page_title: List of ambassadors of Australia to East Timor
section_title: Indonesian Timor and independence
hierarchical_section_title: List of ambassadors of Australia to East Timor / Posting history / Indonesian Timor and independence
caption_attribution_description: English: Australian Embassy wall graffiti oil Deutsch: Graffiti auf der Mauer der australischen Botschaft in Dili.
context_page_description: The Australian Ambassador to Timor-Leste is an officer of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the head of the Embassy of the Commonwealth of Australia to Timor-Leste. The position has the rank and status of an Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and the embassy in Dili has been operating since 1999 when a consulate was established in the Indonesian Province of Timor Timur and upgraded in May 2002.
context_section_description: In early April 1999 Prime Minister John Howard and Indonesian President B. J. Habibie met in Bali to discuss matters relating to the unrest in the Province of Timor, which had Indonesian-occupied since Timor's brief independence from Portugal in 1975. Howard initially requested Habibie to agree to a peacekeeping force in the province, which was refused, but Habibie agreed to allowing the establishment of an Australian Consulate in Dili. On 4 June 1999 Foreign Minister Alexander Downer announced the appointment of James Batley as consul in Dili, noting that the consulate "will allow us to service the consular needs of the increasing number of Australians in East Timor, and will facilitate Australia’s considerable support to the United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor." However, with the establishment of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) on 25 October 1999, Batley's role was to changed to be Australia's Head of Mission to the UNTAET and following independence was appointed as Australia's first ambassador on 20 May 2002, the first foreign diplomatic appointment to the new Republic of Timor-Leste.
caption: Graffiti on the outside wall of the Australian Embassy in Dili
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 450D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2014:02:16 10:43:51", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9648", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7686", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "14", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1600", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:02:16 10:43:51", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:02:16 10:43:51", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "61/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Partial", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "36", "EXIF SubSecTime": "97", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "97", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "97", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4272", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2848", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "9506", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "2136000/439", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "356000/73", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}