BEN Zwolinski was orphaned as a teenager, along with his brother, in the 2005 Bali bombing.
Nine years later terror cast its hideous shadow over Ben once more, as he was caught up in the panic of the Sydney Lindt cafe siege.
The chef, now 24, was among the thousands trying to make their way across the city as it went into shutdown last December amid fears a major terrorist attack was unfolding. It brought back bad memories.
“It was absolutely horrifying,” Ben said. “I was in Manly and trying to get back to Circular Quay and they weren’t letting anyone off the ferries.
“We had no idea what was going on. We were out and about all day and not near any radios or TVs. No one could tell us what was going on.”
Two hostages were killed at the end of the 16-hour standoff at Martin Place, staged by ISIS-sympathising lunatic Man Monis.
It was the first time in the current struggle against Islamic fundamentalism that an attack was staged successfully on Australian soil.
Twelve years earlier the nation had been thrust horrifically into that conflict, with the 2002 Bali bombing that killed 202 people — 88 of them Australians.
Three years after that — a decade ago today — another bomb attack brought slaughter to Australia’s favourite tropical playground once more.
The 2005 bombing has been hugely overshadowed by its forerunner. But to those who were there it will never be forgotten.
“Every time the word Bali gets mentioned it reminds me of it,” Ben said.
On October 1, a series of powerful bombs ripped through three crowded restaurants in Bali killing 20 innocent people, including four Australians. More than 100 were injured.
Ben and his brother Isaac, then 17, could have been among them.
Their parents had opted to go to the beachfront at Jimbaran Bay for dinner, having arrived that day. The boys opted to say behind.
“I was actually in the hotel room asleep when it all happened,” Ben said.
Colin and Fiona Zwolinski were sitting, waiting to be served, when the suicide bombers struck. Within seconds they were dead.
The near simultaneous blasts, at two packed seafood restaurants at Jimbaran Bay and a three-storey steakhouse in downtown Kuta, came just days before the anniversary of the 2002 twin bombings.
The explosion had all the trademarks of terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, the extremist network blamed for a string of deadly attacks across Indonesia.
The Zwolinski brothers were flown out of Bali.
“It confuses me to even think that friends and family of mine would go back to Bali after such horrible stuff happened there,” Ben said.
Two weeks after the attacks, more than 1000 people paid their respects at their parents’ funeral.
The boys stayed with relatives until their their godparents Tony and Debra Burton moved from Perth to Newcastle to look after them.
The loss of their parents brought the two brothers closer together.
“Before everything that happened we were nowhere near as close as we are now. We’ve definitely become closer,” Ben said.
“Since we finished school and grown up a bit we’ve become really good friends.”
Now 24 years old, Ben became a qualfied chef working at Melbourne resaturant MoVida. He has ambitions to open a restaurant of his own one day.
His 27-year-old brother, Isaac, studied commerce and business and followed his father into the Newcastle mining industry — working in HR and finance role for a mine company in Newcastle.
Although he tries not to let it show, the pain from the loss of his parents is still there.
“I try not to get too emotional but it’s there all the time,” Isaac said.
“I really feel for other people that have been through similar situations.”
He did follow what happened to the terrorists in the wake of the bombings. But there are some things the justice system cannot fix and some questions that can never be answered.
“I’ve lost my parents and want to know why — I’ll never find the answer to that.”
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