Function and purpose

In April and May 1976 three Foreign Affairs officers, Allan Taylor, David Rutter and Richard Johnson, visited East Timor with the agreement of the Provisional Government of East Timor to carry out investigations into the deaths of the five Australia-based journalists at Balibo in mid October 1975. They interviewed a number of witnesses who may have been able to shed light on the circumstances leading to the death of the journalists and made two separate trips to Balibo, on 29 April and 9 May 1976, to collect information, shooting four reels of film and tape-recording several interviews.

The official report of their investigations, entitled Visits to Balibo April/May 1976, was submitted to the Secretary of Foreign Affairs on 26 May 1976. Copies of the report were provided in 1976 to the families of the dead journalists and a copy was lodged by the Foreign Minister, Andrew Peacock, in the Parliamentary Library for the use of members and senators.

The report consists of a main text body of 35 pages and 3 Annexes of 41 pages. Annex A comprises correspondence with the Timorese authorities. Annex B is a map of Balibo and surrounds. Annex C comprises 27 photographs; 26 taken during the 1976 visit plus one photograph taken by the Indonesian press in October 1975.

Contact prints and negatives of the photographs taken during the 1976 visits have been registered as NAA: A11692 Colour photographic negatives and contact prints of East Timor.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade appears not to have retained a copy of the report in its final form. The original signed text of the report is on file NAA: A1838, 3038/10/11/2 Part 2 Portuguese Timor - Visits of Australian officials to Portuguese Timor.

The series comprises of a copy of the Taylor Report as compiled by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in September 2000. The copy has been collated from various sources. The main body of the copy (36pp), from the 'Visits to Balibo April/May 1976 Contents' page to the 'Annex A Documents' title page, is a reproduction of the original signed text of the report on file NAA: A1838, 3038/10/11/2 Part 2. The Annex A documents (8pp) have been reproduced from a variety of files in NAA: A10463 Correspondence files, multiple number series [sixth system - second uniform post system. Djakarta/Jakarta]. These sources are cited on each document. It should be noted that the copy's Annex A documents are not a reproduction of the original signed text report's Annex A documents. The 'Annex B Map' coversheet (1pp) is a reproduction of NAA: A1838, 3038/10/11/2 Part 2, though the map (1pp) does not appear on that file. The 'Annex C Photographs' list (3pp) is a duplication of NAA: A1838, 3038/10/11/2 Part 2. The photographs (27pp), as they were not on NAA: A1838, 3038/10/11/2 Part 2, have been copied from the Taylor Report held by the Parliamentary Library and have been enhanced and enlarged.

An extract of the Taylor Report is document 451 (pp.760-765) in W Way (editor), Documents in Australian Foreign Policy - Australia and the Indonesian Incorporation of Portuguese Timor, 1974-1976, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in association with Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2000. The extract is taken from NAA: A1838, 3038/10/1/2 Part 4 Submissions to Ministers and briefs and other papers on Portuguese Timor. The extract, it must be noted, is not from NAA: A1838, 3038/10/11/2 Part 2 Portuguese Timor - Visits of Australian officials to Portuguese Timor.