It was once hailed as the gold standard of quarantine facilities, a tropical “holiday park” surrounded by lush bush for travellers to quarantine away from Australia’s COVID-stricken cities. It was also the first impression of Australia for countless Afghans evacuated after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.
Now, the Howard Springs quarantine facility is hosting five members of the Bali Nine during their first days of freedom in Australia after almost two decades behind bars in Indonesia for trying to traffic more than eight kilograms of heroin.
Howard Springs Centre where five members of the Bali Nine are currently held. Credit: Kate Geraghty
Martin Stephens, Michael Czugaj, Scott Rush, Matthew Norman and Si-Yi Chen were flown from Bali to Darwin on Sunday in an operation so secretive not even their families were notified they would be returning to Australia.
The men were loaded onto a bus on their arrival in Darwin and driven 20 minutes south of the CBD to the former quarantine facility, where they will be temporarily housed as part of their reintegration into the community.
The group has agreed to continue rehabilitation in Australia as part of the sensitive negotiations between Australia and Indonesia, which were facilitated by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who agreed to transfer them home on humanitarian grounds.
Northern Territory Health and federal authorities have not yet revealed what support will be offered to the men, who have not been able to see their families or communicate directly with them since their arrival in Australia.
Access to the complex, which was taken over by the Department of Defence and turned into military accommodation last year, is restricted and heavily monitored by private security. The complex is surrounded by a mesh fence topped with barbed wire, and cars regularly patrol the internal roads.
The only glimpses of what lies behind the fence are through gaps in the tropical bush that surrounds its perimeter.
However, this masthead was able to get a description of what the facility is like from those who spent time in isolation there during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A former mining camp for fly-in, fly-out natural gas workers, the facility is made up of demountable buildings organised in a grid divided into a series of fenced-off sections crisscrossed by a network of paths.
The Howard Springs quarantine facility pictured in August 2020.Credit: Ben Sale
Each demountable holds a single room, fitted with a bathroom, bed, mini fridge, small desk, air-conditioning unit, TV and outdoor deck. Communal laundries are also available within each section.
“I kind of always equated it to a large caravan park that you just couldn’t leave,” said Melbourne filmmaker Ben Sale, who spent two weeks in quarantine at the facility in 2020.
“I wouldn’t say that it was five-star accommodation by any means, but it was entirely adequate for a comfortable stay.”
The complex has a canteen and swimming pool, but it is unclear whether they are still open for use. During the pandemic, those quarantining at the facility were confined to within their section and had three meals delivered to their door each day.
For NSW Health training support officer Jamal Mahmood, the Howard Springs facility was his first experience of life in Australia after being evacuated from Kabul following the rise of the Taliban in 2021.
The Howard Springs quarantine facility pictured in December 2020.Credit: Louise Radcliffe-Smith
Mahmood, who worked as a journalist in Afghanistan, said the facility had a grey, military feel and could be boring at times because since there wasn’t much to do other than watch TV and wander along the internal laneways, but it offered him comfort and relief.
“You are free,” Mahmood said. “You can roam around. You have got your own space. You have got your own single room, and you have got facilities, like television.
“Obviously, you’re still behind bars because you can see the bars. But I think it should be a lot better than what they were in.”
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