Bali bombings: AFP counter-terrorism expert Renee Colley reflects on eerie aftermath, investigation victories

Being plunged into the Bali bombings investigation with just three years’ experience was quite a crash course for now-seasoned Australian Federal Police counter-terrorism expert Renee Colley, who vividly recalls the eerie aftermath on the holiday island.

The day after the devastating Saturday night attack, she was among those scrambled to meet and question returning travellers as they landed back in Australia, asking them if they’d seen anything suspicious.

Photographs, unprocessed film and video footage was gathered and catalogued along with any clothing that could be forensically tested to work out the type of explosives used.

“We had quite a big task,” Superintendent Colley told The West Australian.

But her assignment was just beginning. Five days later, she was on her way to Bali.

“I realised the enormity of what I was about to go and do because there was no one on the plane,” she recalls. “(It was) quite eerie because normally it’s packed.”

Also eerie was the stillness of those usually bustling Kuta streets.

“I’d actually been in those places as a tourist,” she said. “There was no traffic, no people.

“That was quite surreal because — and lots of Perth people would probably resonate with this — I had actually travelled to Bali before I’d even gone interstate.

“It wasn’t the Bali that I remembered.”

That first day was “massive” for a three-year constable, being taken to an enormous crime scene and joining colleagues who were already feeling tired from long, intense days but could not have been more motivated.

“We were there to try and help find who was responsible,” she said.

She also immersed herself into the culture, with a photo she’s kept showing her attending a “cleansing ceremony” the month after the bombings, which was held to drive out the “evil” of the attacks. In the polaroid picture she’s wearing a Kingsley Cats footy jumper, handed to her by the team, which lost seven members in the blasts.

Her assignment in Bali ended up lasting almost six months, and she remembers the intense reward of seeing chased-up leads bear fruit.

Often, there was a lot of legwork that led to a dead end, including a photo of a white van in front of Paddy’s Bar a few days before the bombings, showing a partial number plate.

“Every clue that we had, we were committed . . . following it through,” she said.

A major breakthrough for the investigations team was the discovery of a piece of chassis from the Sari Club bomber’s van on the roof of a building under construction across the road that had the VIN on it, spotted via helicopter.

Another spine-tingling moment was seeing identikit pictures of the three suspects, based on witness accounts.

“That sticks in my mind. That feeling that it was going somewhere,” Superintendent Colley said. “I can vividly remember those (feelings) being in the command post.”

When arrests began, word spread through the AFP lightning-fast.

“That was a really good feeling to know that collectively, working together with the Indonesians, that there was potential for justice to served,” she said.

Bali was not long after the September 11 attacks, cementing the awful realisation a new era of terrorism had arrived and life would never be the same, prompting a massive expansion of counter-terrorism efforts worldwide.

“It was a stark realisation. It’s right on our doorstep. It could be us,” Superintendent Colley said. “Twenty years on and we all know that it is part of modern life, sadly.

“But the AFP and our partners keep working tirelessly to detect and disrupt any potential threats so we can keep Australians safe.”