to the madness that madness that we thought looked only beyond our shores
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the Russell Street bombing and family law court bombings were not considered linked by place but consideration was
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given that the court may have been the target the court lists were checked and recent decisions were reviewed but
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nothing stood here others thought that maybe it was a terrorist attack saying that Beirut had now come to Australia
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the comparison may due to the Lebanese civil war that was going on at the time where there were a lot of bombings but
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the obvious conclusion for most was that this was an attack against the police the bomb had been put directly outside
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of police headquarters and it had been set to go off at lunchtime ensuring that a lot of police were going to be our
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side the building when the bomb exploded after all of the initial confusion had settled a direct attack against the
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police was how the case was treated although it was on fire and damaged the bone car wasn't completely destroyed and
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something stood out the chassis number had been Julia the chazzy number being the serial
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number of a car used to identify the Bombers had drilled through right across the chassis number so you could no
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longer see it this was very unusual something the police hadn't seen before the way criminals usually got rid of
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chazzy numbers was to grind them down or some would even try and change the numbers drilling through the shutting
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number completely was unique although it was completely pointless in this case because the number plates had been left
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on the car maybe they thought the plates would be destroyed in the explosion but
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they weren't making the bomb car easily identifiable it had been stolen two days
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before the bombing from the Brennan Park Shopping Center in Mulgrave which is about 20 kilometers or 12 miles away
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from Russell Street a red and cream-colored blanket was found inside the bomb car it was burnt and damaged
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but it was in okay condition considering good enough to be forensic ly tested anyway which was important because the
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blanket didn't belong to the vehicle owner he had never seen it before an examination revealed it contained dog
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hairs belonging to a bull terrier this could be useful to match to a suspects dog if a suspect was ever identified the
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car was checked for fingerprints using the superglue fuming method not the dusting method this is where superglue
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is combined with water and the vapors react with chemicals in fingerprints but no prints were found the search for
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evidence wasn't just restricted to the ground police from the Special Operations Group
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abseiled down buildings hunting for evidence that have made its way up onto roofs and window ledges it's on the roof
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of police headquarters that they found one of constable Barnardo's boots all of the pieces of shrapnel and all of the
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other evidence were bagged and taken to a large auditorium where they were catalogued
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twisted metal bomb components pieces of wire the alarm clock and any other debris that was found it was all bagged
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and treated with great care the debris was basically treated like pieces of a large jigsaw puzzle that investigators
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would have to try and put back together any piece of the debris could contain valuable forensic evidence to help catch
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whoever was responsible to help with the cataloging a large grid was placed over
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a map of the blossom and every piece of evidence was marked with a letter corresponding to where it was found on
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that grid [Music] five days after the explosion constable Donato was recovering from surgery which
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had been successful he was interviewed but he wasn't able to assist with the investigation he didn't see anyone or
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anything suspicious constable Angela Taylor was still in a critical condition and was fighting for
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her life [Music] although there were still no suspects the investigation was coming along some
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of the debris from the blast had now been identified as being bread crates investigators had worked out the main
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part of the bomb had been placed onto a bread crate then the metal tools and sockets were placed on the crate around
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the bomb and they knew where the bread crates came from they were stolen during a
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robbery from a milk bar at Bray site another suburb of Melbourne about 26 kilometers or 16 miles southeast of
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Russell Street the robbery occurred six weeks before the bombing a large amount of cigarettes and confectionery was
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stolen along with the bread crates there were no suspects for the robbery a taskforce was established to investigate
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the bombing it was made up of over 30 detectives brought in from all different areas of Melbourne making sure they were
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drawing on knowledge of possible suspects from across the entire city as well as local detectives members from
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the arson squad Major Crime Squad and homicide squad were called in to assist they felt there weren't a lot of people
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that would be capable of the attack it was one thing to hate the place there was another level altogether to bomb
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police headquarters it didn't take long for the taskforce to link the bombing to
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a break-in that occurred six months earlier on the 6th of October 1985 a country man was broken into near
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Blackwood about 70 kilometers or 43 miles northwest of Melbourne a large amount of detonators and gel ignite was
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stolen and those detonators and gel ignite were used in the Russell Street bombing there were no leads and no
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suspects for the breaking the first lead for police happened when an unknown male
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caller got in contact with the Victorian police commissioner the caller said he knew who the Bombers were and he even
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had photos of them he ended up calling in on five separate occasions and he eventually said that he wanted five
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hundred thousand US dollars in a Swiss bank account before he would tell police what he knew
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the calls were traced to a number of public phone boxes in the st. Kilda area which is only a short distance away from
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Russell Street police weren't sure if the caller was genuine or if it was just a hoax but they couldn't ignore it so
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the police commissioner was able to convince the government to offer a reward of five hundred thousand dollars
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not US dollars and the money wouldn't be putting this Swiss bank account but it was hoped it would be enough to entice
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the unknown caller to make contact again premier John Kane and Chief Commissioner Mick Miller
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jointly announced the record half-million dollars reward but in a press conference they refused to answer
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any questions on developments behind their decision the offer of an amount of this magnitude might succeed in
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producing vital information and I don't propose to divulge the nature of that information in case it might jeopardize
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this development police staked out phone boxes in the st. Kilda area in the hope
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that the caller wouldn't be able to resist the huge reward while laning to hear from him again police received
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hundreds of other calls from members of the public did it work find out next week in part
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two of Russell Street here on case file [Music] you [Music]