Vigilance needed to maintain 'fortress' Australia

The latest foiled terrorist plot underlines how fortunate Australians have been on home soil and how vigilant they must remain.

Australians have suffered dreadfully at the hands of terrorists overseas, specifically in Indonesia.

The 2002 Bali bombings claimed 88 Australian lives among the 202 dead.

A further four Australians were among 20 killed when terrorists again bombed Balinese beach spots in 2005.

The Australian embassy in Jakarta was the target of bombers in 2004, though on that occasion all nine people killed were locals, including the bomber, a security guard and four policemen.

The terrorism group Jemaah Islamiah (JI) warned Australians to leave Indonesia "or else we will transform it into a cemetery for them", and said if the Australian government did not withdraw troops from Iraq the "lines of booby-trapped cars will have no end".

Australia has escaped terrorism-related carnage on its own soil, however, unlike other nations involved in the Iraq war including the US and its allies Britain and Spain.

This is despite numerous instances of terrorist activity.

Among the best known were plots to bomb Melbourne sports events and Sydney defence establishments.

Five men, including the muslim cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika, were found guilty of plotting to bomb the 2005 AFL Grand Final, the 2006 Australian Grand Prix and the Crown Casino.

Sydney architect Faheem Khalid Lodhi was convicted over a 2003 plot to bomb the national electricity grid and various defence sites in the cause of violent jihad.

His intended targets included Sydney's Victoria Barracks, HMAS Penguin naval base and, in common with the latest alleged plot, Holsworthy army barracks.

He was sentenced to 20 years in jail by a judge who said he intended to "instil terror into members of the public so that they could never again feel free from the threat of bombing in Australia".

Willie Brigitte, who had reportedly stayed at Lodhi's house, was deported from Australia to France in 2007 and charged under French law with "associating with criminals in relation to a terrorist enterprise".

He was found guilty and sentenced to nine years in jail.

Brigitte remains legally married to former Australian army signaller Melanie Brown, a fellow Muslim convert who told a French judge her husband had "bombarded" her with questions about her military knowledge and career.

She said she rebuffed such questioning or responded minimally, and burned three of her notebooks originating from the period of her military service in East Timor as a precaution.

Prosecutors said Brigitte's target list included the Pine Gap US electronic intelligence outpost in central Australia, the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney, and military bases across the country.

Melbourne man Jack Thomas, once known as "Jihad Jack", won a five-year legal battle to clear his name on terrorism charges when a Victorian Supreme Court jury found him not guilty of receiving funds from al Qaeda.

He became the first person issued with a control order after written consent was provided by then Attorney-General Philip Ruddock.

Two years ago, another control order was issued against Australia's highest profile terrorism identity, David Hicks, to ensure he was monitored on his release from prison.

Hicks, caught with the Taleban regime in Afghanistan in 2001, was detained by the US government in Guantanamo Bay for six years until 2007, when he was returned to Australia to serve the remaining nine months of a suspended seven-year sentence.

He recently married.

Sydney's Hilton hotel bombing in 1978 remains the only terrorist incident to claim innocent lives in Australia, killing three people - a policeman and two garbage collectors.

- AAP