Even Professors of history find government obstruction to their telling the truth over the Australia/Timor relationship

Born of Fire and Ash

                      Groundbreaking history by Professor Craig Stockings

“Written from classified government sources and buttressed by hundreds of interviews with veterans and stakeholders, this first volume in the landmark Official History of Australian Operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor — Born of Fire and Ash — is an honest, challenging and compelling account of the 1999–2000 East Timor crisis and Australia’s response to it. It tackles the good alongside the bad, successes and failures, to chart a complex ‘truth’ unknown to most Australians, then and now.”

Link to the book: Born of Fire and Ash

DFAT accused of attempting to censor official history of military operations in Timor-Leste
Karen Middleton – The Guardian – 16 May 2024

The book was published in 2023, some years after the writing was finished. DFAT had “protested that some sections could offend Indonesia and embarrass Australia”.
The book’s proposed launch at the Australian War Memorial was cancelled without explanation after invitations had been issued.

Given successive Australian governments’ interference, duplicity and cowardice concerning Timor-Leste it is not surprising that efforts to record the history continue to be met with opposition.

Downer and Howard’s East Timor lies. History missing in action
Rex Patrick – Michael West Media – 14 January 2025

“The official history was embroiled in controversy, resulting in a series of exchanges between Stockings and DFAT in late 2019, with DFAT seeking to censor the document. The then head of DFAT and later Governor of South Australia, Francis Adamson, wrote to Professor Stockings warning that an “honest history” of Australia’s peacekeeping role in Timor would touch ‘raw nerves’.”