2014 Sydney hostage crisis
The 2014 Sydney hostage crisis, also known as the Sydney siege and Lindt Cafe siege, occurred on 15–16 December 2014 when a lone gunman, Man Haron Monis, held hostage ten customers and eight employees of a Lindt chocolate café located at Martin Place in Sydney, Australia. Police treated the event as a terrorist attack at the time, but Monis' motives were subsequently debated. However, the findings of the Coroner in 2017 deemed the event to be a terrorist attack.
M24 Japanese Midget Submarine wreck site
The attack awoke a relatively complacent Sydney wartime population to the realities of the present conflict. The raid which included eight Japanese submarines and over 500 Japanese Imperial Navy sailors was the only direct attack on Sydney in history. The event is well remembered by the population nationally. In Sydney, the event is particularly closely felt because so much of the present population were witnesses to the raid. Such was the impact on Sydney that many school children and even whole families, temporarily relocated from Sydney to places such as the Blue Mountains and beyond, fearing another attack, more coastal shelling, or even invasion.