Police response questioned after alleged improvised bomb thrown at Perth

Questions are being raised about police response procedures after a suspected improvised explosive device was allegedly thrown into a crowd during the Invasion Day rally at Forrest Place in Boorloo/Perth, where about 2,500 people had gathered.

Police allege a man threw an item from a first-floor walkway into the crowd before fleeing. The device was later confirmed to be a “homemade improvised explosive device” containing “volatile and potentially explosive chemicals”, with “nails and metal ball bearings affixed to the exterior”.

Rally organiser and Noongar elder Fabian Yarran said the potential consequences were staggering. “We would’ve had a hundred people dead, a couple of hundred, or even more, injured,” he said. Yarran described the impact on families and community confidence, adding: “I know how frightened people feel but we’ve got to reassure people that we can’t let terrorism win.”

The Prime Minister also described the alleged attack as a serious threat to public safety and social cohesion. “We need to isolate these ideological extremes and we need to reassert our values as Australians, and this was a horrific attack on First Nations people that could have had catastrophic consequences had it been successful,” he said.

In a ministerial statement to Parliament earlier this month, the Minister for Indigenous Australians said police had confirmed the object thrown was an improvised explosive device, describing the incident as an “attempted bombing of a peaceful First Nations rally”. “We narrowly avoided a catastrophic disaster,” the statement said.

The WA Government announcement said a 31-year-old Warwick man was charged with offences including an unlawful act with intent to harm, and making or possessing explosives under suspicious circumstances. The release also said police executed a search warrant at the man’s home and allegedly found materials consistent with manufacturing homemade explosives.

The case has intensified renewed calls from First Nations leaders and allies for stronger protections around community safety at public rallies, alongside ongoing scrutiny of how authorities handle ideologically motivated violence and threats against First Nations people exercising their democratic right to protest.