From triumph to terror: the pictures that captured a new millennium 📷️
The image of Hanabeth Luke’s selfless help to an injured Tom Singer became etched on our memories in this challenging decade, along with moments of Olympic glory, a fire truck dwarfed by furious flames and Schapelle Corby facing Indonesian justice. All seen through our photographers’ lenses.
1: September 2000 - Cathy Freeman focuses before winning gold and fulfilling the hopes of a nation in the 400m at the Sydney Olympic Games.
2: September 2001 - The second hijacked airliner flies directly into the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
3, top: September 2009 - A dust storm from outback NSW envelopes Sydney, leaving Balmain’s Ariella, 6, and sister Romy, 3, to play in its eerie orange glow.
3, bottom: May 2006 - Todd Russell, left, and Brant Webb emerge after 14 days trapped in Tasmania’s Beaconsfield gold mine. Larry Knight was killed.
4: May 2005 - Schapelle Corby bursts into tears in a Denpasar courtroom as she is sentenced to 20 years’ jail for importing marijuana into Indonesia’s island of Bali.
5, top: August 2001 - 433 rescued asylum seekers on the deck of the Norwegian cargo ship MV Tampa off Christmas Island after the Howard government rejected permission to land.
5, bottom: February 2008 - Prime minister Kevin Rudd greets Indigenous leader Lowitja O’Donoghue at Parliament House before his formal apology to the Stolen Generations.
6: April 2003 - US Marines pull down the statue of defeated Iraq leader Saddam Hussein in Baghdad on April 9.
7, top: February 2009 - A giant ball of smoke and flames towers over a fire truck on Black Saturday in Labertouche, Victoria. The most deadly fires since colonisation killed 173.
7, bottom: December 2005- An angry mob attacks men of Middle Eastern appearance on a train following the race-based riots at Cronulla beach.
8: October 2002 - Hanabeth Luke, 22, helps Tom Singer, 17, after the terror attack on Sari nightclub in Bali. Tom died four weeks later from his injuries.
