Woomera Detention Centre - Good Friday breakout 29 March 2002

Prisoners injure themselves cutting gaps in the razor wire.

A protester is in tears as she hears the story of one of the prisoners. Behind them a pole is used to break open the bars of the cage which some prisoners have been kept in for 3 years.

A gap is made in the fence

Obviously unprepared for such an eventuality a prisoner sees a chance for freedom and escapes the concentration camp, and is welcomed by protesters.

The situation is clearly out of the control of the Federal police (APS) and the SA police are called in.

Police attempt to separate the crowd from the prisoners, to prevent further escapes.

Many prisoners escape recapture by jumping over the heads of the police and into the crowd of protesters.

A boy watches from inside the compound. As in all detention centres, children are routinely kept in detention, allowed out only to go to school in the local town. Child protection agencies from South Australia have, along with all others, been refused entry to Woomera.

Click here to see more images of this massive protest in the Australian desert, shot by Pip Starr of Rockhopper Productions on Good Friday 2002