The Croatian Six spent more than a decade in jail over a bomb plot. Now they want to clear their names

On a hot February night in 1979, in the NSW coal mining town of Lithgow, a Croatian man named Vico Virkez walked into the police station with an alarming tip-off.

He said he was part of a conspiracy. That night, he and a network of other Croatian migrants were to set off bombs throughout Sydney.

It was to be an act of terrorism.

Croatia, at the time, was part of Yugoslavia, a communist dictatorship. The men allegedly planned to blow up a theatre, two travel agencies, a social club, and Sydney’s water supply lines in the name of Croatian independence.

The informer handed the police a list of names.

That night, in a series of raids, NSW Police arrested the suspected terrorists. Six of them would be sentenced to 15 years each.