59 become, for lack of a better term, a cesspool. The 103rd Battery’s CML was keen to turn the refugee camp to a stadium again, which would ultimately demonstrate a return to normalcy to the locals as well as a sense of INTERFET’s progress. With the logistical nature involved with issuing safehouses and providing repatriation efforts as well as clean-up it was a slow process. After much effort from all sectors involved, the conversion was eventually achieved. This was even to a standard high enough to host the Tour of Duty Concert for the Troops on the 21st December 1999, headlined by none other than Kylie Minogue for approximately 4000 people. Compered by comedy duo Roy and HG, the concert featured acts by John Farnham, Doc Neeson, Gina Jeffreys, James Blundell, The Living End, Dili Allstars and the RMC Band. Peter Carthew, the BC’s ack at the time had also spent enough time backstage to score himself a photo with Kylie Minogue. Surrounding the main stadium was also a free concert from a Rastafarian who had deployed across to Dili. The atmosphere was colourful and excitable, so much so that the main stadium doors had to be blocked with an APC to prevent access. A bombardier from the 103 CML had jumped up onto the stage of the free concert, much to the musician’s surprise. They were teasing and dissing him as he stood in front of the mike but he took the stage with Green Day’s Time of Your Life and to everyone’s surprise the locals were absolutely enthralled. The musicians revoked their previous statements immediately and backed him up on the song. This time spent in Timor for the Battery as a whole was able to set the stage to allow East Timor to develop as an independent nation and to allow sufficient space to allow democracy to emerge. Additionally, facilitating reconstruction after significant devastation was a hallmark of the battery’s contribution and hopefully to allow peace to return. The BC of the time, MAJ Finney, said that looking back they provided a good opportunity to the East Timorese, it was by no means perfect, but we haven’t had to go back since. The Battery’s deployment in 1999 set up the other
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjE4NTMz