Who bombed the Hilton?

by Rachel Landers

  25 Holdich, R, op. cit., pp. 52–53.

  1989 and after

  1 Holdich, R, op. cit., p. 4.

  2 ibid., pp. 5–6

  3 ASIO 1984 paper ‘Ananda Marga and the Hilton Bombing’. Quoted in Holdich, R, op. cit. p. 31. (Author’s underlining, not in original.)

  4 Voix, Raphaël, ‘Denied Violence, Glorified Fighting: Spiritual Discipline and Controversy in Ananda Marga’, in Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol. 12, Issue 1, pp. 3–25. Crovetto, Helen, ‘Ananda Marga and the Use of Force’, Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, Vol. 12, Issue 1, pp. 26–56.

  5 Sarkar, PROUT in a Nutshell, Part IV, 1987 quoted in Crovetto, op. cit., p. 1.

  6 Voix, op. cit., p. 19.

  7 Fife-Yeomans, J and O’Brien, N, op. cit., p. 21.

  8 ibid.

  9 ibid.

  Acknowledgments

  My first thanks are to the New South Wales Premier’s History Awards Committee (chaired by Associate Professor Ian Jack) who generously awarded me the New South Wales History Fellowship that allowed me to embark on the research that became this book. My second is to Phillipa McGuinness of NewSouth Publishing, who approached me the night I received the fellowship and suggested that this research could in fact be a book. This was a decision that NewSouth perhaps came to regret as my deadlines receded as I juggled a plethora of work commitments. Their patience is much appreciated.

  The staff of the New South Wales State Records at Kingsford are a collective national treasure and they treated me with extraordinary kindness and forbearance, retrieving box after box after box of archives over endless days. It was inspiring to be surrounded by professional and amateur historians quietly exploring the past in that wonderfully serene space. Long may it be nurtured, funded and allowed to flourish.

  Patrick May, who assisted with research, fact-checking and prevented all manner of errors, is both a great friend and one of nature’s gentlemen. Testimony to his rigour is how much my heroic editor Linda Funnell was impressed with his meticulous responses to her sharp-eyed queries. Linda herself requires some kind of medal for steering the prose I originally presented her with into readable form. I think she’ll be pleased to know she is almost always right.

  My thanks to AAP and to Peter Logue for permission to reproduce his eyewitness account of the aftermath of the bombing at the front of the book.

  My family have been a huge support through the writing of the book, particularly my passionate and inspiring mother, Lizzie, an early and enthusiastic reader who has managed to maintain her rage with remarkable grace. She was always happy to talk about this tale long after I had bored everyone else senseless. I am fortunate too to have a beautiful and brilliant husband who has accompanied me through the whole voyage from inception to completion and been a muse, a critic, and a lifeline when I hit some rocky shores — I simply couldn’t have done it without him. The joy of our life and best joint production, our son, needs special thanks — he has no idea what the book is about but never fails to tell me how much he loves me.

  Finally I want to thank Terry Griffiths, whose good heart touched mine.