Ian Kemish

Great to be with you.

I think you could divide it up pretty evenly between Australia's immediate neighbourhood, the Asia-Pacific, and Europe.

So, you know, my head of mission jobs were variously in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, where I was High Commissioner.

And Germany, where I was ambassador, I was also accredited there into Switzerland and other places.

But, you know, before I became an ambassador, I was posted variously in Southeast Asia, again in Europe, and I had this job that you just mentioned in your intro.

formally attached to the embassy in Vienna in the 1990s, and that's where my family lived, it's where the house was.

But my job was very much focused on the western half, if you like, of former Yugoslavia, by which I mean Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia.

And it was a time of extraordinary events.

It was a time that in some ways we seem to have, or many of us, seem to have forgotten a little bit about.

And, you know, it was an important time in my life.

Met a lot of really inspiring people, saw some pretty difficult things, and it lingered with me.

Well, to begin with, I was the eyes and ears of the Australian government at a time when there was actually quite a lot of focus on that region.

The conflict was very much underway.

Efforts were being made by the international community to bring about an end to the awful killing and the slaughter that had been taking place through the early 90s in Bosnia in particular, but also Croatia.

It was a time when the Australian government probably had more skin in the game than most people might appreciate.

You know, we Australians were welcoming as by far the most significant government

proportion of our refugee and humanitarian immigration intake from the Balkans and particularly from Bosnia.

You know, something like 40% of all the people who came under those categories came from there.

We also had and still have very, very substantial Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Macedonian and other communities from that place.

And that gave another reason for Australia to be focused on it.