Australian heroes at the buffer zone

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the Australian Federal Police peacekeepers stationed in Cyprus. A new exhibition in Canberra sheds some light on the amazing stories that have come out of their efforts in the divided country.


In the Australian Federal Police’s fifty years stationed in Cyprus’ buffer zone, there’s one story that stands out.

Jack Thurgar, an AFP officer stationed at the buffer zone in 1979, witnessed a Greek farmer inadvertently drive into an unmarked minefield with his tractor and tragedy struck.

“He was blown high in the air and when he landed with a crunch nearly all his clothes had been blown off,” Officer Thurgar remembers.

“He was black and charred and had diesel fuel on him.”

Thinking in all likelihood the farmer had been killed, Thurgar moved carefully to assess the situation.

“Suddenly, the rag doll figure moved and I could see these red eyes. I made eye contact and saw the pleading in those eyes; I knew something had to be done.”

Without fear, Thurgar walked straight into the minefield, rushing to get to the farmer.

“I could see that he had one leg almost completely blown off and he needed urgent medical treatment. There would be no time for sappers to clear a lane or try to see if we could do a winch operation,” he says.

“I made the hard decision to take him back out, so I put him in a fireman’s carry and tried to find my way out. But I couldn’t quite see on the hard ground, so it was by luck and by God that I was able to make my way gingerly out.”

That bravery saw Officer Thurgar awarded the Star of Courage, the second highest decoration for bravery awarded by the Australian government.

His story, and his subsequent reunion in 2006 with farmer Chrysos Seas is just one of many noted in the Australian Federal Police Museum’s exhibition, ‘Down to the Wire: Australian Police Peacekeeping in Cyprus’.

On display at Canberra Museum and Gallery until February 8, the exhibition highlights more than 150 objects, documents and photos taken from Australia’s peacekeeping efforts in Cyprus from the last 50 years.

Back in 1964, Cyprus’ government made an official appeal to the United Nations requesting assistance to manage the ongoing conflict with Turkey.

Establishing the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), 200 police from Australia, Austria, Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden were commissioned to help maintain the buffer zone.

Fifty years on, and the Australians are still there keeping watch, with 15 new officers sent every six months to Cyprus as part of the ongoing contingent.

The AFP Museum’s exhibition curator, Lauren Spencer, has spent months retrieving artefacts, developing audio visual features and telling the real stories of those who spent their time keeping the peace in Cyprus.

Some of the oldest things on display come from the first Australian contingent sent to Cyprus in 1964. Diaries, books, binoculars, Christmas cards and berets from the period paint a picture of a bygone era fraught with danger.

The first contingent was the first time Australia deployed police peacekeepers, and has set the example for Australia’s overseas commitments.

There are now almost 100 AFP officers stationed at 31 international posts around the world.

While the exhibition gives a holistic view of the Australian involvement in Cyprus, it inadvertently gives a non-biased reflection on the situation in a still-divided Nicosia.

Life on duty was a balance between an always constant threat of war and the normalcy of daily life still going on.

After the border closed in 1974, and the north became primarily populated by Turkish Cypriots, some Greeks chose to stay, cut off and largely isolated.

The UN established the ‘Northwind Patrol’ to keep in contact with the communities and help them receive their pensions and deliver food.

The Australian contingents became so popular with the Greeks that their visits became whole events for the community.

“We got to know some of the women up in the north because they used to invite us in,” a member of the 90th contingent said.

“It was all out having cups of tea and coffee and eating their cakes. We couldn’t say no because they were so excited, it was the highlight of their week.”

Curator Lauren Spencer says a large part of the peacekeeping was keeping citizens happy in a bad situation.

“The Australians helped the Greek members of the community live in a troubled country,” she tells Neos Kosmos.

“One of their nicer stories was a little boy called Lambros.

“He was able to go on a pilgrimage at Apostolos Andreas monastery and obviously the monastery is on the north.

“His great-grandfather had a premonition that Apostolos Andreas would help Lambros get better if he visited the monastery. Lambros is a quadriplegic, and wasn’t able to move around – it was a major undertaking that involved the assistance of the Turkish through the north checkpoint of the buffer zone.”

The exhibition has a photograph of three-year-old Lambros getting in the car with the help of the AFP officers, Sgt Anne Brooks, Dave Ayres and Robert Gray, who assisted the operation.

Yet the exhibition is still honest about the everyday dangers of being stationed in an extremely volatile place.

One of the biggest threats to the officers is the reality that the buffer zone is covered in unexploded landmines. Three brave Australians have lost their lives for that reason.

Sergeant Llewelyn Thomas was killed in 1969, Inspector Patrick Hackett was killed in 1971 and Sergeant Ian Ward was killed in 1974.

One of Ms Spencer’s favourite inclusions in the exhibition is the first hand account of Sergeant Llewelyn Thomas’ brother finding out about his brother’s death while serving for Victoria Police.

“I still recall in July 1969 when our sergeant came into the watch house at the police station and informed me my brother Llewelyn had been killed in Cyprus,” he recalls.

“I was shocked to the point of uncontrollable tears before I could pull myself together.”

As peacekeepers, the AFP have no powers of arrest, no powers of detention and no powers of charging. That is left to the local police.

Much of what is exhibited shows the daily life of living in a divided capital and the way the Aussie spirit still lives on away from home.

As peacekeepers, the Australians have been able to spearhead some joint Turkish and Greek visits.

As true sports-mad Aussies, they felt a game of darts would be a way to improve relations and embarked on the first joint darts competition.

Up until 1993 neither side, since the Turkish invasion, had any contact on a social level whatsoever.

“They had been friends for years but hadn’t seen each other for some time. It helped break down barriers,” Ms Spencer says.

The connection with the Australian Cypriot community isn’t lost in the exhibition either.

Mentioned in the first-hand account of Barry Carpenter, a commander of the 50th Contingent, the AFP officers are never far away from a Greek Cypriot seeking news of their family members settled in Australia.

“It’s a good thing being an Australian in Cyprus, the large ethnic community in Australia helps,” he says.

“It’s one of the main reasons we’re accepted by the people on the streets. There have been many occasions where they have been shouting angrily and demonstrating but after a few hours, curiosity gets the better of them and someone asks ‘where in Australia are you from?’. The reaction is a general comment like, ‘oh, you must know my cousin!’. It brings a smile to your face.”

‘Down to the Wire: Australian Police Peacekeeping in Cyprus’ is on until February 8 and is located in the Open Collections Gallery of the Canberra Museum and Gallery, Cnr London Circuit and Civic Square, Canberra City. The exhibition is an Australian Federal Police Museum project.