2014 Sydney hostage crisis
After the siege began, a staged exclusion zone was established with thousands of people evacuated from nearby buildings, including from the floors above the café. The Sydney Opera House was evacuated after a suspicious package was found; however, reports were unconfirmed by police. The US Consulate General in Sydney, located in Martin Place, was also evacuated. Some Sydney schools were put in "white level lockout" due to the hostage situation, which meant that no school group was permitted to leave the school grounds.
Battle between HMAS Sydney and German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran
Over the next few years, several books about the battle were published. Frame's book was updated and republished in 1998. Wesley Olson's "Bitter Victory: the death of HMAS Sydney", published in 2000, was a re-examination of the evidence, including comparisons with similar naval engagements and sinkings, which supported the accepted view of the battle. Glenys McDonald's 2005 work "Seeking the Sydney: a quest for truth" did not attempt an analysis of records and interrogation transcripts, but instead used accounts from people who claimed to have observed the battle or been involved in the search, rescue, or interrogation to compile an oral history of the engagement and its aftermath. Her research led her to believe that the battle had occurred much closer inshore than claimed by the Germans. The 2005 book "Somewhere below: the Sydney scandal exposed" by John Samuels, took an extreme view on the alternative engagement theory by claiming that "Sydney" was sunk by a Japanese submarine with little or no involvement by "Kormoran", and that there was a wide-ranging cover-up of the proof. Samuels cites no reliable sources and ignores or dismisses evidence supporting the accepted view as part of the cover-up; one review states that the book only brings suffering to the relatives of those killed, and is on par with the Roswell UFO incident as a conspiracy theory. Also in 2005, Brett Manning used the alternate theories of the battle as the basis for the spy novel "Enduring Deception", in which an American agent must cover-up the cruiser's encounter with a Japanese submarine so the Pearl Harbor attack occurs without warning, drawing the United States into the war. There were also many deliberate hoaxes, some contributing to the controversies; the most damaging were claims that the wrecks had been located, hindering serious attempts to mount a search while military assets were used to check the sites. One not only involved a claim to have located the wreck off Dirk Hartog Island, but it also referred to the location of a grave there.