Looking back, 2014 was a rough year for Australians in Bali, with world news headlines containing a number of prison sentences, murders, and other debauchery. Here’s a timeline that will take you month by month of the biggest headlines Bali had this year involving visitors from the land of Oz.
January
4 – Rare food poisoning is blamed for the death of Queensland mother and daughter, Noelene, 54, and Yvana Bichoff, 14, during their Bali vacation.
February
10 – The infamous Schapelle Corby checks out of Kerobokan Prison on parole, more than nine years after she was convicted for trafficking 4.2 kilograms of weed into Bali.
April
28 – After allegedly trying to force his way into the cockpit, Queensland man Matt Christopher Lockley, 28, triggers hijacking mode on a Virgin Australia flight from Brisbane to Bali.
May
23 – Nicho White, 43, is medevaced out of Bali to Melbourne in an induced coma that resulted from a Bali motorbike accident—he’s able to fly out with help from fundraising done by his family.
August
20 – Schapelle Corby again. Her alleged boyfriend (who says he’s just a friend), Ben Panangian, 32, gets arrested for possession of marijuana in Bali.
September
4 – Australian Peter Maynard, 45, is missing for eight days in Nusa Lembongan. Part of his surfboard was found on September 6, but his body has still not been found.
October
21 – Making for one of the most upsetting stories of the year, Sydney businessman Robert Kelvin Ellis, 60, was found in a Bali rice paddy ditch with his throat slit, wrapped in plastic. His wife Noor is still under police detainment for allegedly ordering a hit on him.
25 – Melbourne man Peter Surman, 56, dies after falling unconscious while surfing in Kuta.
November
12 – “Half a joint” Kiwi Leeza Ormsby, 38, a former Sydney resident, finished her sentence early because of good behavior at Kerobokan Prison.
27 – A former sex offender, Queensland man John Peter Domenic Rigano, 65, was caught during a Bali immigration raid at English Now teaching children with an improper visa. He was later deported.
December
9 – Indonesian President Joko Widodo said he will not grant clemency to drug-related death penalty cases, basically squashing the hopes of pardon for Bali Nine Kerobokan Prison inmates Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran who are on death row for trafficking 8.3 kilograms of heroin out of Bali in 2005.
19 – Two Perth brothers Tim and Scott O’Hehir are accused of drunkenly urinating in public (one on a temple) then glassing a local Bali restaurant owner when confronted. Restaurant owner ultimately didn’t press charges and they were free to return to Oz. Once the brothers got back to Australia, they flipped the story 180 degrees claiming they were the actual victims of the glassing.
This post was mainly sourced from an original article by the AAP about Australians making World News in 2014.
