Bali Five are back in Australia after a top-secret Jetstar flight: This is what their life looks like now

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Bali Five are back in Australia after a top-secret Jetstar flight: This is what their life looks like now

Standing by the side of the road, just outside central Darwin the air is thick and oppressive.

The humidity not unlike south-east Asia, or more specifically Bali where until yesterday the five remaining members of the Bali Nine were facing the prospect of spending the rest of their days behind bars.

Here, you can’t move far or quickly before looking for the cool reprieve of the air-conditioning — either inside a shopping centre — or for me and my crew, inside our rental car.

You would think the conditions in Darwin would bring some comfort for the men released from Indonesia — now dubbed the Bali Five.

Camera IconSi Yi Chen, Matthew Norman, Martin Stephens, Scott Rush and Michael Czugaj are back in Australia. Credit: Supplied

Scott Rush, Matthew Norman, Michael Czugaj, Martin Stephens and Si Yi Chen

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to return the convicted drug smugglers home.

Not even their parents knew they were freed until the commercial Jetstar plane leaving Denpasar was in the air.

Then, the five men were whisked onto a bus and driven 20 minutes from Darwin CBD to the Howard Springs Accommodation Village.

The old 67-hectare mining camp was built in the mid-2010s to house workers building a Japanese-owned gas-processing plant.

Camera IconMembers of the Bali Nine at Bali International Airport during a handover process for their return to Australia on December 15. Credit: Indonesian Ministry /EPA

Following the end of the plant’s construction, it was handed back to the Northern Territory government and lay dormant for months until the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, the 3,500-bed village was transformed into a quarantine centre for more than 60,000 Australians returning from overseas, interstate and the Tokyo Olympics.

Last year, the facility was handed to the *********** Defence Force to house defence force troops going forward.

Within the grounds of the facility are hundreds of cabins, each one airconditioned with a small ensuite.

The wider village even has a basketball court and swimming pool.

Camera IconThe remaining Bali Nine members have been housed at Howard Springs. Credit: AAP

It’s a long way removed from the cramped, third-world confines of Kerobokan prison in Indonesia.

For the Bali Five, it’s home for now, and it must feel like paradise.

While media are kept well outside the grounds of the defence facility, there has been a steady stream of contractors and staff coming in and out.

There have been no sign of family members arriving, with the mother and father of Scott Rush spotted at their Brisbane home early Monday morning.

The men will stay here for an undisclosed but short amount of time, facilitated by the federal government, and the *********** taxpayer before walking free in the *********** community.

All are expected to return to their home states by Christmas Day.

They are receiving medical care and psychological support to continue their rehabilitation and assist in their reintegration into society.

However, that process might not be straightforward, with the Australia they have returned home to, very different to the one they left behind in 2005.

The five were all serving life sentences in Kerobokan Prison after they were found guilty of trying to import more than eight kilograms of heroin out of Bali in 2005.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had personally advocated for their repatriation to Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in Peru, according to *********** Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones.

Another member of the Bali Nine, Renae Lawrence, was released from prison in 2018 while Tan Duc Than Nguyen died of stomach ******* in prison the same year.

Two of the group’s ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed in 2015.

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